Hoop or Quilt Frame, is that the Question?
Quilters ask - Which is better for quilting? A hoop or a quilt frame?
Like so many other things in the quilting world, it depends. And what it depends on is mostly your personal preference.
First let's look at the purpose of a quilt frame or hoop. You have finished your quilt top, laid it out on the batting and backing, and you are going to secure all of those layers together by hand quilting.
As amazing as it is, when you begin hand stitching the layers, there is some slack in each of the layers, and generally the slack is different for each layer. Your quilt top has seams in it, and some of the pieces are on the bias. Both of those factors cause different stretchy-ness in the quilt top.
Batting is easily pulled apart, whether it is polyester, cotton, wool, silk, or a blend of those. As the quilt top and backing move around in your layers, the batting can sometimes get pulled and stretch, especially the polyester battings.
And often, backing is a piece of fabric with no seams, and may be subject to very little stretch.
All of those variables cause the layers to move around as you quilt. Basting your quilt helps stabilize the layers, but since basting typically is done with safety pins or large stitches, it only helps, but isn't a complete answer.
Which leads us to the main purpose of a hoop or frame - and that is to create an equal amount of stretch, or tension, on all of the layers of the quilt so that as you quilt, the layers remain lined up and there are no puckers or pleats created with your quilting.
As a side, one of the reasons I prefer hand quilting over machine quilting is that I haven't figured out how to totally eliminate the puckers and folds in the quilting.
Over the quilting years, a few solutions have been developed to create the proper amount of tension to the layers of the quilt as it is quilted.
The Quilting Frame
My guess is that because quilting started as a group project, the quilting frame preceeded the hoop. A quilting frame is typically made from wood, and you attach the quilt on all sides of the frame. With many quilting frames, the quilt rolls up on the wooden slats on the ends of the quilt. That way, as sections of the quilt are finished, the unfinished sections are made more accessible to the quilters.
The benefit is that many quilters can surround the quilt at the same time, and accomplish the quilting in less time than it would take for an individual quilter.
In the early days of quilting, ladies would gather and work on quilting one quilt at a time as a community project so a family would have a finished quilt relatively soon. The needs of the families in the quilting group were measured, and the most needy would get the next quilt - need being defined as: new baby, new marriage, loss of goods by a family due to fire, etc.
Usually the quilting was done at one family's home, since owning a quilting frame was not so ordinary. At the end of the quilting day, the frame, with its quilt still attached, would be raised up to the ceiling where it would stay until the next quilting bee, making it all very handy.
The Quilting Hoop
When quilters wanted to work on their own quilt in their home, in between quilting bees, they might use a hoop. A hoop is typically wooden, and has two pieces. Although it is somewhat difficult to see in the pictures below, there is an outside "ring" with a screw and nut, and an inside "ring" that is solid wood (or possibly plastic).
The two pieces are separated, and the quilt is laid between. As the outside ring is placed over the quilt, it stretches the layers of the quilt. After pulling to be sure that the section of the quilt has an equal amount of tension, the screw on the outside ring is tightened to ensure that the tension is maintained as you quilt.
As I have quilted using each of these shapes, I have discovered that, for me, each has its own purpose. I use the round hoop when I am quilting in the center of my quilt. It allows large areas to be quilted.
The oval one is great for borders and areas that are near the edge of a quilt. My oval hoop is quite large, so I can have a 10" block entirely inside the hoop, if I want.
The square hoop is the one I use when I am quilting borders. I can secure three sides of my quilt equally, and have the edge of the border running through the center of the hoop, and quilt all the way to the edge.
What's are the considerations?
The quilting frame is great for building community, and when you have many quilters working on the same quilt. Several people can sit around the outside of the quilt and work at the same time. The drawback is that the quilt is stationery in terms of being able to turn it around to fit the direction of your quilting.
For example, I like to quilt running my needle toward me, and I will turn my hoop around when I get to the end of a line of quilting and need to change direction. Using a frame, the quilter would need to move or change direction of her hand as it quilts.
The hoop is small and can be easily turned around in order to accomodate the direction of your stitching. In addition, the tension put in a smaller area tends to be more equal. As you can imagine, the center of a large quilt on a frame will have less tension than the outside - just as a trampoline is more bouncy in the center than where the springs are attached.
In the final analysis, it's mainly a matter of personal preference and your quilting style!
Happy Quilting!
Penny is a quilter of more than 24 years who seeks to interest new quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create beautiful quilts.
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