Smaller quilts will help. You may want to make donation baby quilts for local hospitals, or toddler quilts for charity. Or alternate those with the big quilts you must make for family members. Also, look for tutorials on:
How to baste a big quilt without a huge table
Basting spray to baste your quilt
Using washable glue to baste your quilt
How to do quilt as you go to keep the size of your quilting area down
How to split your big quilt into manageable size pieces (great tutorial by Ann Peterson on Craftsy).
Quilt with your walking foot, not free motion. Simple straight lines are very modern and easy to do with your walking foot. So are gentler curves. This is also the best foot to use to sew on your binding.
Some people on this board use QAYG (quilt as you go) exclusively. Some use only free motion; some both; some quilt by check. Some quilt by hand with beautiful little stitches. Some quilt by hand with big stitch quilting. Some people tie their wuilts. It is all OK. But machine quilting is a learned skill and takes practice. If you are like me, sewing a straight seam took a while to learn.
It is simply not true that machine quilting is easier than hand quilting. Faster, yes; easier, no. First you need to determine if you like the machine quilting process at all. If you find that you enjoy machine quilting, look at the bigger throat straight stitch machines. Take a class at your local quilt shop. Go to the Minnesota Quilt Show next June in Rochester and try out some of the machines. Try them out at the shop if they have them available. Or a sit down midarm. Or quilt by check. You did complete one guilt beginning to end, so you proved you could do it. Now you need to decide if you want to do it. Life is too short to do things you don’t enjoy because the quilt police told you “It is not a real quilt unless you (fill in the blank)”. Do it your way and enjoy it.
Last edited by Krisb; 06-22-2018 at 07:09 PM.