Quilt in a Day Forums

Does anyone use the red snappers?

Thanks
Mary

Cindyg has them. She said she loves them. I have been thinking about getting them, too.

I have a set of Red Snappers and wouldn't be without them. I do not miss all the pinning or the sore pin pricked finger tips.
Rhonda

My DH does the long-arming here and he bought them at the Houston Quilt show last Nov. I'll let him answer you:

Hi Mary - this is Mr. Bill. We've had the Red Snappers for only a short time - 2nd quilt is on the frame now. Here's the good things:

1. No more pinning - this has always given me fits - typically Mary would have to come in the fix things - LOL.

2. It's pretty easy to get the quilt top and back lined up straight and even on the rollers. The little Red Snappers hold it all in place until you get the longer Snappers on. It all works well.

Here's the negative:

1. We had to sew new leader pockets - which sounds easy but ours are canvas and it took awhile to make sure the new pocket was perfectly parallel to the machine tracking. We ended up locking the machine in place while we sewed the pockets right in place.

2. The Red Snappers do add a little more bulk to the rollers - this might be an issue on bigger quilts that can fill our machine throat.

3. The Red Snappers add an offset weight to the rollers so if you let them loose, they will roll to put the Red Snappers at the bottom - I hope that makes sense.

Was it worth it? YES

Is there an alternative? Yes, I was reading on another forum and one person went to a building supply place and found all the parts she needed to make up a set of snappers. There is also Leader Grips and zippers.

Note: We have an 11' frame - we bought the 12' Red Snappers and cut them down - which gave us more small Snappers.

I do love them. As Bill said, they will take up a little more of your harp space so keep that in mind. You could always pin that side and use the snappers on the other if you're doing a large quilt. It use to kill my back to stand and bend to pin on a quilt. I'm so glad we got the Red Snappers.

Thanks Cindy, Mary, Bill, Rhonda and Mel.
I'm just using my Juki on a table top so probably will not have enough harp area with that.
That is an idea Cindy - just using them on one side.
I appreciate all your input!
mary

I just purchased the Red Snappers for my 12' Gammill Quilting machine and, I was wanting to know if someone could tell me whether I need to take my leaders completely off of my quilting table to sew the sleeve onto my leaders or, could I just use my quilting machine to do this? Thanks for any information anyone could give to me bout this issue, just want to make sure I place them on correctly. Tammy

I am new to long arm quilting but am wondering how you can quilt to the edge of the quilt if some of it wrapped around the rod. Thanks

You do the edge to edge, by having the backing fabric longer than the top. Also it is wider than the top. I add 4 -6 inches in those four dimensions.

I love red snappers. Use them on both edges of lining and the edge of the top that will be quilted last. On the beginning edge of the top, I pin, baste removing pins and quilt. Once you are near the finishing edge of the top, remove red snapper, pull and pin top down. Then baste removing pins. This gives you safe edges of the top to quilt right to the edge for a great finish. This method allows a tight fit on the frame, a way to quilt right to edges with no pins or obstructions. You do need about 4" extra lining fabric. Hope this helps.
B.