deedum

Yea I think around here a king size quilt would be a min of $200. I prefer to quilt my own as I want it done by me, all me. It certainly takes more time but it is such a great feeling when it is done. I have yet to do a King, but biggest is full size, but my dh said I should make a couple of King sizes for our bed. On the list!
Can't wait to see a pic of your quilt.

WilliP

Oh goodie! Does this mean he is financing a long arm and frame for you anytime soon? LOL
Our LQS rents the midarm Bailey on a Gracie frame for $15 an hour. I take a class every once in a while when my schedule allows to get pointers and techniques. I have managed to trim time down from 4 hours to 2 hours for a twin/full size and have loads of fun doing it. The things I learn and experiment with there I then translate to use with my home machines. One day I hope to be able to afford a long arm and frame, just not ready to pay for a new car as it is yet! LOL What takes the most time for me is stopping and answering other peoples questions while I am working -- on those days I have the more creative designs going. I love moving that machine around to paint my own thread story --- for Christmas I completed quilting Morning Run quilt (pattern from Wilmington prints I believe) for my great niece. I did lassos, and clouds and wind blowing tumble weeds and to make certain she knows it is hers I quilted a rose motif in the main panel and somewhere on the quilt wrote her name. She is 5 1/2 and ecstatic with HER quilt. I will do a regular label and add it soon, but this way she already has proof it is hers! ;o)

korners

I've been wanting to do my own quilting. Any chance you could give us some tips and advice. I know about needing a large area for the weight issues, not letting drag etc., for me it's being able to move it around when finished with sections, getting it in and out from machine, proper use of clamps, mine have never stayed in place. Then there's the safety pins. Do you pin into a long roll only side that goes inside or do you also pin other side to keep from dragging. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

sewmom

I quilted my biggest one this Christmas-it was 90x90. I was unsure of what motif to use and Leah Day's last few designs for the FMQP came out and there was the perfect design! Spiral knots. I ended up doing smaller ones than planned, but it turned out great. BTW, Leah's FMQP for this year is doing larger FMQ - it is a quilt along and has great tips and exercises. Check them out. Can't wait to see the pictures of your quilt.

shnnn

I've quilting a couple big quilts on my home machines. The first big quilt I did was a queen size on my itty bitty Brother. The center was a little challenging, but a few minutes and it was done and I was moving on. I don't dislike the look of SiTD, but I can't make a straight line. I find FMQ simple in comparison. Last year I bought an old singer with more room for FMQ and quilted a king size on it. My mom couldn't believe I did it myself, she though I had had a friend do it on her mid arm. It is far from perfect, but if you don't get right up and inspect each stitch the over-all look is pretty good. For me the key is to just not freak myself out. I layer, baste, and start stitching before I have a chance to get too nervous, and usually don't have more than just I rough impression of what I want to do. I just jump in and let my hands do what they would like. The last quilt I did I was going to just do a normal meander, and wound up with little swirls. I know that wouldn't work for some, but works for me I also spray baste and not pin. I don't want to have to stop mid-stream to move pins and rearrange. I dont use clamps for the same reason. I roll and situate for where I want to start and when I have a big mess of a pile of quilt and it starts getting tough to work with I'll stop and re-roll and straighten for where I am now working. And I love Leah Days site too!

DawnFurlong

While I love the work that long-armers do, I can't afford to send all my quilts out. I am with you, shnnn, mine is not perfect, especially if you get up close, but the overall effect is pretty and I am happy with it. I think I have gotten pretty decent at meandering though. Plus it is all mine. I will keep getting better and look forward to broadening my skills.

The Janome 7700 - that has an 11 inch harp, right? I wish I could get a machine with that big of a harp. My dh thinks that the $600 I want to spend on the Brother PQ1500 is expensive. I told him it really isn't. I settled on the Brother as most people that have it love it, it is fast, and what it does it does well. Plus has a bigger harp space than what I have now. I have all of the fancy stitches, etc on my Janome 4800 - so if I need any of that - I can use that machine. That is wonderful that your husband saw it as the investment that it was. I am hopeful that with a 9 inch harp space, while I am sure it will feel tight in the middle - hopefully doing my bigger top on it will feel like doing a twin/full on my smaller machine.

shnnn - you mentioned doing a king on a Singer. I am imagining the harp space wouldn't be more than about 6"? One of the tradeoffs for getting another sewing machine is that I am not sending out my almost king top to be quilted by someone else. I am very nervous about starting it though, for fear that I will be overwhelmed by the size of it. I am encouraged when someone says they have successfully done this on a machine with a less than generous harp space - because the best it is going to get for me is 9" for awhile.

Korners - I spray baste my quilts. I have never tried pinning, not sure how that would work. I have found that I like a spray called 505 spray. It is odorless, and lightly spraying works fine. On my last quilt and my current one (approx 60 x 72) I have not even bothered to thread baste around the perimeter. I have not had any issues with puckering, needle does not get gummed up, etc. Other sprays have a very heavy fume, and I have had some issues with the needle gumming up, thread breaking with those sprays (think it was June Tailor. Many love that spray, others don't. I have had better luck with the 505). Also, I do not use clamps, and I don't necessarily roll either. I kind of loosely roll, but as I move around on my quilt, I am kind of pushing and shoving it where I need it to be. I find that I have more trouble with the drag on the quilt than the actual FMQ. That seems the hardest thing to me - figuring out how to manage the bulk of the quilt while FMQing. Different techniques seem to work better for different people - so it is a matter of experimentation. I say - put together a bunch of smaller quilt sandwiches to practice on, and just jump in! It really does get easier quickly with practice.

It would be best if you had your sewing machine in a set up where the bed of it is level with your table (such as a sewing table). I don't have that right now. I do have an acrylic extension table for my machine - but it is raised up several inches above the table my sewing machine is on - and there is too much drag with my quilt getting hung up on corners. So I am stuck with the space on the bed of my machine. It would be easier with another set-up, but I figure if I can work with this - I will be in heaven when I am able to upgrade to a better set up.

Also, I found it helpful to watch FMQing clips on YouTube. Really helpful.

Stitchnripper

Congrats on your achievement. My second quilt was a king size I SITD on a dinky Mechanical Walmart variety Brother. I am so proud of that little machine. It was a job to drag it through the smallish space but I did it and the results were quite satisfactory.

shnnn

Dawn the thing with the old singer is that the top piece of the machine is very slender - it doesn't have the big plastic casing. It's not much wider, but has a lot more room. But, if I can stuff a queen size through my itty bitty Brother - you should be just fine

DawnFurlong

The more I read, the more encouraged I am feeling! Not sure if I will wait until I get the Brother - or jump in with my Janome 4800 - but it sounds like I should be okay either way as long as I am patient through the center section. Am planning on simple meandering on this my first big top to quilt, since I am comfortable with that. :-)

sylvia77

My hats off to you! It seems all I do is king and I love the piecing but not the quilting so much. If I could afford it I would use one of these wonderful long armers here on the board.