Caro Sheridan of Splityarn gave a great talk about photographing quilts at the September 2014 meeting of the Boston Modern Quilt Guild. (You can read a synopsis of her talk by clicking the BMQG link in the previous sentence). One of the things Caro suggested was using a frame made photographic backdrops to hang up quilts for photography.

I went straight to the computer when I got home after the meeting. My fence, while lovely as fence, leaves a lot to be desired when using it hang quilts for photographs. The fence isn't high enough, it can't be moved if the light isn't right and the clothes line and clothes pins...I'm tired of seeing them in my photos.

I choose the Square Perfect 1040 SP 2000 Backdrop Background Stand for Muslin. I've had it for a week and I love it!

The frame is really nice and sturdy. The bar across the top of the frame comes in four 29" sections. This makes it possible to hang a quilt any size up to 115 inches wide. The upright bars of the frame telescope into each other. They are on an air cushion so they bounce, rather than crash down, when being raised and lowered. The top of the frame be raised as high as 102 inches off the ground.

At a recent quilt show at a local quilt shop, this frame easily held 2 bed size quilts back to back.

The quilt does needs to be hung using a sleeve. The bar at the top of the frame is about 1 inch in diameter. Caro commented that pinning on a sleeve works just fine! So that's what I've done so far. It's not pretty, but it works!

Back of the quilt with a sleeve pinned on and the bar of the frame inside the sleeve.

There is a wing nut at each end of the top of the frame which is great. Your quilt won't be able to take off if a stiff breeze comes up while you are taking photographs!

Caro said that if the quilt isn't hanging well, a dowel in another sleeve can be pinned to the bottom of the quilt can help.

At just about $66, I think this frame is a great investment if you do much quilt photography.