PVC Quilt Rack

Last week my husband built a PVC quilt rack for me to display some of my quilts.  It is pretty simple and more importantly modular so a single section can be setup or if the need arises more sections added to it with the purchase of a few more PVC pipes and fittings.

My rack has three sections.  Music Lessons (left) which was 82″ x 96″ before washing fit nicely across the width of a section and hung 6 or 7 inches onto the floor.

Parts

• 10 – 10 foot lengths of 1 1/4 inch PVC pipe
• 4 – elbows
• 16 – T-fittings
• 8 – caps
• 2 – couplers optional
• PVC pipe cutter, or other means of cutting the pipe

Cut

• 4 pipes to measure 66″ for uprights
• 6 pipes to measure 78″ for cross pieces
• 10 – 12″ long (2 are optional) sections
• 12 – 4″ long sections

Assembly

For each upright you’ll need an elbow, 3 – 4″ sections, 2 – 12″ sections, 4 T-fittings, two caps and an 66″ section.

The foot of the upright consists of two  12″ sections with caps joined to a T-fitting.  The caps are necessary to keep the foot from rocking on the T-fitting.

To the center of the T-fitting insert a 4″ section and another T-fitting. The top of the upright is an elbow, 4″ section and T-fitting.  The 66″ piece goes in the middle.

Assemble all four of the uprights. Cat supervision is optional.

The next step is to put in the horizontal supports.  Start with the lower supports.  Since none of the fittings are glued, they can be turned as needed.  We used an extra length of leftover pipe as a “wrench” to turn fittings.

Finally slide the last of the long pipes into the sleeve of your quilt and insert into the elbows or upper T-fittings.

Here’s a picture of my rack with no quilts on it.

The legs can be turned to get them out-of-the-way (to a certain extent).

Now for some miscellaneous information and pictures.

Originally we thought Music Lessons was going to need a wider cross-piece.  That’s why we had two extra 12″ sections with the couplers to use as extenders.  However, we neglected to take into consideration the length of the fittings.  This is also why the uprights are shorter than the cross pieces.  We had to cut a foot off the uprights to clear the ceiling fans. The uprights are 7 foot 3 1/2 inches fully assembled.

The feet and the smaller parts fit into a softball/baseball bat bag we bought at Target.

Here’s a picture of the end of the rack.

Here’s a “middle” upright.

The middle quilt hangs lower than the quilts on the end.

The backside with quilts hanging.

We opted to make all the uprights the same, so it would be easy to assemble and additional sections could be added if required.

I hope between the pictures and my narrative this makes sense.  If not feel free to ask questions.  If I can’t answer them, I’ll get my husband to answer them.