LJDay... That was your first quilt! Good job!!! If you are following a book for instructions it may not mention using Elmer's School Glue (a rather new discovery), instead of pins, basting, etc. There are a lot of threads on this board about using the glue. It is totally forgiving (you can dampen a mistake and the glue disolves. Use just thin lines of glue on each of your 4 quarters of the top onto the batting independently, smooth down with your hands and then let the whole thing dry, and the next day do the back. Smooth it out with your hand as you finish each quarter section, and iron it dry to set it. Hope you haven't bought any of the toxic spray cans they sell; they are not only expensive, but they can be dangerous if you have any breathing/asthma problems at all (and if you don't now, just read the can instructions and you can be sure you have a good chance of having breathing problems after you use it enough!
I have quilted my own king size on my home machine (I aways do my own, whatever the size). On large quilts I find it easier (necessary) to plan a design that I can finish down the length of the quilt and when that's done, turn it and do (often the same design) across the width of the quilt. My quilts are gifts of love and my personal feeling is that I want them to be done by me, not by someone else. Anything is fair; it's just personal preferences, or money restraints.
Years ago I made a template of curved lines using salad plates (going 2 or 3 inches above and then below the "equator" line). I find myself going back to that curved design time and time again (probably at least a third of my quilts are done with it. It isn't fancy, but my personal preference is to let my pieced fabric design shine, and my quilting just needs to "fit". It's very hard to show case BOTH the pattern and the design, but of course anything can be done by super experts with one of those Long Arm machines.
You may come up with a design that does each quarter of the quilt seperately. Experiment. It isn't rocket science. If the quilt is really heavy perhaps a DH or BF can help you move the quilt from the other side of the table, perhaps using cardboard rolls to wrap it around (my DH did this for me when I quilted the "Desert Quilt", which you can find on line here by putting those two words into the "find" box on the top right of this page) which has a huge, independently batted cactus on it... he followed my head nods.. but this was an extremely heavy, bulky quilt.
A lot of people really like the very busy quilting, and often it is very striking. But a lot of people like the the pattern their piecing has produced and are happier using a simple, more relaxed design. I'm trying to give you options :>). You've made a wonderful start!!! Enjoy!
Last edited by Sierra; 06-01-2013 at 07:02 AM.