It reminds me of how my first quilt was basted in 1978! It was done as a teaching exercise and as I was the 1st. to finish my hand pieced top I got to have mine basted.
You are lucky to have the space and the equipment ( and help) to set yours up. It think it is a great way to do it.
If you roll the frames you can use them to hand quilt but I am not sure how it was done but did help do a quilt that way when I was a member of a guild.
Jayne

Our guild used to do the basting as a way to make money. I don't like quilting in a frame, preferring hoops. carole

Excellent, and don't you have a sweet hubby! That quilt doesn't look too bad, either, LOL! So the backing is pinned to the frames?

Our guild has a setup similar to that. We have braces that look like big traffic cones to support the corners. My grandmother has one that bolts in the corners and she always hung it from the ceiling so it could be raised or lowered as needed.

beverly

I don't have a frame but this certainly looks like a good way to do it! And probably easier on your back than my method. (Unless you are the one who has to get under it, I guess!)

I put my backing on the floor and tape it down with painter's tape, then lay down the batting and the top. It all gets pinned, not basted.

The church where I first witnessed quilting had a set up like that. They used saw horses to support where you have chairs. Everytime I dropped my kids off for Moms day out I would walk by and watch with wonder. They always invited me in. One day I was brave enough to go in.... what a wonderful bunch of ladies. Sad to say most of them have died. Last year the frames were put away. There wasn;t enough man power to set up the frames and take them down every week. Gosh, how sad I feel just thinking about this...

Janice

Carol,
I have frames just like this but my clamps are chrome. Like Bev said her grandmothers were, I have hooks in my ceiling and I can hang them. I also put it on the back of chairs especially if it is small. Actually , I have a small and a large set. I quilt in the frame. And have quilted a lot of baby quilts so my DH made a smaller frame years ago. This is how my mother and aunts quilted. I am learning to machine quilt. It is much faster but if I have something really special I still hand quilt if I can. I guess old age has caught up with my hands. I, too, think this is the best way to get a really smooth quilt.

The only difference I see in our frames is I can't tell if yours are marked. Mine is marked in 1 inch measures, with 0 in the middle of each board. My DH also helps me set up, etc. It does take more than one person to set up and also to roll to quilt.

It is exciting seeing your set up!

TFS
Sally

Sally, I only have foot markings and center marks. I don't know why I didn't do more. I really need shorter frames for wall hangings, which is probably all I will do in the future, so now I have to decide whether I will cut these down or put money into new ones. I honestly can't remember how I basted the hangings I made because I don't remember laying them in these frames. I guess I could have. I'm hesitant to cut these frames up. Carole

It would be a shame to cut your great frames, I envy your ability to have them as I think it make for a tighter quilt. It wouldn't be that difficult to make smaller ones and I think you could use 2"x2"s. Easier to store I think.
Jayne

Carol, What pattern is your quilt? It looks as though you have a wonderful view out those window, and lots of great natural light to quilt by.

Janice

I hauled my quilting lamp up from storage and found that the switch is broken. I plan to get a smaller and lighter lamp, so I can quilt in the evening. In the daytime, the light from the windows is sufficient.

Petalpatsy: I used safety pins on the four center placements and ball headed quilting pins for the rest and for the top.

I don't know what to call the pattern. It is a block made up of four triangles that are strip pieced, all in different widths, so they don't match at the joining seam. I thought that emphasized the scrappy style. I took this from a quilt that was in Better Homes and Garden in 1967 in an article on Southwestern quilts. The quilter called the pattern an alternate log cabin, but I thought it was closer to the spider web block, but with four segments rather than six or eight. I added two borders.

Carole

Great setup you have.

This reminds me of the one time I did this at a friend's house with 3 other gals. We had fun and got lots of quilts basted that day. Nice memory! TFS!
Gwen