I have been cruising along, piecing my first quilt, but I am having a heck of a time with the actual quilting on my sewing machine. It's so big, it is just impossible. I don't know how I will ever finish it without it puckering or having crooked lines. Does anyone have any tips on the actual quilting process on a regular machine? I guess that is why some of you have long arm quilting machines, they look nice but expensive. If I don't find a way to do this, I'm afraid I will never try this again. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I have a walking foot and I'm just doing the ditch stitching right now...I am starting in the middle and trying to work my way out, but I can't really switch direction of course. I have the quilt kind of rolled up but I have to move it all the time so everything bunches and shifts. I have about 100 safety pins holding the sandwich in place though so it is probably ok. This just doesn't seem fun =/

One thing I do is roll the quilt so it fits well under the arm and put another table or your ironing board in front of your sewing machine table to help hold the weight so it won't drag on your needle. Maybe this would help a little. Don't give up!! It is such a great feeling to see a finished quilt !

search for some tutorials of machine quilting a large quilt. there are sure to be several out there. I tried rolling, didn't like it. i usually just bunch it up and quilt where i can and move from there. depends on the design you are quilting too, it is more difficult and slow if you must turn your quilt all the time.
good luck.

Sorry I'm of no help.....what you are describing is why I got my longarm in the first place!!! Welcome from Illinois.

As big as your quilt looks, I use closer to 300 pins. Dunno! I've never quilted one on a sewing machine. I hand quilted 2 0r 3 and used that many pins.

Are there any inexpensive long arms? I keep hearing they are in the 8 to 10 thousand dollar range (eek!). I have a cheap machine that cost about $200 but it is trucking along.

I agree...don't give up. The first one might be a struggle but you eventually find your way. It takes time and lots of practice. The long arm machines just present new challenges...I have one and it's not as easy either. That too takes lots of practice. This is definitely a hobby that requires patience which I do not always have. So, learn when to walk away and take a break. Deep breathes...you can do it!

Before I got a machine quilting frame (and after pinning the layers together) I would use bicycle clips (something like this http://store.quilting-warehouse.com/notions-clips.html ) and roll each side towards the middle, but leaving enough space to quilt down the middle. When I finished one row, I would unroll one side a little bit and take up the difference on the other side so that I could quilt on the next row. I hope this helps.

It depends on what you consider inexpensive. My HQ Sweet Sixteen sit down was around $5000, which compared to most long arms is relatively inexpensive. And I love it.
:D

Better to start with smaller quilts and build up to this size. Use tables/ironing board to help with the weight. Once you get enough of it done, lay it down, take a couple steps away and look. Minor mistakes fade away from the overall quilt. I puddle the quilt instead of rolling it. Leah Day has hundreds of awesome free tutorials on using a sewing machine to quilt. Keep at it. you won't be disappointed once you get the hang of it.