How to Use the Hammock Handi: Store Batting Safely on Your Longarm Frame
Every longarm quilter knows the batting problem. You are in the middle of a quilt, the batting is wider than the top, and the excess ends up draped over a chair, pooled on the floor, or wadded up somewhere it can pick up dust, pet hair, and wrinkles. The Hammock Handi solves that problem simply: it gives your quilt batting a dedicated place to rest, right on your Handi Quilter frame, while you quilt.
What It Is and Why Quilters Use It
The Hammock Handi is a hammock designed to conveniently store and protect quilt batting while you are quilting. Instead of letting loose batting trail onto the floor — where it attracts lint and can get stepped on, snagged, or creased — the batting rests in the hammock, clean and out of the way, yet still close at hand as your quilt advances through the frame.
Hardware is included to permanently install the hammock on your Handi Quilter longarm frame, so once it is mounted, it is simply part of your setup — no clamping something on and taking it off again between quilts. The Hammock Handi comes in black, one hammock per pack, and the listed size is 11in x 9in x 3in.
Check Compatibility First
Before anything else, confirm your frame is a match. The Hammock Handi is compatible with 10-foot and 12-foot HQ Studio, HQ Studio2, HQ Gallery, and HQ Gallery2 quilting frames. It is not for use with Little Foot or Loft frames. A quick check of your frame model and length before you start saves frustration later.
How to Use It, Step by Step
- Confirm your frame. Verify that you have one of the compatible 10-foot or 12-foot Handi Quilter frames listed above before opening the hardware.
- Install the hammock. Using the included hardware, permanently install the hammock on your frame, following the placement intended for your frame size. Make sure every fitting is secure before loading any batting.
- Load your quilt as usual. Mount your backing and quilt top on the frame the way you normally would, with your batting ready to go.
- Rest the excess batting in the hammock. As you position the batting with your quilt layers, let the extra length settle into the hammock rather than onto the floor. Arrange it in soft, even folds so it feeds out smoothly as you work.
- Quilt and advance. As you finish a section and advance the quilt, let the hammock continue to hold the remaining batting. Adjust the folds as needed so the batting stays relaxed — not stretched tight, and not bunched into a hard wad.
- Between quilts, leave it ready. Because the installation is permanent, there is nothing to put away. Your next quilt's batting can go straight into the hammock when you load up.
Practical Tips
Fold, don't stuff. Batting arranged in loose, even accordion-style folds comes out of the hammock smoothly and is less likely to develop sharp creases than batting crammed in any old way. Keep the hammock's load reasonable — it is there to hold the batting you are actively quilting with, not to become long-term storage for every leftover roll in the studio. And if you quilt with pets nearby, the hammock earns its keep immediately: batting held up on the frame is batting a cat cannot nap on.
Care and Storage
The hammock itself asks very little of you. Periodically check that the mounting hardware is still snug, and brush away accumulated lint so it does not transfer onto clean batting. When a quilt is finished, remove any remaining batting and store that batting the way you normally would, so the hammock is empty and ready for the next project.
Project Ideas
The Hammock Handi shines on any project where batting management gets awkward: large quilts on 10-foot and 12-foot frames, quilts with generous batting overhang, and back-to-back quilting sessions where you are loading one quilt right after another. Any time your batting has been ending up on the floor, this is the upgrade that fixes it.
Shop the Hammock Handi at Linda's Electric Quilters.
