Can I FMQ this way?
 

I have fmq on smaller quilts, but considering making full size quilts. I quilt with a small bernina machine and it doesn't have a large throat space. I have struggled with twin size quilts and been successful, but now want to do a full size quilt. I'm thinking sandwich it together using the full top and backing but only put the batting in the center third of the quilt and quilt that area first. After completing that area sew in some batting on the left side and quilt that area. Then sew some batting on the right side and quilt that area. It seems that less batting would make it take up so much less space in the throat area of the machine.

My question is will I be able to sandwich the 2 remaining thirds nice and flat after having done some quilting? I do like to fmq and sending quilts out to a long arm is not an option. Thank you

Yes you can! And a little tip I saw from a national guilt winner, cut the batting in a serpentine or zig- zag pattern. That way you will have the exact placement for the next row of batting. I've personally never done this, but it's on my list of things to try on my next quilt.

This sounds like the quilting method Marti Michelle teaches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeelhIA3qAY

I have wondered this myself. I too like to FMQ and am on limited income so sending to a LA quilter would only be non-custom quilting. If it's just FMQ that I can afford I need to keep doing it myself. Either quilt by hand or like you are trying to do. Let me know how you eventually do it.

yes, quilting in sections is great. I tend to go crazy piecing and put the whole top together and then remember it's harder to quilt that way!!

I have done that and it was much easier and quite successful. I sewed the batting together by hand using a herringbone stitch. It went very quickl. Just remember to leave enough "margin" with no quilting to make it easier to join two pieces of batting.

That is one of the ways Marti Michell teaches in her book Machine Quilting in Sections. I highly recommend it. I used several of her methods to quilt very large quilts on my DSM.

I’ve done it. Don’t get the quilting too close to the joining-up area - I did that, but it still worked out ok. I don’t sew the binding pieces together. I just overlap them a little and quilt over them so they’re stablized. I quilt more densely though so that works for me.

Yes, overlap one piece over the next and serpentine cut both. Then you can place them together without having straight lines that move. Look for tutorials on google.

I have a 9" throat machine, well actually two. I quilt a double size quilt, 85" x 95" quilt in sections. I do use large safety pins and sandwich it. Don't know if I would attempt it on a smaller throat machine.