I've convinced myself to buy a Flynn frame, but I have a couple of questions about it. The information on the web site says to be able to quilt a large quilt that you have to quilt as far as you can then change to water soluble thread and baste the rest of it,take one of the rails out and finish. My question is if the roll is too large to quilt why isn't too large to keep on the rails and baste? and if you do baste half of it, won't the quilting look different since the tension of the quilt is different? maybe even pucker some? I would appreciate any advice. I know there are some of you out there that use the Flynn and do lovely work.

I would like to know also, since my aunt just gave me her Flynn frames. They have never been used, so she can't answer that question. She is moving, and I got lots of goodies, including the lg. and portable flynn frames. Do I have the best Aunt or not? We have always been each others favorites, and have had many craft and sewing sessions together.
pam

Everyone that I have talked to that bought one, HATES IT!. They say that it takes a very large area to work with it.

I had a Flynn Frame and hated the pvc pipes. Hubby put casters under the ends of the frame and it did help. I was always picking up the pipes off the floor.
It does take a large area to work with it and you dont have much area to quilt on. I gave up, gave it away and bought a longarm.

Good notes on this!

The reason for basting is that you can then remove one of the poles, giving you more area for quilting. I have a Flynn frame and used it to baste a large quilt with water soluble thread before quilting it on my sewing machine. It did fine for that, but like most things it requires practice. I think most people give up the first time they use it because they don't expect the learning curve. Also it is definitely much easier to use on smaller quilts, since the longer poles are harder to work with, and of course they take up more room. But it is possible to do large quilts with the frame - just be patient and practice. Since it costs about $130, you can't compare it to a longarm.

I've seen it used by John Flynn at quilt shows. At his booth anyone can sit down and use it before buying one. It sure looks easy watching others use it. On his website he use to have help videos. He has a blog too so he is easy to contact with questions.

I have one and never use it.

I have one and have used it a couple of times. I need to practice more- i have a lot of flat sided designs in my quilting!.John flynn is/was an engineer and they tend to be very patient-take your time and practice. (I'm preaching to the choir here) part of the reason i wanted to get my room under control was so i'd have the room to practice when i don't need to have one done yesterday!

The frame comes with a disk of instructions, did she give you the disk?
Yes it is much easier to use on small quilts but so is a regular sewing machine. His demos are on small quilts and you are guiding the frame by hand so the larger you go the more difficult it gets. Just imaging holding the frame with a king size quilt that you have fed all the way to the end. Big room required.