Adding Borders After Quilting
 

My long arm isn't wide enough to do a large queen.

I'm thinking that I could quilt the top, then add borders as a quilt as you go sort of thing, to increase the size. (I would quilt the borders on my domestic.)

I've never done quilt as you go, so will of course do some research, but does anyone see any major holes in my thinking that this will work?

Watson

Great thinking. I think this would work good!!! However, I haven't tried it. Anxious to hear from others and how they went about doing it.

I have done a quilt somewhat as you are talking. I had made a throw size that then the recipient requested it wider for a bed. I removed the binding and then added the width needed to both the top and the back. The only "hard part" was to get the batting in but that can be done by hand by butting the needed batting to what is in the finished quilt. Those can be pretty loose stitches just to hold it together until the quilting is done.
In fact, I recently did a quilt like that in that I needed to piece the batting. I decided it was a lot less to mess with by doing quilting up to the place of needing the batting. Then I hand basted the needed batting in place and went ahead with the quilting.

When I had access to a long arm, it was big enough. But I have (rarely) added on borders to a too-small completed/quilted top. You use quilt as you go techniques, and it wasn't a horrible process. In my domestic machine quilting I was mostly using my vintage machine and felt I couldn't be too fancy in the "bed" (center) of the quilt, but I could do relatively fancy work on the borders. I've also brought the backing around to the top for an extra wide "binding" finish. There are some complexities to that, especially at the corners.

I have also combined both long arm and domestic machine quilting on projects for various reasons.

You do such outstanding work! My quilts are bed/use quilts and I'm not so fussy about some things, but getting the stitching to match on different machines is more than using the same thread. Do some test quilting on both machines first. Or recognize that it is going to happen and either decide not to care or make it obvious like a change in thread color or design style.

If there was a quilt shop in your area that rents out their machines that would be an option, I had a 10-foot table and there were times it was a real squeeze to get a big quilt on it. So, when I got my Lucey, I had them put on a 12-foot table figuring if I ever needed a bigger one, I would rent out time at the quilt shop on their biggest table one. I think you can add on the borders on, there will probably be a bit of handwork, find the technique first to see how much fabric you need to leave on when you do your trimming.

Sharon Pederson - Lesson 12 - Adding Borders to an Already Quilted Quilt (thequiltshow.com) I found this video. she makes it look simple.

Before I had a longarm I quilted on my DSM using the methods in Marti Michell's book, Machine Quilting in Sections. I highly recommend the book. It explains various options for doing exactly what you want to do.

I did the same, Dunster. That book is great. It really helps you think about your options and how to accomplish them.

Hello Watson ... Take a look through posts from MaryKatherine (from Guelph). She did one a few years back and then later added to it to get to the new size she wanted.

A thought ... Maybe quilt the add-on fabrics first. That way you know for sure how much shrinkage you will have from the quilting. A clean cut down the sides of the main quilt and the add-on, will let you lay them flush, side by side and then machine stitch on with a matching or even a contrasting fabric front and back, as wide or as narrow as you want. For each add-on you could do three rows by machine and no stitching showing. The 4th would either be stop stitched, or you could hand stitch, as you would for a binding edge. Then repeat for the other side, and then the top and bottom.

I have done that. Not with the long arm, but a finished quilt I wanted to enlarge. I found a video and it was easy, but, it was a long time ago. This video is similar I think. No sashing, just borders
https://www.chrisquilts.net/10262/