Some of the quilts I make for homeless families are used in shelters with no heat at night, and the quilt might serve the whole family, in one bed, as their only quilt or blanket, so it needs to be very warm and very big. They are often thick and heavy. I sometimes use upholstery fabrics, fleece, wool, and other heavy fabrics. I sometimes also make sleeping bags for those outside. I've been doing this for some time, and from my experience, here are my recommendations:
A Sailrite machine would do the job just fine. If they are going to be doing a lot of this type of work, the Sailrite is a good bet. Otherwise, an industrial machine would be good.
My Pfaff 130 can do it. It is the only Pfaff I would try it on. But the Pfaff 130 is a precision machine, also, and I would spare it from a lot of this heavy work; once in a while might be okay.
My Singer 401 can handle thick quilts and does not even need a walking foot.
I recently got a Singer 500 and have not tried it for this but think it could handle it.
My gear-driven Singer 201 is good for some of them, but the others (above) handle thicker quilts. I wouldn't pick a belt-driven Singer 201 for it, though. There is such a thing as a Singer 1200, which is the industrial version of the Singer 201 and might be a good bet. It won't cost that much.
My Viking 6000 series (6040, maybe? I forgot) and my Elna Grasshopper have true low gears and either of them can power through these, and the Viking has a choice of decorative stitches.
My Singer 301 might be able to do this since it is gear driven, but I usually do not ask it to. It's my favorite, and I baby it.
I don't know if my Kenmore 158.xx could do it or not; I haven't tried it. My guess would be that the Kenny could not handle this day in and day out.
There are industrial binding attachments and I've used one but was not impressed enough to keep using it. It basically sews one seam, two threads, top and bottom threads, on a binding and I don't think that is enough to stand up to the abuse bindings can take.
Hope that helps!
Cricket
Last edited by cricket_iscute; 01-13-2014 at 10:22 PM.