juneeloonee

So far I have made quilts that are all 90" square or larger (we're tall and mostly wide people). Right now I have some 25 lovely quilt blocks gotten in an exchange with my Wednesday quilt group that I want to incorporate into Friendship Star blocks with some Irish Chain connections. The only trouble is the final quilt size will be approximately 124" - 130" square when all is done. Is there any long arm machine out there that can accommodate a quilt so large? The one I currently use will only quilt up to 108". Before I get everything into motion, I'm wondering if I should reconfigure my design? :-)

MZStitch

The first thing that comes to mind is finding a batting that large. King size I believe is 120x120.

sewcrafty

That's a very good question. As far as batting goes, you can just add a piece big enough and whip stitch it together. Is is possible (I don't have a long arm) to do it say in sections?

annlouise

How about sticking with your standard size and using the leftover blocks to create pillow shams to prop up on the bed. I think it gives it a very pretty finished look to the room and most of us are too tired by that point to add them and you have them already got the squares ready.

dgmoby

Well, you can always piece the battings, or get a custom one cut.

But, the largest table for a LA that I'm aware of is 14' (or 168" ). Allow 6" on each side for machine rest/oiling(168 - 12 = 156" ), so 156" is the largest size backing they could accommodate. Length, as you know, is never a problem. This assumes a straight up load, maximum of 156" wide backing, which needs to be 4" larger on all sides of the top (for machine rest/oiling). That makes it 156" - 8" = 148" total quilt top width possible.

148" is the maximum width of a quilt top that they can quilt

Whew...sometimes I go about things the long way :)

Hope this helps.

ckcowl

about 110" is the widest i like to tackle with my long-arm, and yes, theoretically you can co up to about 120", my table is 14 feet long but not all of that space is available for quilting space, there is space on each end of the bars where the machine rests and you need some 'work-space' in order to do larger than that 110"; prep work has to be done and i would probably have to load, do 1/2 unload, move over and reload to do other half, it would cost alot extra to have it quilted. so i would recommend trying to modify your design to accomadate. if you have a long-arm quilter you usually go to check with that person and see what the limitations and recommendations are for his/her set up.
and although it was stated that lenghth does not matter that is not necessarily true...the longer it is the larger it is going to roll up to be that "roll" will take up throat space on the machine so you may have had 12-18" of quilting space in the beginning of the quilt and find there is only 4" of quilting space nearing the end because the rolled quilt is taking up the space...it is best to check with your quilter.

littlehud

Wow, if you do that it will be a huge quilt. Where are you going to use it.

dunster

My avatar quilt is about 124", pretty close to square, and I did it on my 12' longarm. It was tight, but do-able. I would think it would be easy on a 14' frame. I buy the 90" batting on a roll (when it's on sale at JoAnn's) and almost always have to piece it for a larger quilt. Figure out whether you really want a quilt that large, and whether it's worth paying someone else to quilt it. Also, I used to quilt all my large quilts in sections on my sewing machine before I got my longarm. I don't see why you couldn't do the same thing on your longarm. Good luck with the quilt!

C.Cal Quilt Girl

No, but the bigger they are the heavier/weight.
Don't see why can't make large enough to accomidate laq if thats who is doing the quilting, edge to edge, then add boarders for extra inches. :) Good Luck & Happy Quilting !!

juneeloonee

Thank you everyone for the input. I will be checking with my long arm quilter (she has a gammill) before I continue with my design. Definitely food for thought. Thanks again and have a great day.