Storing quilt tops till they're quilted
 

When I finish a quilt top it's ironed. If I wait any time to quilt it, it gets wrinked and has to be ironed again and I don't like having to do it twice so I needed a way to store them without wrinkling. Came up with this - had DH take two lenghts of new 2" plastic pipe for plumbing and join them. Then hung the pipe from the ceiling with wire so it's about 5 foot off the floor in a storage room off my quilting area. It's over 14' long so it can accomodate a king size quilt top or multiple quilts. I can layered quilt tops on it or hang batting over it to relax. I can't see it from where I quilt so I don't feel guilty about not getting them quilted! I know this won't work for everyone because of the space you need. I'm lucky this isn't a problem for me now.

Great idea. Nice your DH could help with this.

Wish you posted a photo. I just hang them on a pants hanger in the closet.

If only I had some space to spare! I have a Happy Jack Quilting frame without space to set it up!! As children living in old homes after the war (without bathrooms or electricity - I remember the gas mantles and tin bath tubs we used in the kitchen!), we had clothes drying racks fitted to ceilings which would have to be lowered to use then wind the rope around cleats to raise them back up again. Great space savers!

Your storage idea sounds great to me. But one question: will the top stretch at all if it's left hanging for a long period of time?

Brilliant idea. You're lucky to have the space for it.

I iron my quilt tops, carefully fold them and hang on a hanger in my spare bathroom. They are behind the shower curtain so are well protected from the light. I finished another quilt top, pieced the back and made the binding and put it in there--took a step back and found that I had 6 finished tops, with pieced backings and bindings done. Decided that was enough so have been taking them to the quilter. When one is done she gets another one right away. She is working on #5 and I am much happier!

We at quilt club just had a teacher come in and besides teaching during the day, she had a trunk show of a lot of her quilts. She told us she lays all of them on her spare bed, all relaxed. Of course, these are finished quilts but I would think this would be okay for tops also. Even pressed between the mattress and box spring. Just a thought.

sounds like an awesome idea if you have the space to hang, unfortunately I don't even have a sewing room (yet). My machine is set up at my dining room table. : (

I also needed somewhere to put my quilt tops till I was ready to quilt them. They started to accumulate on me and get wrinkled so decided to use what I already have and just expand it but found I couldn't do it with what I had. Found a 120" closet expandable rod, added eye hooks from the ceiling joists as my sewing room is in the basement. Now I can fold the top and lay it over the rod, add the backing when I have that made up as well as the batting when I get around to cutting it. As I usually custom quilt my tops using a program I have on my PC, once I have it ready I pin it to the top so I know everything is ready for that particular quilt. I now wrap the binding onto these cardboard separator sheets that come in the cat can boxes. Perfect size to wrap large amounts of binding. The rod that used to be where I now have my quilts hanging is being used to store my roll of batting above my cutting table so a win-win situation for me. I also found laying on a shelf nearby (possibly from my mother) of a folding rod so installed that for the smaller lap size quilts. When not in use I just fold it and its out of the way.