LeaderMate Quilt Mounting system
 

I have a mid-arm quilting machine. I saw an internet site, that sells these systems to attach to the leaders on your quilting table. The system is attached with velcro and you no longer have to pin your quilts on to the leaders. It is called a "LeaderMate Quilt Mounting system." Does anyone on the Board have one or know anything about this system. Sounds really like a time saver. Getting the quilt into the frame for quilting is the one thing about quilting that I don't like. Seems like it is an all day job. Any pros and cons? I would appreciate your input.

grammysonya

I have never heard of that one, but it does look interesting. I bought leadergrips a year or so ago and like them a lot.

My longarmers uses them and they are wonderful! You can put and take a quilt off and on in no time.

Never heard of them until I read this message. Looks interesting.

I have LeaderGrips, too, and am a fan. I think the velcro would probably work fine, but I've never seen them. I was in the process of making velcro leaders for myself when I found Leadergrips and bought them instead. They work by pinching the fabric between a rod (which is inside the hem of the leader) and a long cap which fits overtop the fabric and rod. Hope that makes sense.

with my Juki on my Hinterberg frame, i use velcro on the edge of the leaders and on the frame poles. i sew the quilt to the leader and just press it on and pull it off the frame. love it! i bought the velcro at my local fabric shop... comes on spools like ribbon. the back of the velcro is sticky. i used a marker for placement on the poles to keep it centered and straight.

I use red snappers, they work great.

There are so many ways to mount a quilt, and I think they all work with different advantages - and disadvantages. I haven't tried the product you mention, but I did make my own leaders with velcro. I found that I didn't like having to sew the quilt back onto those secondary leaders any more than I liked pinning the back to the primary leaders. I decided not to try the zipper systems for the same reason and went back to using pins on the primary leaders - until I bought red snappers. I'm using them now, and they do work well, but I'm not sure that I'm getting the back quite as straight as I did with pins. At least I'm not getting stuck with the pins, so I like that part.

I glued velcro to my poles and added the other 1/2 of the velcro to my leaders. I sew my quilts to the leaders with a basting stitch on the machine and then put them on the poles. It doesn't take me that long to get one loaded. It is what ever you get use to.