Do You Need a Quilting Frame?
This is a question only you can answer.
We see pictures of the quilters of yesteryear sitting around a quilting frame sewing together the back, filling, and top of quilts with intricate decorative stitches. I thought I must have a large quilting frame taking up nearly the whole of our small living room when I began quilting again.
However, I thought back to my grandmothers quilting and realized she never owned a frame. For the most part, she and a neighbor lady and her daughter spread the quilts on the dining table and tied them. Any hand quilting my grandmother did was with a small hoop frame on her lap.
Would I be able to finish my quilting orders with only a lap frame? I found that I could if I secured the quilt in place well enough before I began quilting.
Since many of us dont have space to set up a large quilting frame, consider trying other methods. Look into the frames offered nowadays that help you roll the quilt so youre only working on a small space. You dont need to spread out a huge area.
What you have space for, the number of quilters who will be working on the project, and the modern gadgets available nowadays (that werent for our pioneer grandmothers) will determine how you go about your quilting.
©2005 Mary Emma Allen
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POSTED IN: General Quilting/Patchwork
1 opinion for Do You Need a Quilting Frame?
Kay Moyer
Nov 5, 2007 at 5:19 am
I just started quilting this past year, and a friend of mine let me borrow her quilt frame, and it was wounderful. My first quilt, I stretched out on the carpet, and had a back ache for days, the second I tried the fusing type batting, and worked also on on the floor. Using the frame was great! I sat it up in the garage, and basted everything all togeather, whle sitting on my sewing chair that has wheels,then took it off the frame, and hand quilted it. Much eaiser. Now I have another one to finish, and I found a web site that showed how to make one from lumber, a cost of about 25.00, and I can dis-assemble it for storage. I chose the rail boards to be 10 foot, that way it will fit any size I want. I found the site in the search engine, type in ” Plans for simple old time quilt frame” Tape measure and saw is the only tools required, no nails, screws or anything. You may want to check it out.
Kay
web site I copied below: http://www.texasbob.com/documents/simpquiltfrm.PDFsite,
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