Carla P

Could you temporarily put the mattress on your bed for a few days? (I've seen people "store" them in this manner before) However you do it, you're on the right track to figuring out a way to get it done. Maybe you could set up in another room for a couple of days? How about the kitchen table? Maybe even a porch or patio outside? A local library or friends house? You keep considering your possibilities. You obviously want to finish this quilt for your friends, so the drive and determination are there; all of the rest are minor inconveniences to overcome.

Did you find those other patches?

vicki reno

There are several ways to baste a quilt--by hand, with safety pins or basting spray. My favorite method is with basting spray which is a temporay adhesive that you spray onto both sides of the batting. I have done the other methods also. If you are using the spray, try to lay out your batting on maybe the dining room table. If it hangs over just spray the middle. Fold your quilt in thirds and lay the middle third of the quilt on the sprayed batting and smooth it out--top of the quilt only. Repeat this step for the other 2 sections of the top and then flip it over and spray the batting on the other side, say 1/3 at a time. Smooth it out too. I should hold everything in palce w/out shifting while you quilt.
A walking foot feeds the quilt under the pressr foot in a more even fashion than a regular presser foot. It keeps the presser foot from pushing the top layer ahead of everything else--it feeds it through like I said more evenly. Is it an option to maybe set up on the dining table to sew? If you think it is heavy now, try wrestling with it once you get your "sandwich" put together of top, batting and backing. Not impossible, I don't want to worry you, but any extra support you can figure out will make it that much easier.
Good LUck :-)

Flying_V_Goddess

Um...I don't have a bed. I sleep on a mattress on the floor. No luck with the dining table either because...well, we don't have a kitchen table (hence the coffee tables and the TV trays). And I really can't set up anywhere else anyways because usually I quilt late at night when everyone else is asleep and no one can bother me (my room's on one end of the trailer so the rest of the house can't hear my sewing machine humming away). I guess dealing with the weight right now is not too bad (have to wrestle with it a little bit). But its going to be a more than just a little hassle once the batting and backing is on.

No luck finding those other patches. I wish they'd show up because most of them are of the same dark blue color (the light colored ones have the variations in tone). I don't have anything that'd be exact to that dark blue color and using anything close will make it painfully obvious (at least to me anyways) that I ran out of the dark squares and had to improvise. Yeah, I know the quilt doesn't have to be perfect, but hey...I'm an artist. I try to go for my idea of perfection when creating works of art.

This spray adhesive stuff sounds pretty sweet. But how much does it cost and can I find it at my local Wal-Mart Super Center?

Is it going to be impossible to sandwich the quilt if I don't have the walking foot? Don't think Wal-Mart has anything like that and I doubt anyone is gonna drive me to La Crosse so I can go to Hancock's because of the recent trend in gas prices (Did someone blow up an oil rig in Iraq? Gas is like $3.14 a gallon. Geez. Well, at least the high gas prices are probably lowering the amount of drive-by shootings in the bigger cities.)

sarah333

flying v g. any ways my situation is kinda like yours. but walmart does sell adhesive spray 5$ or under.i usually need about 2 cans to get a full size quilt down.believe me i sometimes have to put aside to buy my goodies. as long as you have some grass do it out side the spraying of your quilt i mean,if your room is that small you wouldnt want to do it inside any way. fumes would make you to happy if you know what i mean.do you have a clothes line you could all so try that , it must be very tight though ,i tried that once to it wasnt tight enough though.wasnt to neat looking thoughvery beautiful just not neat. f.v.g .dont let theese little things get the best of you. keep on quilting. oh yeah i have to wait right now to finish my crazy quilt so i am cutting out blue jean squares .there all diff. types of b j .and they look great together.i ve done 2 more like that and there beautiful. tia sarah

Flying_V_Goddess

I do have some grass space outside to do it on. Might be able to do it on our small porch. Unfortunatly I don't have five dollars to buy the spray...I used whatever money I had to buy more blue jeans thread (man, that stuff sure goes fast) and as many packages of seeds I could afford (that's what mom said she wanted for M-Day). Might have to baste it the old fashioned way.

Finally found all those fabric squares! God, I thought I was going to go crazy looking for 'em! Only thing is...I found them right after I got done cutting up a pair of jeans. I was looking for my 4.5" square template and I lifted up a couple of things from the mountain of paper...they were hiding underneath a couple of notebooks. Wish I could of found them before I cut up another pair of jeans. But at least I can finish the last four rows of the quilt top now...I should get that done by tomorrow night. :D

Moonpi

I'm extremely space-challenged too - I use reject masonite spread over tv tables, expanding the space as needed with the ironing board covered in dollr reject masonite from Home depot. I'm going to be putting this queen top together and was wondering if there was a way to hang it all on the clothesline to pin together . Has anyone tried that before? In theory, it should work.

Debbie Murry

If space is a problem maybe you can quilt it in parts. This means you will have to rip some seams out. Divide the quilt in 3 by 3 sections, quilt these then put them all together like a "Quilt as you go". Also adding batting is going to make this VERY heavy. You might just want to quilt the top and back together. Have you got the back fab yet, if not a nice flannel would work well. If all else fails you can always just tie them together

vicki reno

Basting it the old fashioned way is not bad either. If you do your work late at nite, you wouldn't want to spray in the house because of the fumes anyway. Quilting it in sections sounds like it'll be the easiest way to go. Especially because of the weight. I have not done it that way ye, but wish I had thought of it before I pieced this top together. I had to resort to handquilting the part of the top, it was too big to manuver around the small pieces on the machine.
Good LUck! CAn't wait to see it completed.

Flying_V_Goddess

I do have fabric for the back (went for dark blue homespun cotton). Hopefully I did my math right and got enough of it. And do you think using low-loft batting won't make it quite as heavy? I want a little weight to it, but I don't want it so heavy that it practically suffocates you.

Oy. I really don't want to take the top apart...not since I've been working my *bleep!* off for 3-5 hours each night for over two weeks to get this thing done in time for Nick's birthday. Ripping out to yards of thread multiple times isn't exactly what I call fun. Besides...I don't have a half decent seam ripper that'll rip out all those stitches.

I'm thinking about doing the "X" thing with sandwiching the quilt together. I'm wondering if I could just do it through the dark squares. The denim thread blends pretty well with the dark denim, but stands out against the lighter colored denim pieces, which in my head looks...unflattering. I'm just wondering if stitching X's through the dark squares will be enough to secure the quilt to the batting and back properly.

Flying_V_Goddess

I got the quilt top done! Yay!

...crap, now I gotta start making it into a quilt. I'm getting a bit scared now (what if I screw up?! Ack!)