Aylahopper

Yesterday I went into one of the the thrift shops in my area. Looked it the craft area and found nothing of interest but continued to wander as I'm slowly collecting Hawaiian shirts.

As I was walking past the area with table linens, a tablecloth that was bright jumped out at me. I collect elephants and this had some on it!

This tablecloth is handpainted with all sorts of african animals on it. Its 75 inches round and at first I thought I cut it up to make something with it. Then when I got home and opened it up....Beautiful! Now have the desire to leave it the way it is and just hand quilt it around each animal and some sort of pattern in the open areas.

I will need a frame to hand sew all of this. I live in an appartment so space is limited. Any suggestions on what I should be looking for?

Andrea

ckcowl

many people simply use a large embroidery/quilting hoop. the square/rectangular tube ones are quite popular & available at walmart, joannes, hobby lobby ect. you do not need a large frame to hand quilt. baste well, either with needle & thread, with pins or with spray basting *maybe still pinning around the edges* ...personally i still thread baste- it works best for me- then i use a 14" tube hoop- it's holds very well, gives me plenty of space to work in, is easy to move to new areas, does not leave creases (like some wooden embroidery hoops can) is lightweight and you can turn your area any which way as you go along.

familyfun

Congratulations on the find. I dont have any advice about the quilting but I will tell you what I use for hand quilting.
I have a 14 and 24 inch cheap wood hoop. I also bought a poly laphoop but only use the top. I love the way the polly doesnt snag fabric. I bought a small rectange pvc hoop that just snaps onto the fabric. I also have a large pvc hoop the I got from Joanns several years ago with a 40% off coupon. Last night I received my Grace Z44 hand quilting frame
This thing is Awsome!!! and HUGE so I dont recomend for a apartmentt unless you dont want a couch LOL ...
I generally do only queen and king quilts and I HATE basting. I have never found a method that works well for me.

1. Wood hoop mine are cheap and didnt like the feel of them. Also my batting would sometimes stick to the wood.

2. Polly hoop I Love the feel and the way the poly lap hoop fits on the fabric. When I am quilting something big I sit at the table and have the quilt on it. It sometimes is hard to get it all bunched up so I can get my hand under and I have to keep turning the hoop because I can only comfortably quilt in 2 directions. I would recomend this kind of hoop for smaller jobs

3. Rectangle PVC Hoop (I think mine is 10 x 14 or something like that. I like this one but sometimes it seems difficult to get the fabric loose enough in the frame. When you snap on the sides it wants to pull the fabric tighter and the corner get weird.

4. PVC Floor Frame. I would recommend this for larger projects however, When your done you just pull the pieces apart and put it back in the box. However, even though the legs are adjustable I could never seem to get it in a comfortable position to quilt very long. I seem to want to have my quilt more on a tilt with the back higher than what it would go. Also I am tall (almost 5'9'') so when I put the front down and the back high I would have to lower my chair and then my knees would hurt because I was sitting to low.

5. Grace Z44 floor frame I just put this together last night and have not started using it yet. So far It seems like it is going to be awsome. It goes from crib to king with no basting. YEAH!!! Also has numerous positions, (you can even quilt standing up. My Husband came home from work last night and said it looked like we had a combine sitting in the middle of the room. But like I said it is HUGE I have it set up for king size and right now it is sitting right in the middle of my front room.. I have to do some serious furniture rearranging and get rid of a chair so I have a wall big enough for it.

After my long winded response I would say my favorite option for smaller projects would be the poly hoop. I wouldnt get anything smaller than 14 inches. I bought mine at Joanns with coupon and it was like 15-20 $$ but you still would have to baste. I prefer spray basting but sometimes I do thread baste.
Good luck and have fun.

Geri B

I have the PVC table and you can purchase lifters for it to get the tilt of a big frame...

Luv Quilts and Cats

Congratulations on your find! Post a photo when it's done if you can. I went to local quilt show a couple of years ago and picked up a batik panel (very large) with three elephants in the jungle printed on it. I am planning to have a longarmer quilt it then I am going to decorate the elephants like they do in Asia to celebrate holidays. I bought items for the decorations, now I can't find them! LOL! Hope your project gives you lots of joy!

patchsamkim

You can use a hoop...either in your lap, or on a stand to do your hand quilting....or you can even quilt without a hoop...that is what I do...as long as you baste or pin it well before quilting, a hoop is not a necessity.

Prism99

My favorite lap hoop is not made anymore. It swivels on a wood ball. The closest thing to it is the Grace swivel hoop:
http://www.sewingmachinesplus.com/gr...od-laphoop.php . This type of hoop frees up both of your hands for quilting and is easily adjustable in terms of changing the angle for your quilting.

There is another laphoop that does not swivel; it has three upright supports that stay in place. That is harder to use.

I have used a plain quilting hoop, but it is kind of hard to juggle while quilting; always seemed to me that I needed a third hand! Also used a PVC floor frame. Unfortunately, that one was too hard on my back. Also tried quilting without any hoop at all, but found that my stitches were much less even.

twinkie

I have a large oval (about 2 1/2 feet across the long end) embroidery hoop on a stand that collapses when not in use. I found it in a quilt shop at a flea market (of all places) along interstate 65 in Tennessee. It is very handy.

Yooper32

Congratulations on your great save! Can you imagine, this piece of art could have fallen into hands that ruined it. It is always a blessing when someone finds something like this and appreciates it qualities and treasures it.

RGAY

I use a Dritz poly no-slip 14" hoop for my hand quilting and appliqué . It holds the fabric in place better than a regular hoop with an interlocking ridge around the interior of the hoop. I used the rectangular poly snap frame for years but found that after a while, the snap in part loosens and I have to tighten it occasionally. I now prefer the no-slip hoop.

http://www.amazon.com/Dritz-14-Inch-...rds=quilt+hoop