When I quilted a queen size quilt on my home machine (long time ago)...I pushed my dinner table into a corner of the room, so the left corner and oposite side of the table from where I put my machine would be pushed against a wall...you want there to be no way for the quilt to hang over the back or side edges of the table.
Put your sewing machine on the right front of the table. Then you put the bulk of the quilt on the dinner table..scrunch the quilt until you are in the middle of the quilt...pushing the excess on the right against the machine on the right (throat space). This way you are only worried about 1/4 of the quilt at a time..for a king size quilt..that's baby/lap quilt size. You want to start in the center...SID to the first set of blocks...don't try to outline a block...go down to the bottom of the quilt...repeat for each vertical seam in that section.
Repeat, rotating the quilt for each section (try to leave basting pins where you can as you go). Rotate to the left..this puts that section at the top right..leave it for now..and start with the bottom quarter section.
SID, starting at the center of the quilt...repeat the above.
Rotate the quilt one turn to the left (same as above)...this will put the two sections with SID at the top...you are always working in the bottom right corner when stitching...Stitching from center down.
Repeat this one more time.
Now You will pick up the unstitched rows...working from the upper right of the quilt...stitch in the ditch from the top edge (nearest the top center edge) down to the center where you already stitched. Rotate to the left and repeat to SID all the bloc lines.
It takes longer, but this keeps you from stitching long lines (which can pull the quilt out of shape). When you are done, you will be less frazzled and the quilt will look more uniform. Once this is done ...and you want to add quilting inside the blocks ...your quilt is well stabilized and any freehand you do in them will be easier to do.
I tore my hair out on the first log cabin quilt I tried to do...went to a little quilt shop and the owner showed me this method..She said the supporting table makes for less fatigue, and rotating keeps the quiting uniform.
Hope this helps you.
Originally Posted by
quiltingbee59
I do have a walking foot! I am guessing my quilt is too heavy and is dragging the quilt and I am not sure how to fix that. I do quilt VERY slow so I can watch where I'm sewing. I've tried starting in the middle and at the top and still no luck