Simone recently encouraged me into the quilt-stand/frame-buying business, and since she’d done the bulk of the research, I joined her online (me, at my computer and she, at her computer) to figure out the final decision. She was in charge of the display for our church’s talent show (above) and asked to have one of my quilts displayed in it. But I had to have a quilt stand/frame to do so.
We both purchased the Emart Photo Video Studio Backdrop Stand, with a 10 x 12 ft dimension. We went for this one because the tubes were a thicker diameter than other ones checked, and we liked the clamps. (I am not an Amazon affiliate, so no pocket change is coming my way on this recommendation.)
I’m putting these for my husband so he knows the right kind of clamps to get to help out Santa with stocking stuffers. (Honey, I’d like about four, please.)
I was headed out of town, so I had it shipped to Simone’s house, and she sent me photos of the display. She’s lovely like that.
Simone and I have a running joke about photos. Both she and I have asked other people to send us photos of our quilts in different shows we couldn’t be to, and invariably the photos come back like this:
It’s our quilt, but cropped and showing no context of the show it was in. I always say thank you. If someone is nice enough to go and hunt up your quilt, and take the time and make the effort to send you a photo, you don’t say anything but “Thank you.” However, as Simone and I comiserated, we do know what our quilts looks like — we were hoping to see what they looked like in the show.
So when I was standing on the subway platform of the Wall Street Subway station, exhausted after a day of tramping around, feeling rather dour, I burst out laughing when she sent me the above photo, with this caption:
It looks awesome! Don’t you love it?!!!
My daughter was like, “What? What’s so funny?” and I tried to explain it to her, but I could clearly see she lost interest after the first nanosecond and however do you explain quilter’s jokes to a non-quilter?
So anyway, the quilt stand/frame worked great, and I tried it out:
I put it up by myself and took it down by myself, and if you’ve never used a quilt stand, the trick is to set up the legs, then insert the side supports, then thread (or clamp) the quilt onto the cross bar, and only THEN do you raise the cross bar higher by means of the adjustments on the side.
I like that the case has places for the two tripod-legs, and loops for each of the bars (you have four, so you can get that twelve-foot width; I only used three of the four today). The top really zippers open, so you can lay it out to unpack all the parts.
It’s also fairly lightweight and easy to carry in its own sturdy case. The best news is that it’s a reasonable price: $69.49 as of December 2018. I do now feel very grown up, with my very own quilt stand.
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 
What a wondrous thing!!! So glad you and Simone did the legwork on this – thanks for sharing!
One of my coworkers got this stand to use when she needed privacy in her cubicle. I thought it would work great as a quilt stand when I saw it and now I know I was right! Thanks for sharing about it!
That’s a great price and looks like a good option. Rather than clamps, you can always use curtain rings with the little clips on them. And of course, I get the joke!
I will remember that when taking pictures of your quilts in a show if necessary!! lol
That’s a great looking stand. Why is it that the top is raised AFTER the quilt is attached? Does that not make it heavy and awkward to raise the bar?
wonderful blog post. so glad you got a good laugh out of your cropped photo of your quilt. tee hee!
Haha, Simone sounds like a lot of fun. 🙂 I’m glad it has already proven to be a useful purchase, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing it’s beneficial use for years to come.
Thanks for the info on the stand. It will be good to see how you put it to use. Next up, will you please research lighting stands for quilt photography? lol
Your research certainly paid off! I don’t know if I’ll be purchasing but it’s great to know if I ever need one, there’s a stand out there that works so well for a quilters needs.
Thank you for sharing this information. I have been tryiing to figure out a better way to photograph my quilts and your write up convinced me. I ordered on this evening!
Such a good review, Elizabeth! Thank you. I have a quilt stand that’s different, and more expensive (I’m sorry to say). It’s Pals brand. It works well, but I don’t have a place to take outdoor photos. Well, except for the driveway. Our yards are so small. But, I’ve used my stand when giving programs to guilds, so it’s good to have. Sure appreciate your quilter funny, as I’m understanding you want to see your quilt IN CONTEXT to the other quilts around it. I get it!
Thank you-thank you-thank you for doing the leg-work on this!!! I could have put it to good use several times this past summer (trunk shows!) but rigged up a passable set-up with an easel/white board & clamps. A tad precarious but it worked. Also, for just taking those final photos…….DHs arms just aren’t long enough for some of these quilt projects!!! Since we go to TX for the winter months (leaving shortly), I will be buying this come Spring!!! It now resides on my Amazon “Wish List”!!! Hugs…………
I’m going to miss seeing Dave’s shoes poking out of the quilt photos!