Red Snapper slippage?

[markt]

Hello everyone.  Happy Holidays.  

 

I've talked to a couple of local quilters that have APQS Machines and asked them about the red snapper system.

 One gal doesnt have the strenght in her hands to operate them.

The other gal has looked at them but keeps slapping her hands not to get them as she feels that they would slip to much if she has to stretch the quilt to much to get it in alignment.  She says she has a lot of

her customers quilts she does that she has to stretch them to get the into position to quilt?? So she just pins them on.  

 

I'm considering getting them so wanted to ask some questions about them first.  

 

thanks mark

[LisaC]

I have never had my Red Snappers slip the slightest. They are stiff the first time but after that they work beautifully. I have both the Red Snappers and Zippers; and love them both. If I HAD to choose between them I would go with zippers because you can zip a quilt on and off; however, I dislike pinning & stapling to the zippers.  I load my quilts that will require long term quilting with zippers and the quilts I am finishing rapidly with the Red Snappers. I am glad I don't have to choose between them! Good Luck in your decision!

[Quilting Heidi]

I too have never had them slip.  I also have both zippers and red snappers but I use my red snappers almost all the time.  I would use my zippers if I had to take the quilt on and off.

[JeannieB]

I've never had any slipping wit the red snappers and I can load a quilt straighter with the snappers.  If you learn how to roll the top snapper back as you clamp it on, it opens it up so that the snapper is not has hard to put on and clamp together. I've also cut some of my longer rods into smaller pieces.

[Zora]

I do not have Snappers, but my friend does.  She has had them pop off when rolling the quilt using the auto fabric advance.  I have also been told they require more backing fabric so you can get them out of the way of rulers.  I have zippers and I machine baste backing to the canvas.  It rips off easily when the quilt is done..no pinning required.

[lisae]

I love the red snappers and have never had the backing slip when using them. I used to have the zippers and love them too, but don't like having to pin the backing. Lisa C has the perfect setup with both.

[RitaR]

I went back to zippers, but also never had the Red Snappers slip when we used them.

 

I too tend to square up a quilt that doesn't want to be squared, and never had a problem with them.

 

I have a narrow leader sewn to the zippers, and machine baste the backings on, using my dsm.

Makes it quick and easy.. square the backing first, of course.

 

Rita

[shirleyl]

I have only had an edge come loose, and that is because I used the 2 inch piece on the edge. I have never had the problem when I used a longer piece on the edge and have it go off the edge an inch. I also have zippers, my red snappers are zipped on. For that quilt that I will work on forever, I sew to zippers, but 99.9% of my quilts are done with Red Snappers I can load and unload twice as fast. If you use them off the edge of the backing you shouldn't have a problem, if you do then you would probably have torn the fabric with pins.

Shirley

[Corey]

I have to remove my red snappers because it sometimes get into the way of my IQ when I am Longarming.

I enjoyed using it together with my zipper system.

[Busy Quilting]

I have never had my Red Snappers slip.

I make sure that I line up the top edge of the backing fabric an inch past where the snappers will be snapped on, so that all the backing is held securely within the snapper.

I then roll the whole of the backing onto the roller over the table, smoothing and spritzing with water as I roll, before I snap the bottom end of the backing fabric to the front rollers. This way I have made sure all the creases and wrinkles are removed from the backing fabric before snapping it on.

 

I like to load my batting and quilt top then 4" from the back roller Snapper edge so that i can roll that snapper out of the quilting field.

For Customers don't always have enough backing I have some long straight edges of wide back fabric that I safety pin to their backings to give me that extra length of backing fabric so the Snappers do not touch the throat plate etc when I am quilting.