My mother asked my dad's cousins for the quilting frame their mother used.
When I unwrapped the worn duck cloth from around the sticks, I found boards with nails in every half inch. My mother-in-law finally identified them as curtain stretchers. So I don't know if Aunt Clara used that for a quilt frame, or if the frame ended up somewhere else.
While they might be considered antique, I decided to repurpose them. I knocked the nails out and will use them for a quilt frame with the sawhorses my dad built for that purpose.
I think cloth ties will stretch the quilt to the side bars and leave me free from damage by those nails....