I am a machine quilter so I can't help you with the frame. Try posting at the quilting forum here at GW. I am sure you will get help there.

Linda OH

I got rid of my quilt stand/frame when we moved last year. Because of back trouble, I can no longer work at the quilt stand. I loved that OLD OLD OLD stand and working at it was so fun.

It was a homemade stand made out of wood. The four corner posts were just a sq. bottom and 2 by 2 posts. Then my neighbor (who I got it from) attached wood pieces on either side of the top of each post - that worked like a fork to put your cross bars into. The cross boards were wider then the narrowest side of the quilt. Each of the cross bars had a strip of upolstry fabric tacked onto the board.

What you did is "safty pin" the two ends of the quilt to the fabric on the cross bars. The quilt had to be prepared first by using large safety pins (many of them) to hold all three layers together, so they don't shift. I usually sewed a wide strip of old fabric across both ends of the quilt, so I could stitch all the way to the ends w/o the attaching part interferring.

I always liked to put the back 2 posts on top of something that held the back side up about 8 - 10 inches higher then the side you work from. That way you are looking at the quilt at an angle instead of flat down.

I would wind the quilt around the front cross bar until there was only about an arm's stretch of quilt to work on. When you are quilting on the stand the most comfortable way to stitch is toward yourself.

You thread many needles, so you can start them at the far side. When you are getting close to the rolled quilt, you just leave the needle in the fabric where you ended, and unroll some more quilt. As you unroll more quilt, you also roll up the finished part. You need to keep the sides stretched tightly by useing side boards about 2 feet long. I used clamps to hold the boards tight, the kind that are "U" shaped and have a screw in clamp.

Now if you understand even half of this -- then you understand a lot more about quilt stand working then you ever imagined.

You could visit your local Senior Citizens center and see what there stands look like. They usually have about the same sort of frame, but they usually have it pulled out completely flat. In a home, rolling it up makes it a little easier to work with the space needed.

Yes Hayjud it made perfect sense to me. My hubby David says he will built a quilt frame for me, one I can just fold up when I am not quilting and tuck into a corner. I remember Mama's quilt frame was suspended from the ceiling using I think 1 X 2's and those C clamps. When she wasn't quilting she would roll it up to the ceiling out of the way.

I have always lap quilted using big hoops and think it would be so much fun to sit with a friend or two and quilt together.

Deb