How I Set Up a Quilt

I do a very easy set up.

I have removed the bottom two rails.  They get in the way of my legs when I sit or try to change a bobbin.  So I just use the backing bar and the uptake bar thru the machine head.

 Here is my backing put on those two remaining bars.  I pin about 8 to 10 inches apart.  Trying to be straight and true!  I put half the pins pointing to the left and half going to the right so my hand doesn't get skewered when I am smoothing the backing on to the bars.

 I lay the batting on top of the back.  If you are using cotton you don't have to worry about slipping.  I guess you could use a third bar to hold the batting but I cut the batting to the quilt size so it is pretty useless to me.  If I had a roll of batting it may be different.  I generally use 80/20 and it grips pretty well.

 I will pin the batting to the back to keep things straight.  I try to get close to the edge to be in the "safe" zone of the backing.  Most of the time I am OK.  I think I am fighting with this one for some reason.

 I then lay the top on to the batting.  I will secure it with the same pins from the batting. I do this to keep from running over the pins I can't always see, or forget about......you know.

 This view is of the frame with the quilt ready to be worked.  It just drapes over the edge.  This is a small kid's quilt, but I do larger quilts like this as well.  It works just fine unless DiNozzo lays on everything underneath.  He is the quilting basset in the window seat I had to make for him in the studio.

Here is the view of the quilt hanging over the frame edge (backing bar) and ready to quilt.  This is the dining room.  Like that carpet?  I did until I had to find things I dropped on it! 

I hope this helps you understand how I put my quilts on the frame.  If you have any questions just post them and I will answer them in the reply to the post so everyone can benefit.