My first quilt was a king, because noone told me I should start small (picture attached). :) I did quilt it by hand. I have done several bed sized quilts since then, all machine quilted, and the quilting is basically the same as with small quilts. Most of the time I do some SID to "anchor" it then I proceed to FMQ some kind of design. Almost all my early quilts were strictly SID, have only recently learned to FMQ. I do not pin baste, all are spray basted.

I understand your hesitancy because I still haven't worked up the courage to try feathers on an actual quilt. Still drawing them on white board. We both need to get over our fear of the next step. :roll:

I machine quilt large quilts in sections. No one can tell it's sewn after quilting. There are many books written how to do this. Georgia Bonesteel, Anita Murphy, Marti Michell to name a few.

Raptureready, do u care to tell me how you tie your quilts or show me a picture of how to Thanks In Advance(:)

I think there is a place and use for quilts of all sizes, and I make all sizes. I hand quilt and sometimes do it on the go, so I always have more than one quilt going. I love to make children's quilts and throws so I keep one of these in progress so I'll always have an on the go project. I keep a large quilt in progress at home and have found that even just 30 minutes a day will get it done quicker than you think. As far as "how" to quilt it, I look at it in sections and quilt each section accordingly instead of trying to picture the whole thing quilted. It always manages to come together and look better than I thought it would as it was in progress.

I have done several queen and king size quilts on my domestic machine (a Juki TL98E) and like Delilah I stitch in the ditch to anchor the top and then I use stencils to add depth to the quilt. Don't be afraid of a quilt b/c of it's size. As you work on it, some ideas will come to you on how to stitch it. There are times I don't know what designs I'll use and then i look at http://quiltingstencils.com and http://quiltingcreations.com and I get ideas. Good Luck!

I am currently machine quilting a king size on my machine (Janome 6600). I have free motioned a queen on it already. This one will take a bit longer than planned as I find a couple of hours at a time is enough! I have changed the quilting ideas I had for it to a simpler pattern and infills than I originally planned to do, but it is going okay. I have a left hand corner with tables in front and to the left of me so there is plenty of support for the quilt.
I did get a Sewslip mat recently and that has made a huge difference to doing free motion.

I do that as well. I have a Baby Lock Quilters Pro with a 9" bed but used to machine quilt on my Bernina. Quilting in sections is pretty easy and works really well. Get the books - they are a good investment.

i have a friend who due to health problems can't cope with a single quilt even to quilt. So what she does it split it into half and quilt each half then join as you would with quilt as you go. If you use the same fabric it is very difficult to see the join. I suppose a larger quilt could go into quarters.

I have done it in halves and in quarters, depending on the size, the complexity of the pattern and the complexity of the quilting.

I recently finished a quilt my daughter started in high school '04. They were 12-15" squares and the teacher had her quilt each square separately.(my first intro to quilt as you go)they were joined together with a welt seam. This was much easier then having to quilt the entire queen size. You may want to try that method first. On the Princess quilt I posted, each square is quilted separately.