Do you have a John Flynn frame?
 

If so, please tell me all the pros and cons. A friend recently passed hers along to me after she got a mid-arm and I don't know where to begin with it. Do you like it? Is it easy to set up? Does it take much room? Please spill your guts.

ask your friend she will be able to help you

I had one. I only used it once, and that was for a huge quilt, so perhaps I shouldn't complain. I have seen John Flynn using one for small quilts at shows, and he makes it dance and sing. But I don't see why you would need one for small quilts... I bought the long rails and found that they were so heavy I couldn't really manipulate the frame to quilt. Using the long rails also requires that you be able to move the rail in both directions its full length, so your room needs to be about twice as long as the rails. So it can use a lot of space while you're using it, but when you put it away (and you will probably find that it is "put away" most of the time) it won't use much space. I also had a hard time loading the large quilt on the rails, trying to get it on straight and tight. Once I got it on, I couldn't manipulate the rails to make a design, so I wound up using water soluble thread to baste the quilt in straight lines, and then I quilted it on my DSM. And now I have a longarm. :) I think it was the attempt with the Flynn frame that tipped the scales on whether to buy the longarm or not.

She never set it up to use it.

I have the old model that you put on a table and move your machine back and forth instead of the frame. I like it other than I don't have alot of room to keep it up so I only use it in the summer because I don't have heat in the porch I have to use it in. I also get tired easily from standing, but if you have the one that you can sit down with I think you will like it.

go to the top of this page and type in "John flynn frame" in the SEARCH box and a lot of posts/threads will be there for you to click on

I have one and it got me started on FMQ on my own. I did only smaller quilts - baby size - but loved how tightly I could get that sandwich on there. The biggest problem is the small throat in my machine - I have only 4.5" of space between the needle and the rest of my machine - as the quilt rolls up that space gets smaller and smaller. Without it I don't think I would have ever had the courage to branch out into the FMQ I'm now starting to do.

The poles I have are 48 inches long so that limits the size quilt you can do. I don't think I can handle larger ones - above post talks about that.

Here's a post where I talked about it - scroll down a bit to see pics of what it looks like set up.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...g-t176981.html

Wife and I bought one a few years ago and if I could find anyone that wants one, I'd sell it. It takes up a lot of room in order to use and we just decided that it wasn't worth the trouble. If either of us did hand quilting, it would be a nice thing to use.

There is a lot of information on here about the Flynn frame. I have one and have used it a few times. There is a large learning curve(at least for me) , but it does eliminate tucks on the back. It dpes take up space to manuever the frame also. Eventually i would like my Dh to build a machine dolly for me sewing machine to ride on and the flynn frame is stationary- then it would be more like a mid arm machine system. A couple of clever people on this board have designed and shared directions here. They can probably be found in archives or using search. Good luck with your frame and dont give up until you've given time.