Thursday, June 17, 2010

Buiding a small frame for quilting

As a quilter in a SMALL house inundated with 7 very active and mostly furry cats, I have trouble finding a place to work with the quilting needle.  Especially during the dreaded spring/summer shed.  I decided to do something about it, something light and portable and secure so if the fuzz butts do jump on it, it won't break.  After combing the internet for ideas, I came up with this.

As for what it is, well it's simple.  Schedule 40 1" PVC and a few pipe clamps and furniture corners I found at a green house supply place, littlegreenhouse.com.  I ordered the longer sections of the clamps and cut them myself with the miter saw, saved a little cash that way.  The PVC was bought locally in 10' lengths and cut down to sizes I needed to be comfortable while working.  The two shorter arms can be interchanged with longer lengths of PVC giving me an enlargeable work area when needed.  And above all, I can pick it up, walk it down the hall and into another room if I want.  Or I can pop the top off, hang it and store the rest out of the way if I'm not working on the piece in it for some reason.  Hence the obvious, DON'T GLUE THIS TOGETHER!

PVC furniture corners are great, very sturdy and easy to place and forget.  There are a ton of places you can buy them online but I chose to get them from the same place as the clamps, one shipping charge instead of 2.

It takes a bit to manhandle the clamps on the first few times you try but once they are on, they don't move.  Even after a 20 pound cat decides to jump up on the frame and use it for a new padded hammock.  You can use as few or as many of the clamps as needed, they are removable and re-positionable. 


And it looks as if you are getting a sneak peek at the embroidered cat quilt which is now in the frame.  Providing I get time to work on it this weekend, it should be completed next week.  We'll just have to see how the next few days want to behave.