Flynn Quilt Frame Review: The Set Up

I would first like to point out that I do enjoy the Flynn Multi-Frame. I really do. That being said, I do have some frustrations to vent out. It comes with 48" rods for you to roll your quilt, batting, and backing onto. That means you can put a quilt top up to 40" wide on it (there needs to be 4" to spare on either side). That Halloween quilt I wanted to put on it? It's 56" inches wide. So right off the bat, I had to buy new goodies for it.

After going to 3 different stores to find the conduit I needed, I had the appropriately sized rods. I bought double sided tape because I couldn't find any carpet tape, which is what the company recommends. I used some muslin from my stash to make the leader strips. The tape stuck to the rod, but not to the fabric. So I doubled down with some packing tape and secured the muslin with it. It took forever, but thankfully, I only have to do it once per set.

Then came rolling the backing onto the the rod. You're supposed to baste the backing to the muslin, then roll it up. Sounds simple enough, right? In order to get it rolled up nice and straight on the rod, I had to try and fail more times than I care to admit to openly. The company recommends rolling them up on the carpet. I don't, unless you don't have a choice (however, I do). The table results were much better.

Getting the top and batting rolled together was the easier part.

Basting the ends on took forever. Eventually, I got the top and the backing basted and all rolled up with the batting. Then I realized the ends weren't even, so I couldn't put the frame ends on. More re-rolling followed. Then, thankfully, it was ready. I put the darning foot on my sewing machine and slid the sewing area under the needle. I was just about to start sewing when my fiance called. His car battery was dead and he needed me to come jump his car. No quilting time for me just yet. Oh well, c'est la vie!

I didn't take the photo until after I picked up my fiance. Honest.

I can't say if I would have had any less trouble using the rods it came with. But, given that it's designed to be used with more than one length of rods, I am somewhat disappointed. Just prepping the rods and getting the quilt mounted was incredibly time consuming and frustrating at times. I probably could have quilted half the top in the time it took me to wrestle the frame and fabric together. Hopefully, actually using it will prove to be a more enjoyable process.