I found this pipe quilt frame on Joannes website. I printed a picture of it and put it on my bullitin board as a reminder of where to buy one when I could scrape up $100 for it. It was on my wish list. I've been hand quilting with an 18" hoop that I'm always having have to reposition every 15 mins or so. My kind, sweet, adorable husband saw my picture and a light bulb went off in his head. He works construction on new houses and asked the plumbers to save any pc pipe that they didn't need for him. Within the day he had all the piping he needed. Yesterday we put it together and it works wonderfully. It wasn't hard to put together at all. We did have to buy 8 clamps for $20 but all in all it made my day. I am one lucky girl and I thank my lucky stars for a husband like him. I think I'll keep him.

Forgot the picture.

Debbie, can you explain the part on top that holds the quilt on the frame, I asked my husband to build one before but could not figure out the top part. Maybe a close-up picture

That's the only pic I have but maybe I can explain it better. The top and bottom square frames are 40" wide and 30" long. Attached to one another by a T shaped connector and an elbow one to connect the poles going down which are 22" in the front and 30" in the rear to make it tilt. The clamps we bought at Lowe's, they're called spring clamps. Found them in the tools section. I hope this helps.

Kathy, my girl friend has one like that and hers has like pieces of pvc pipe sawed in half lengthwise and they slip over the quilt and bottom pie (the one the quilt is attached to) and hold it in place. Hope I made sense when trying to explain it.

the "clamps" in the commercial model are just PVC pipes with enough cut away to help you slip them over the quilt and whole pipe, yet hold it all together at loosely or tightly as you like.

another way that would work would be to drill holes through the T-connectors, roll the quilt up on the pipes, and use a screw that goes through the connector and pipe (one at each end of each pipe) to hold it in place. the more holes you drilled around the connector, the more finely you could fine-tune the tightness of the roll.

since i live right across the street from a lumber/building supply store, i thought about building my own from PVC. couldn't figure out how to keep it stable and still be able to roll it up for a big quilt.

i'm not a fan of the clamp method. i'd worry about stretching the quilt out of shape as i moved it around. that's why i don't use hoops, either. not even for embroidery. they both work for many people, i know. it's just not a method i like to use myself.

We thought of that but the pipe we had was only 1" in diameter and not very pliable and we were using a hand saw to boot.

I have a friend at another forum who has promised to send a photo of the frame her husband built after he saw a John Flynnn frame at a quilt show. How neat is that husband? Just think, he went to a quilt show with her. Then said he could build the frame. I am waiting for the pattern. I hope she does not take months to send it.

June

the only things that matter are:
(1) your hubby sounds like a sweetie pie
(2) your new frame works

i would make a crack about whether or not size matters, but i'd probably get either yelled at or deleted. :shock:

just the hint made me laugh