jdavis

What a great picture. Several people on this board have talked about their grandmothers, etc, using quilting frames hung from the ceiling. Is that American ingenuity or what?

chamby

It is so funny for me to read the comments of ladies who have never seen or heard about these frames. They make it sound like this was thousands of years ago. These are the only ones that I have ever quilted on. I just wished I had room in home now to hand these up. It is some much easier. No need for basting other than around the edges. I am hopeing to get the floor model quilt frames for christmas. I do still love the hanging ones though. The only bad thing about them is that when you roll them to the ceiling the ceiling light is usually covered. I am so glad that this pic was posted. I have tried several times to explain these frames to people and they look at me like I am crazy.

Moon Holiday

Love your photo.... Old photos can tell us so much about life back then, can't they? I must admit I like the creature comforts of today, too much.

Here's a quilting bee photo that I received from a dear friend. It is the Dorcas Society out of Hollis and Buxton Maine. The group was founded in 1897 by Kate Douglas Wiggins and they would gather in Kate's barn at Quillcote in Hollis. Kate is also the author of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. The group is still going strong today and in 2009 they published a "tastefully revealing" calendar as a fundraiser for the cancer society in honor of the group's cancer survivors. I think these ladies would be a hoot to know, don't you?

chamby

Thats an awfully nice looking barn.

Audball

This is very interesting! Thanks for posting.

diannemc

Reminds me of my Grandmother!! She would roll it up at night and then back down the next day...

Linda1

None of my family that I know has ever quilted but my husbands grandmother had one like that. I don't know what ever happened to it.

shrldunn.

The picture with the group founded by Kate Douglas Wiggins has the type of frame my mother and the ladies at church used. It is made of four boards with fabric strips nailed or stapled the length of each board. The lining on each side was basted to two fabric strips. The lining on the sided was pinned to two fabric strips. Then the boards were stretched out into a square with two sides parallel and secured with clamps. After that the batting was carefully smoothed out on top. Then the top was placed on top of both layers. I don't remember if they used pins in the middle of the quilt sandwich or not. The corners of the frame were supported on chair backs or whatever happened to be the right height. I noticed in the picture that they used a pot or something like that on each of the end chair seats. I learned to hand quilt like this when I was younger and my girls were little and they too would play with their friends underneath the quilts. When my mother and grandmother (Daddy's mother) quilted at home they did it in the living room. Mother also had a shorter set of frames for baby quilts. That made it easier to do such a smaller size. Oh, yes, the pins on the sides of the lining were removed as they quilted toward to center and they rolled the quilt to be able to reach it easier. What neat memories!

RkayD

No Kidding!! When I look at all the products we have today and what they had to "deal" with ~ its absolutely mind boggling! I have a book called People and Their Quilts..it tells alot of the history and has some wonderful pictures. AND there were an awful lot more MEN quilters than you'd think way back then. =) I LOVE LOVE LOVE the books that tell stories & share history of the day and the families along with pictures and directions. Its wonderful!

RkayD

Oh you KNOW they would have been! I heard the stories my gram told about the "quilting frame" although I must admit I didn't "get it" at the time.