Quilt Halo
 

HI, I was speaking with a member of my quild at the monthly needlenite meeting. She mentioned that she just domestic machine quilted the baby quilt she was working on using the "Quilt Halo". She said she also used the Supreme slider. Does anyone have any knowledge of these two items. I have to add that the baby quilt quilting ws fantastic.
Thanks
NormaBeth

I have not heard of the quilt halo so I googled it. I will be following this thread closely for testimonials.

I have not used her product but did have something similar years ago, but found it very restricting. You can't stitch all the way up to the ring (halo) but here's the you tube video with her showing how wonderful it is for her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpmMYIDCrZw

I happened to catch a couple of minutes of Pokey Bolton's show this week and she had a woman on who will be demonstrating machine quilting for several shows. On this segment she showed the products she uses and one of them was this Quilting Halo. She did not demonstrate it but said that it is heavy and made out of metal and will weigh down the fabric. Apparently she uses more than one at a time and stacks them on top of each other.

The halo is a Sharon Schamber product on her website. I have one and it works well

Google Supreme Slider.

here are a couple of QB threads on the slider:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...r-t185143.html
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...er-t13578.html

Wow, never heard of that but this is why I love this board, always something new to learn. I will be following this as well to hear what other's have to say about it.

I have the Supreme Slider and really like it, but I have never done a full sized quilt.

The halo is very limiting and it requires that you frequently pick it up and move it - you can only quilt a few square inches without re-positioning. It hangs on the edge of your machine if the bed of your machine is even a little bit raised above the surface of the cabinet. You have to keep your hands in a pinching position, which is tiring and can lead to repetitive motion injury or stress. I've seen it demonstrated with hands resting flat on the halo, but I don't believe that works without pressing down pretty hard - stress in the shoulders and neck.

I use textured nitrile work gloves with the pointer finger and thumb cut out of them. Plenty of traction without strain on the hands. Machingers also work well.

I heap up the quilt around the needle, making sure that the area I'm going to quilt is smooth and has no folds or tucks. I pool the quilt around this one square foot or two, making sure that I can pull and push this area freely and without strain or the quilting fighting me. Then I anchor the first stitches and take off.

I have a square foot or two to manage at one time - I can be as big and sweeping or as tiny and intricate as I want to be in the designs I sew because of the traction on the outside edges of my palms.

If I need to thread the needle or change bobbins or snip threads, I can do it easily because my thumbs and forefingers are free.

I occasionally use the halo to draw circles. :)

I bought the square set of two frames, as well - they work a little bit better in that they have more room, but they still limit your work space and they still require pinching or gripping. The traction is better with the square frames than the halo, but so far, nothing beats the textured gloves.

I don't much like wearing gloves, but they save me from having to pick something up and move it repeatedly. You get used to them after a while.

I saw the Quilt Halo on Nancy's Notions video clips. Thought it was creative however expensive. I still think it can be made by finding something I already have or perhaps a trip to Home Depot will help.

Good luck finding a substitute for the Halo for less. The Halo weight is perfect and the coating holds the fabric but is easy to move over the fabric.
The Halo is for small detailed machine quilting, not for all over design. I bought one when Sharon Schamber first had them for sale about 5-6 years ago. At the next Paducah quilt show she was demoing it and let everyone try it. She uses two stacked on top of each other. Like any new tool, if you don't practice using it, it will be no use to you. It took me some time to get the feel of using it but now I can stitch up a small quilting feather or bubbles with the best of them. The Supreme slider does make the quilt glide while quilting. I use the John Flynn frame for all over design and the Halo and slider for detailed designs.