Thursday, September 13, 2007

Basting frame
I have been working on Joshua's quilt as tomorrow is his birthday. I hate the basting part of the quilt, my knees and my back can't stand crawling around on the floor, so I tend to under baste as compensation and then suffer the repercussions of that when it comes to trying to machine quilt with my standard sewing machine later on.

My Mum mentioned that her craft group had copied "some quilt thing" and no-one was using it. She described it to me and I decided it could perhaps have a little holiday here.

I picked it up when I got the battery hens and yesterday I gave it a run.

It is a form of basting or quilting frame, ideally I would use it in the big space of my sewing room but the job needed doing and we were all in the house so the house it had to be.


Here are the kids playing under it, they think it would be a great cubby!

This is how it fits together


You pin the backing to the cotton tape. There are red clamps that you can see in the actual basting pic that keep it all where it is meant to be. I found it heaps easier and a lot better on my back. I had the whole thing on and basted in an hour and a half. I have all the dimensions in a machine quilting book the group lent me so yell if anyone is interested in more info, looks very easy to make yourself. It came with these size posts and the next size for a queen or bigger quilt.
I machine quilted it last night and only need to sew the bindings on-that isn't my favourite part either, but preferable to basting. Joshua's party tomorrow is 3 pm, so everyone being well enough, I should get it done.
Kids are finally improving, DS went to School today, it was the matinee of his School concert, he was a fine dalmatian dog, I took his sister in in time to perform as well, hopefully they will both be in peak condition for tomorrow night's major performance....I am just...still here-but fortunately capable of finishing a quilt.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Neat frame, reminds a little of the old fashioned quilting frames I've seen. Have you ever though about locating a long arm quilter in your area and ask them to baste the quilts for you? Our longarmers in this area , and I've heard of others too will baste our quilts for just a few dollars! It's awesome and it's so much easier to pay them a few bucks and let them baste the layers together!

Susie said...

Clever frame for basting, and it does look like something one could make. I can't imagine crawling around on the floor to do it!
Happy Birthday to Joshua tomorrow!
Hope you continue to feel a bit better each day!
((hugs))

Shelina said...

I'm glad your kids are feeling better - hopefully they go straight to a full recovery, and I hope that you do too. I am amazed that you are getting so much accomplished while you are sick. That frame looks wonderful - certainly beats crawling around on the hands and knees to baste. Maybe you can teach your kids a money making skill ...

Anne Ida said...

The frame looks great! Wish I had room for something like that... And Joshua's quilt looks great!
Glad to see the kids are feeling better! Hope you all will have a great weekend! Take care :o)

Lily Mulholland said...

Excellent - love that it's having a working holiday at your place!

And yes, there are certain luxuries I'll look forward to once the kids have left home...only 20 years away!

Libby said...

Well now - that's a pretty nifty tool. Anything that keeps us from having to crawl all over the floor is surely worth the space required.
Glad to hear everyone is feeling better . . . makes the days more pleasant for all *s*

atet said...

Ok, now that is a nifty little frame. I just saw one that is similar in a quilting book I checked out from the library -- but it was set up for mini quilts! Hmmmn, nope, no place to store one around here....but I can dream about it some day!

Mar said...

oh what a back or knee saver that will be. Wish I had room to put one up.

Carol E. said...

That baster looks like a great tool. And the kids love it, too. Very cute!

Patti said...

I used to baste all my quilts on a similar frame, though mine didn't have the nifty notches on the corners. The 1x2's just overlapped and were held in place with C-clamps. Worked beautifully! Sold it when I got my longarm. So easy to make for about anyone. Yours is fancier - with things that make it even better than mine. You will SO love this! Next I recommend getting a Quilt Tack gun. Yes, they are expensive but worth their weight in gold. Really, really fast compared to thread basting.

Jenni said...

You can't use the table? I know someone who has a big piece of lino that she puts on top of the table to protect it from pin scratches.

Quilts And Pieces said...

Ooooo - I am SO INTERESTED in the instructions for this basting frame! So cool!