Things You'll Need
Two 2-by-2 boards
Saw
Drill with a 3/8-inch bit
Two wood sawhorses, 30 inches tall
Four screw eyes 4½-by-3/8 inches
Prepared, basted quilt
Flat thumbtacks
Hand quilting can be done with just a hoop, but often it can be made more comfortable by using a quilting frame, which is attached to a stand. There are a variety of stands on the market in craft stores and online, however, you can make homemade quilting frames with a stand on your own for less. Your frame should only take about an hour to put together and once your quilt is loaded you won't have to take it off until it is quilted.
Step 1
Cut both of your 2-by-2 board lengths to the width of your quilt plus 1 foot. If you have multiple quilts to work on, then cut the boards to the largest size quilt you want to hand quilt.
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Step 2
Drill a hole straight down through one board two inches away from the end. Rotate the board so the hole now runs horizontally and drill a second hole straight down through the board so the two holes intersect. Repeat drilling two holes on the other end of the same board and on both ends of your other board.
Step 3
Drill holes down through your sawhorse two, four, and six inches away from each end of both sawhorses. Space the sawhorses a few feet apart and lay the 2-by-2 boards over them perpendicularly. Adjust the sawhorses to align the holes on the ends of the boards with one even set of holes on the sawhorses.
Step 4
Load your prepared quilt by aligning the top edge of the backing to one of the boards and pushing thumbtacks every six inches through the backing and into the board. Repeat with the bottom of the quilt and the other board.
Step 5
Roll the quilt onto the boards until the center of the quilt is held evenly between them. Line up the holes of the boards with the sawhorses and drop a screw eye through the aligned holes at each corner through the boards and into the sawhorses to hold the frame together.
Tip
Make quilting cloth leaders, if desired, to make loading the quilt frame easier and allow you to leave fabric attached to the boards with the thumbtacks permanently.
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