Look, Ma - No Hands!

Well, I do use my hands to guide the fabric ... and with this set-up I get to use both hands for that job.
Since posting the tutorial for how I machine couch yarns to fabric, I've devised a set-up for the yarn to feed "hands-free".
A container for the yarn is placed out of the way to the rear of my machine. I use the contraption made to feed thread wound on a cone for domestic machines to feed the yarn from the container.

This set-up works only for couching yarn to the surface of fabric. The yarn still needs to be held and guided by hand to successfully couch it for an edge finish.

The quilt in the photos is the one featuring the leaves I pounded in the Smoky Mountains last fall. You'll see more of what is being doing on it pretty soon.

This method was used to couch the yarn to the frame bordering the "Our Biosphere Reserve" featuring the Smoky Mountains.