Sunday, January 1, 2012

Vertical quilt tying frame

Here is the diagram for cutting the pieces for the vertical quilt tying frame.  I came up with this idea because at our next quilt day, we are going to be tying a whole bunch of quilts and will have a lot of people in a small space.  We need to be able to get the quilts to be flat, but won't have a lot of horizontal space to lay them out.  Necessity is the mother of invention, so the vertical quilt frame was born.  99.9% of our quilts are 44x60 inches so this frame is perfect for these quilts we will be tying.

You will need 3-10 foot pieces of PVC pipe.  I used 1 inch because it was cheaper than the 2 inch and sturdier than the 3/4 inch.  Good enough reasons?  You need 2 elbow joints and 4 T joints.  The whole thing cost me under $15 to make and can also be used to hang up a sign later on if need be :)

Here is the back of the quilt, where you can see that I pinned the quilt, batting and backing to the hanging sleeve.  The sleeve is just a 6 1/2 inch tube of fabric sewn together.  I used 6 pins.  I probably should have ironed the backing fabric, but who wants to work that hard?

Tip your head sideways and you can see that with a tall stool, you can sit as you sew the quilt top, backing and batting together.  I used embroider floss doubled and started at the top, sewing long running stitches from top to bottom and then after I finished sewing the whole thing, unpinned it and sat on the couch to tie the quilt.  Much more comfortable to tie while sitting down!

Here is the top of the frame with the header fabric tube slipped over the top PVC pipe

Here is the bottom of the frame, where you can see the 6 inch piece that holds up the frame off the ground.  The whole frame is just over 5 1/2 feet tall.  Perfect for me to reach, I'm 5'11", so you might need a stool or step ladder if you are a little vertically challenged :)

Again, tip your head to see the frame without a quilt on it, lightweight, portable, easy to assemble and disassemble and take with you or store in the closet.

The finished quilt with ties.  I should probably trim up these ties, they are a bit long, but the vertical quilt frame makes tying a quilt sooooooo easy!  Hope you like it and give it a try.  Let me know if it works for you!


Nancy said...

Very clever!

sparkle jars said...

What a great idea! We have a small home and this would work great!
Thank you for your thoughtful comment today. It made my day and I appreciate your kindness.

June Puckett said...

Thank you for sharing. Ive been trying to find something to use in a small house.

June Puckett said...
