Originally Posted by Purley
Anyway, I got the top finished and then I decided to safety pin the layers together and stitch in the ditch. But things are not going well!! The quilt is just a single bed size but I am getting bogged down with that "sausage" that you have to roll up when you are working on one end of the quilt. Then, if I go horizontally one way (across the short side) - I have this huge sausage and when I get to the end and try to turn - well I just about tear my hair out trying to pull the "sausage" back through the machine to go in the opposite direction.
If you're talking about actually handling the bulk of the quilt while you're trying to quilt it... I feel your pain. This issue is what has stopped me so far, from trying to make anything bigger than a table runner or wall hanging.
I don't know how people manage beautiful quilting on bed sized quilts, made on little bitty sewing machines (non-longarms).
I really don't know how you manage the bulk of a large quilt through that small opening in the sewing machine. Even the small projects I work on can make me wanna pull my hair out.
Maybe that's why a lot of people just make the quilt tops and then send them out for quilting by someone with a longarm machine. But I don't want to and can't afford that. Plus, I want the satisfaction of being able to do it myself.
So, question to you quilting veterans... How do you manage the bulk of a quilt while quilting on a standard sewing machine? I know about rolling up the excess and all that. Even doing that, doesn't seem to help much. :?