karenm36

Well, thanks to everyone that encouraged me...my quilt top is done! :-) I took it to the LQS with a sheet that I was going to use as a backing and the 2 women there discouraged me from doing so for numerous reasons. This particular sheet may not have been in the best condition (though I thought it was fine) so I agreed with their assessment...BUT still do not want to have to purchase more material for the back as I'm on a very tight budget. They suggested I see if I could piece the back with all the scraps that I had left over from the top.

The scraps are from some yardage...but most are from shirts so I'm limited with the size that I can use. I opted on 10 inch finished squares as I could maximize the use of my material with that size. Well...suddenly I realized that this is becoming a reversible quilt! Unintentionally...but I think it's going to be okay. But now here's my dilemma...

1)How does one quilt the top (that's on point) when the back is going to be so different?

2) I have only quilted one other quilt before this and it was smaller and it was SID. I did fine with it but originally thought with this one I would stitch an "X" through each square (doing a kind of grid pattern) since I have only a regular sewing machine.
But now since there's a whole other thing going on the back...would it be better if I did something else? And if so, what would look good?

3) I do have my mother's sewing machine and I recently purchased a free motion/darning foot to use on it...but I haven't used it yet. Is this something I should consider? Not sure I'm ready for it...or even if I can handle so much quilt through my machine.

Would really love to hear from those of you who have just a basic sewing machine...how do you quilt your large quilts and what would you do in this case?

Thanks so much! Karen