Thread: Pros & Cons of floating a top!

I too am a floater. It is much quicker and like PaperPrincess, I like access to the back of the quilt. For minor adjustments I will pin the sides to the backing and baste the sides before attaching the side clamps.

That being said if the quilt is not square or is some how wonky I will use the traditional pinning method which allows a bit of finesse!!

Cindy - I am intrigued with what magnets you use from Harbor Freight - my DH often goes there when we are down near the store - it is amazing what can be repurposed fro sewing from there.

I technically float my tops, but square up, baste the sides and across the belly bar of the whole quilt. That way I can find any problem areas and ease them in. It takes more time "up front" , but advancing and quilting is a breeze!

I don't float my backing but I do float the batting and top. I find it easier to keep square this way.

I pinned down my first couple of quilts that I did and then tried floating the top & batting. I have a lot better success keeping everything straight and not getting tucks anywhere in a quilt when I float the top. I have a very good eye for knowing if the quilt is still square or not and they all seem to try to move a little bit, or maybe it's because I start from the right side as I am standing at the back and move towards the left with the sewing. I don't do a lot of free motion quilting yet. I'm still doing Panto's.

I will say that as I move down the quilt, every time I roll to the next area, I do pin the sides of the area that I am working on to keep it as still as possible. I, also, have clamps that I use to keep the sewing area taut. I remove those pins when I am through quilting in the area, roll the quilt, and then re-pin. It works well for me and I am a very new long arm quilter.

Edited to add: I quilt on a very seasoned 1998 Nolting long arm with a 24" throat. If I had one of the longarms that had the locks so you could sew a straight line down the sides, I would not pin the sides, I would baste them. But my Nolting is dependent on me to go straight and, good luck with that. lol

Another thing. I use those big corsage pins that you can get in almost any silk flower area in stores to pin my quilts. I did have to smooth them down because they had a lot of "grabbies" on them. I used a combination of steel wool and sandpaper. These pins are study enough to hold anything I want to quilt. They do not roll well if I leave them in the sides so I cannot roll the quilt unless I remove them. No problem, I only put 3 or 4 on each side for each sewing area. It takes about 10 seconds to remove both sides.

Merry Christmas to all. Foods in the oven and I am catching up on my favorite website.

Originally Posted by sherryl1

I don't understand floating a top when using a domestic machine..How is all of this done off the frame?

It's not. Floating can only be done if you're quilting on a frame. Some people have midarms (DSMs with 9" or larger throat) on a frame, and in that setup you can float a top. But it's the frame that enables the floating.