R&R Craft frame

I decided to try out a new frame - a universal craft frame from R&R Crafts.

Usually I use a hoop - I like the thought of frames but whenever I've used them in the past I've got so frustrated with them as I could never achieve any tension in my fabric. I came across the R&R frames a while back (I think they are called q-snaps in America?) but was a bit sceptical as to their claims. I had a look on the internet and found a few blog posts about them and decided that I had nothing to loose in giving them a try.

I decided to go for an 11" x 11" frame - slightly bigger than the hoop I use, but not too big as to be impossible....here it is set up with Blossom Splendour...resting on my lap...

It's a good size! It is heavier than a hoop but not unworkably so. I haven't tried attaching it to my seat stand so I don't know whether it will be too wide for that. You can fit it together and take it apart very easily and attaching the fabric and getting a nice tension is so simple! After the first use I noticed that the clips had left marks on my fabric...not like hoop marks which you can still see in the bottom left-hand corner...shiny marks. It bugged me quite a bit. I had to really agitate the fabric to get rid of them (but I can still see them!!! D: ) Anyway, I now place some scrap fabric between the fabric and the clips and this seems to have solved the weird line problem. It also gets much better tension so I would definitely recommend using some scrap fabric.

If you haven't tried a frame like this before I recommend you give it a go. They're relatively cheap (this was £11) and I've found that benefits of this style of frame are great.