murphzmom

I purchased an Easy Quilter frame almost 3 years ago and I am finally getting the chance to get it set up to use. I have it all put together and clamped down to my table but the part I need help with is loading the actual quilt to get ready to quilt it. I am such a visual person and the pictures and the description on the website are just not clicking with me. I have my quilt all spray basted and set to go. In some of the diagrams they talk about purchasing dowels or sticks to roll the quilt on. Then in one spot it says that these are not necessarily needed.

If anyone has one of these frames and could help me out I would appreciate it and if you had pictures that could be sent that would be even better. I have sent the designers of the frame an email but have not heard back from them as yet. I have a quilt for my new grand-daughter all set to go.

Thank you for the help!!!

Mindy-WI

Suze9395

I do not have one. But, it looks like you roll the quilt up on itself, like making cinnamon rolls, (front and back). I think the dowels are meant to help roll it neater. Then feed the quilt into the sewing machine so the roll further away from you sits inside the machine throat. The roll closest to you will rest in the hookie things. Then you use clips to "pin" the quilt to frame to keep it still while your quilting.

Prism99

I don't have one, but wanted to buy one at the last quilt show I attended. You need just 2 dowels; one for the top, and one for the bottom. You roll your quilt on the dowels so that you are working on just one section of the quilt.

I would probably make "leaders" for the dowels. Basically you thumb tack a doubled piece of heavy-duty fabric along a dowel, leaving a flap of fabric sticking out (maybe 6 inches). To attach your quilt to a dowel, you just pin the quilt to that flap of fabric.

Once you have the quilt pinned to the leaders on the dowels, you can roll your quilt to a manageable size. The dowels simply sit on top of the curved metal arms. One dowel will be near the back of the harp of your sewing machine; the other dowel will be forward of your machine. The quilt in-between will then be at the correct height for FMQ.

I think the only time you would not need the dowels is if you use the machine in the typical FMQ way -- moving the quilt rather than the machine. If you want to FMQ by moving the machine, I'm thinking you need at least one dowel to roll the quilt up under the arm of the machine, and I think you'd also need the second dowel to keep the quilt at the right surface height so that you can move the machine around easily. If the quilt were to drape around the machine.

I had the opportunity to sit down and try out the setup at the quilt show. Loved it! But, it wasn't in the cards for me. Maybe someday......

Edit: Ah, yes. After reading BK's post, I can see that with a smaller quilt you could simply roll up the sides without dowels and place the rolls in the holders.

BKrenning

I don't have an Easy Quilter but I might be able to help. From the picture on their website, it looks like the quilt is rolled up on 2 sides--probably the longer sides of a baby size quilt and the "rolls" are laid in the metal curly-cue things to hold the weight. The poles or dowels they refer to are probably helpful on larger size quilts so you can roll it up tighter.

Anyway--it looks like you quilt from top to bottom on the area that isn't rolled up--the center of the quilt. Then you will have to unroll one side or the other and quilt that portion, then unroll the last side, roll up the quilted portion and quilt the final side. It is similar to how the normal frames work.

sharoney

I do have one, and found that I didn't like to use dowels to roll the quilt on because as you quilt each section, you "roll" more of the quilt toward the front and it just seemed like too much trouble. The rolled up quilt stays rolled up by itself as it rests in the large hooks on the front of the frame.

sharoney

Lay the quilt out flat, then slide it under the (lifted up) presser foot til the middle of the quilt is under the needle. You'll have to roll up the back of the quilt as you do this to make it fit in the neck of your machine. Then roll up the front of the quilt and let the roll rest in the large hooks on the front of the frame. Use the clamps on the sides of the open area where you will be quilting, to make it taut. I tend to let my quilt be just a little loose, I don't like it super-tight. Maybe it's just my machine works better if it's a little loose, and that may not be true for everyone- just personal preference.

An Arm Long

I have one that I used before I got my Longarm. Mine came not with dowels but with 2 narrow flat strips of wood. I attached the quilt with the heavy duty black metal paper clips. I had to take the silver colored handles off the clips so that the quilt would roll smoothly. That was a pain. I would think that making narrow leaders that would stay clipped on and then pinning the quilt to the leader would help. I then had clips that held the sides taut. I used my Handy Quilter alot in practicing and then in quilting a few small quilts.
I put my domestic machine on the platform that came with the frame. It was nice to be able to roll the quilt as you go since my machine only had a 9 inch throat. I really learned alot on practice muslin quilts and that helped when I finally got a longarm. You can do larger quilts by getting longer strips of wood and moving the quilt left to right as you go. I never did that.
Good luck with it. It is a fun little frame and provides some good learning experience. Be very careful with the rails that the platform rolls on. Even a small nick in the wood can cause jumps in the machine when quilting.
Best of luck with it! I still have it if anyone wants to buy it from me.