Expert: Darlene Sweetwood - 7/8/2005

Question
-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
Hello: I just found my husband's great-grandmother's quilt frame. It has 4 boards with holes. He says he remembers it hanging from the ceiling and also seeing people around it quilting when he was a small boy, he is now 61. My question, how to I attach fabric (all three layers)? I have it tied to 4 high back chairs at this time. Evidently it does not roll since the poles are not round. Two are longer then the other two but all four poles have holes the length of each. Thank you for the advice. Suzanne
\\\\\\\\\Darlene:
Thank you for your reply. No there is nothing sticking up to attach to. Of the 4, 2 are one length and 2 are somewhat shorter (I haven't measured their lengths). But the wood isn't round for rolling, it is about 1-1/2 square and no muslin or places where something like tacks had been placed. Even though I wanted to make it completely "antique" looking as it was when used years ago I suppose that I could tack muslin on each piece of wood using upholstry tacks. In talking with an elderly local lady she said that they hung in mid air from the ceiling at the right height so that about 12 women could work around it. She said also that the ones that she saw the fabrics were rolled under to keep them taute.
I do want to thank you for your help. This gives me one more "adventure" to work on as I also am clipping our sheep, washing the fiber and learning how to hand spin it with a drop spindle. I took quilting classes probably 25 or 30 years ago and haven't touched quilting since so this will give me an excuse to start again. Now I'll have crafts (sewing, knitting, crocheting, spinning and quilting) laying all around the house plus helping to take care of our 350+ animal farm.
Thanks again.
Suzanne

Answer
Hi Suzanne,
Wow, it sounds like your life is busy, but fun!  The wood rails are supposed to be flat, not round.  But you can still roll them with the fabric attatched.   Just use big strong tacks to attach a long (doubled) piece of strong canvas type muslin to all four pieces.  Then you can pin the quilt to each rail.  You just roll it under and then stick the dowels into the different holes.  To find out how to build the support boards, just go online to google.com and type in quilt frame.  There are pictures and directions on different web sites.  Hope this helped!
Darlene Sweetwood
www.quiltersfabric.com