Your opinion of a Gracie King Quilting Frame?
 

Ok so ever since I screwed up my last quilt top. (missed a whole section of the quilt) and when I went back to quilt it it bunched up and messed up the top. I was so angry! Anyway I have been looking into getting something to do my quilting. I can't afford a long arm machine so I began to look at different quilting frames. I found the frame ( Gracie King quilting frame) I have the space in my sewing room. And I found it for a great price. I even called the Gracie company to make sure that the distributor was legiminate since the price was considerably lower than what the manufacturer was asking. I'll know tomorrow if my machine is compatable (I took my machine to florida when we went there to work on our new house and now I am home in Maryland until the new year) Now my question. What is your opinion of this frame? If you own one now would you buy this frame again if you needed a new one? How difficult is it to learn to put the quilt backing etc on the frame? Do you have any thoughts or comments that you think would be helpful in making this decision? This frame is quite expensive and I want to make an informed decision.

Thanks in advance for everyone's imput
Happy New Years!!!

Helen

I can't answer about the frame, just the question about putting on the backing. It's not hard at all. Just make sure the backing is square and you have it centered on the frame. Look on Youtube at videos of how to pin on a quilt.

Is this the newer Grace King? Does it have the wooden or metal carriage?

There is a yahoo group for grace frame owners where you could ask lots of questions. I also did a search here and found many happy owners. I think these are good frames, but the bigger the sewing machine you can put on it, the better. Most of the negative comments I saw were from people dissatisfied with a limited quilting space when using a 9" sewing machine. I recently purchased a used Little Gracie II frame but haven't had a chance to play with it yet. It seems very sturdy. Good luck!!

Also, make sure you really have the room. In addition to the footprint of the frame, you will need 2-3 feet on at least one side to get to the back. If you are going to do pantos, you will also need 3' in back of the frame, as well as 3' in front. I have a queen size frame, and was amazed at how much room it takes up.

i dont have a king grace frame but i sure like mine. and it is easy to
put quilt on you just have to take your time. but yes even mine
takes lots of room. i think mind is considered the middle one? I
have a 1600P janome on it.