Just Loading the Quilt on the frame

When I first got the frame and Big Martha (the Janome 1600P mid arm sewing machine) I needed to have or make leaders. The manual that came with the frame described how long and wide they needed to be, and I had picked up a large quantity of heavy weight fabric that someone had left on the donation table at my quilt guild. I had more than enough fabric to make them.

Leaders on my Grace Frame

I followed the directions and made three of them. One for the Take Up Bar, one for the bar along the front, and one for the bar that is about knee height, behind this long leader that you can see hanging down along the front.

Commercially produced leaders have lots of bells and whistles. I have seen some with zippers at Atlantic Fabrics - so that you can take a quilt OFF of the frame without unpinning it, replace it with another quilt, finish that one and then put the first one back on.

I have also seen commercially produced ones with a grid marked on them. This would be handy when you are new at this, I think - but my leaders were free and that price was right! AND I wanted to quilt something on there right away - waiting for something ordered to come in would have been unbearable.

The frame showing all four bars

I need to share a couple of other things about leaders. When I first started this, I had three leaders. My frame has four bars. The furthest one to the back is for the batting. I have never bought batting on a big roll, which is what this would be used for. I have always bought batting cut to the size, more or less, of the item I am quilting. So, the very first quilt I did (after the panel I used to try this out), I rolled the batting on that bar, and several of my facebook friends who were experienced long armers advised me to just leave the batting loose, because this can stretch it, or even tear it. I have two things to say about this. Be careful that you don't end up with a fold from batting that was packaged folded, INSIDE your quilt. So be careful to smooth things out, as you go along. AND don't catch your foot in the loose end of your batting - as that will tear it for sure! (Fortunately, when I did this, I put my foot and sneaker through a piece I was intending to cut off, but I would have been an unhappy camper if it had been the OTHER end of the batting that I tore.)

The top bar, inside the throat of the sewing machine is to Roll Up or Take Up the quilt that you have finished.

The top bar along the front is what the backing of your quilt is pinned to and then rolled around, to hold it taut and straight while you work on your quilting. When you are finished the piece of quilt that your sewing machine can reach, and you are ready to work on the next bit, you roll this bar forward, and then roll the Take Up Bar back, so that your quilt advances and you can reach the next part with the sewing machine needle.

The bottom front bar is for the quilt top to be attached to. The YouTube video that I watched, showed this in use. The leader for this bar was the widest. After I had quilted several quilts, some of my quilting friends suggested that I try 'floating' my quilt top. That is, they suggested that I just let it hang down in front of the frame. Gravity pretty much holds it in place, and the spots that are touching the batting are usually held quite still by friction...

I tried this, and it worked slick and saved a lot of work pinning and unpinning of the quilt top. I took the widest leader off of that bar and moved it to the top bar on the front (where the backing is attached) and this has let me quilt long skinny things that I couldn't reach with the narrower leader that used to be on that bar.

Pinning the sandwich onto the leaders:

Some things to know about using a frame versus quilting on your domestic machine

Here is one of the big advantages of using the frame as opposed to quilting this on your domestic machine. NO BASTING! No sewn basting, no pinned basting and no sprayed basting. No basting!

Before I put anything on the frame though, I do check to make sure that my backing is bigger by at least 2 inches all the way around than the quilt top - and three inches on each side is BETTER than just two inches... I also make sure that my batting is big enough... bigger than the top, and about the size of the backing. Occasionally, I put wider batting on there and trim it as I roll the quilt... Everything is straight and still when you do this, and trimming batting is tricky when it is on a table or the floor, unless the quilt is quite small.

Also before I put anything on the frame, I think about what I am going to quilt on it. I just did a quilt that I wanted to put words on. It also had a cat in the middle. I'm good at being able to quilt things in every direction, BUT I wanted the words to look pretty good - and I was afraid that if I tried to do them sideways that would be really difficult - so I loaded that quilt with the 'picture' of the cat, right side up.

Quilting Cats Quilt top, loaded on the frame right side up

So, having decided which way up I want the quilt (and this one wasn't too difficult, the quilt top was square!) I put the backing on the frame first.

Before I get to the "how" of that, I just thought of two other things. When I first loaded a quilt top on the frame, I watched a YouTube video on how to do it. And the lady carefully stressed how important it was that the quilt be centred on the frame.

For about three years I carefully centred my backing on the frame, sometimes making it hard to get at the sewing machine's bobbin which needs to be changed frequently when you do as much dense quilting as I do. This meant I needed to mark the middle of the backing, I needed to know where the middle of the leader was, and I needed to match up the middle of the quilt top to that. It was a pain in the neck.

Big Martha on her tray, as close to the far end of the frame as she can reach!

So one day, I loaded a quilt as close to the far end of the frame as I could. The point of loading it in the centre, according to the lady whose video I had watched, was so that everything would be straight... Well, I found out another, much more important reason with this quilt. Because your sewing machine sits in the middle of the tray that holds the machine and allows you to move it around, and because the needle on your sewing machine is in the middle of the front of the sewing machine, and because the tray can not extend OUT PAST the edges of the frame, you can not quilt a quilt that is too close to the edges. ACK!! So I had about three and a half inches of quilt that I could not reach...

Take Up Bar Leader, with reminder note!

To solve this, without having to take the quilt off of the frame and repin it (I had already started the first pass, and I couldn't figure out how I could do that easily!), I went to the other end of the leader, pulled the plastic tube out of the track and I cut a piece off of my leader (without cutting the plastic tube!) Then I did the same thing to the longer one on the front roller. Then I could slide the whole quilt towards the other end by about three inches and I was fine. (Man!)

Okay. I may think of other things on that vein later, but for now, here's how I loaded the quilt backing onto the frame.

FIRST, make sure that the WRONG side of the backing is UP! Otherwise, when you have finished quilting your quilt and you take it off of the frame you will either be in for a lot of UN-Quilting - and if you think reverse sewing is unpleasant, it is NOTHING to reverse quilting -  or you will be living with the wrong side of your fabric showing on the back of the quilt. Ask me how I know this. (I have actually taken ALL of the quilting out of two quilts. The first one because the backing shifted on me between the time I spray basted it and the time that I got to the actual quilting on my domestic machine... I ended up with about a 6 inch pouch on the back of the quilt - I couldn't quilt that out... LOL The second one was because my quilting skills had progressed and I had spent too much time and effort on the top to leave the original quilting in there... That one took me years to get completely unquilted, but it looks great now!)

Okay, so you have your backing oriented with the wrong side up. Usually, I put the long edge of the backing and the long edge of the quilt top (eventually) along the Take Up Bar - but not always. The cat quilt is an instance where I wanted to quilt something directional onto the quilt. But sometimes you have no choice. I quilted an oversized king size quilt on my frame. I could not have put it with the long sides of the quilt along the Take Up Bar because the quilt was about 15 inches longer than my frame was wide!

If your backing has selvage edges on it, you can pin the selvage edges to the leaders, if it will fit that way, and if that leaves the quilt top in the orientation that you need it. The advantage of that is twofold! :-) (Two advantages!!) The selvage edge is straight! Which is handy! AND it won't fray!

So first you pin, carefully and straight, your quilt backing to the leader along the Take Up Bar. (I drape the rest of the backing over the top bar on the front of the frame. This holds some of the weight up, and it is going to go there eventually anyway!)

I have a magnetic dish - a mechanic's dish, that I bought at Canadian Tire, and a selection of straight pins with no plastic/glass heads. (I also have a carpenter's magnetic armband that I got at Lee Valley, and it is wonderful too.)

Magnetic dish with straight pins

 This is my favourite thing to use when pinning a backing to the Take Up Bar.

Carpenters Magnetic Wrist Band

The Magnetic Wrist Band is also wonderful but I am used to the mechanic's dish now.

Magnetic Dish balanced on the Take Up Bar

When I put the backing on the frame now, I start on the right hand side and work toward the left side.

Backing, wrong side up, being pinned to the Take Up Bar leader

I am right handed and this works for me. I believe the directions I had originally had me working from the centre of the backing to the right and then from the centre to the left, but I found it difficult to do that, I had to pin half the quilt left-handed - and as long as everything stays straight, and the sewing machine can reach all the parts of the quilt to quilt it, what difference does it make. So if I was left handed, I would start at the left hand side of the quilt and pin towards the right hand side...

Backing hanging over the front top bar

Once that edge of the backing is pinned to the Take Up Bar's leader, I then roll the Take Up Bar a bit to keep the backing straight and so that I can conveniently get at the other edge of it, which I pin, in much the same fashion to the leader on the front top Bar. To do this, I have the Bar turned so that the leader is over the bar and hangs down a few inches, somewhere between 8 inches and 12 inches (20 cm to 30 cm). I want the leader to be straight and smooth, at this point, because I want the backing to hang straight and be pinned on straight as well.

The front top bar has been turned enough to match the backing with the bottom edge of the leader

I roll the Top Front Bar so that the backing is hanging down at about the same level as the edge of the leader. Then I kneel or sit in front of the frame and pin the two pieces together. I used to worry about which way the fabrics met - would something have to fold when it was rolled up... But I have discovered that that doesn't matter as long as it is consistent and smooth.

Backing rolled up, all ready for the batting

When I have the backing on both leaders, I unroll the Take Up Bar and roll up the Top front Bar, until the backing is all rolled up on the front bar, smoothing it as I go so that it stays straight and smooth. And so that the Take Up Bar Leader is exposed. (The quilt will roll UNDER the Take Up Bar, and OVER the top front bar.)

Then I take the batting and I lay it, oriented correctly so that it will fit slightly larger than the Quilt Top both to the front and back edges AND to the right and left edges. I smooth this out without stretching it, and drape the edge out of the way of my feet, behind the bottom Bar. I don't pin this at this point!

The quilt top, on top of the batting, on top of the backing

Then, I put the quilt top on the frame. I put it on so that I will NOT accidentally quilt through it and through the leader at the Take Up Bar. It is also forward far enough that I can see the batting between the pins holding the backing onto the leader, and the top edge of the quilt top. I make sure that it is straight, and smooth and that I have it oriented the same way as the backing and batting...

Top edge pinned carefully through batting and backing

Once it is on there, I carefully pin through the top, backing and batting, parallel to the leader. Again, I am careful that I will not be quilting through the leader and that I can see batting beyond these pins. (I am also mindful of how much extra length I have in batting and backing than I have in the quilt top. If they are both 6 inches longer than the quilt top, I know I have lots of leeway. If there is only 2 inches, I want to be careful! I would not like to get to the other end of the quilt and discover that I had run out of back (or batting) before I ran out of quilt top!

Three pins to hold side of quilt straight

I make sure everything is smooth, and I put three pins on each side, to hold the top and batting onto the backing. I put these pins about 6 inches apart and parallel to the leader.

I adjust the length of the clips and clip them onto JUST the backing. Don't make them too tight - you will stretch your backing and don't clip them to your batting it will stretch very easily and could tear.

My friend who has a long arm, runs a long row of stitching along the top of her quilt to hold everything together. I can't seem to do this without having things shift around - and I don't want to make puckers in my borders or edges. If you can do this, will you tell me how you do it? (Maybe I am doing something wrong!) When I begin to quilt, I remove those pins as I go along. If you run over them you might break the needle - ACK! And you could even pop the inside of your hopping foot out. (Mine is long gone - ran over the bead on the head of a pin and popped it off. The sewing machine needle ran over it, and that was the end of that!)

Here is a hint that I found helped me when I first started free motion quilting with my Mid Arm on the frame. It is easy to see that whole wide space and to forget where the Take Up Bar is in relation to the inside of the throat of your machine. You can only quilt, without rolling the quilt forward and backward, a strip about 6 inches deep that is the width of your quilt. If you try to pull your machine towards you more than that, the Take Up Bar will BOUNCE off of the inside of the throat of your machine and leave a jagged bumpy bit of quilting, which you probably won't like much. (I sure don't!)

So here is my suggestion. I have several long pieces of selvage edge that I have cut off of (usually) backing. Before I start quilting, I pull Big Martha as far forward as she will reach, and I lay that piece of selvage edge the whole width of the quilt, just outside the area that Big Martha can reach. (That way I don't accidentally sew the selvage edge onto the quilt!) If it is inclined to move around, I pin it down with a couple of clothespins - one on the right and one on the left edge of the quilt. THEN when I am quilting, I am conscious of how far forward I can reach with the sewing machine needle. As I advance the quilt, I also advance the selvage edge. As you roll more of your quilt up onto the Take Up Bar, this strip gets narrower and narrower, so you will have to move your selvage edge forward a bit more each time...

As I move along the edges of the quilt, where those three pins are about 6 inches apart and parallel to the leaders, I remove the pins before I quilt the spot where they are pinned and I move them to hold the next bit of quilt flat. BE CAREFUL not to cut yourself on them smoothing things out... And if you do, try not to bleed on your quilt. We suffer for our art, right?

Well, I think this is enough information on loading the quilt onto the frame - and how I have streamlined that process over the past 5 years. I hope it helps you.

If you have any helpful hints, I would love to hear them and try them out!!!

Oh, by the way, here is a photo of the Quilting Cats quilt... Can you read the words? I was really pleased with how it came out.

Thanks!
Just Jane