I am in the middle of making 2 king sized quilts for our bedroom. I do the tops and take them to a quilter who has done my previous king sized quilt. I wish I had the space and ability to do the project from start to finish hopefully some day.

I made three bed quilts, only quilted one, sent the others out to be quilted.
I dont have the storage for a lot of big quilts. Three is plenty for me, besides it is very expensive to make large quilts.
I learn so much more with doing a variety of lap size quilts. Which make great gifts and get used more.
My friend makes king size only and has an extra bedroom where she stacks them all on the bed. It works for her but not for me. She also sends them out for quilting.

Since handquilting is the thing I like the most I was a handquilter for hire for years. I have a round floor hoop set up in my ground floor sitting room and one in my clubbed basement. I could usually finish a queen size quilt in about six weeks just by working on it for two or three hours in the evening watching TV with my spouse. I also always have a smaller portable project ready to take with me to Bees, on vacation etc. The main machine quilting I do is on Linus projects. They are usually whole cloth backed with flannel and simply quilted with a decorative stich and colorful thread. I can make two or three of them in an afternoon while also sewing out embroidery designs on my stand alone embroidery machine. I am working toward making 14 wallhangins with historical information for my family. Each will have our last name and various symbols of our Cornish Heritage incorporated into the designs. After the passing of both of my parents I made each of my siblings a wallhanging that incorporterated the wedding photos of each of us, our parents and grandparents.

I just took a machine quilting class where they showed us how to quilt in thirds. The trick is to cut your batting with a wavy cut removing the top and bottom third - quilt the center - reattach the top or bottom batting with its companion piece using small pieces of steam a seam and then repeat for the other end. This way you are handling only the section you are working on - actually, they did spray baste - either Sullivans or June Taylor. Good Luck

I make only bed sized quilts as I have no space for wall hangings.

You know, the actual quilting on a quilt by a long arm, should not cost as much as the materials for making a quilt. That is of course, if you don't go for all the fancy stuff and just want your quilt quilted together. I am talking about free hand quilting which cost about one penny a square inch. So if your quilt is 80x80, that would be 64.00, which is not bad at all.

Me too. I live in a small apartment and just don't have the room, or desire to take on that challenge. I do machine smaller quilts, but not the double bed size and larger.
I love my LA quilting lady!

There was a topic recently about QAYG and I was all geared up about trying this but then a thought occurred to me. I get how to QAYG per block or a section of blocks but then I was wondering.... What about if we want a border or two around the quilt blocks. How would we use the QAYG method with the borders? I guess this could be worked out as long as there were no mitered corners......

yep, every large quilt that I make now, I send to have long armed quilted. So I have only made a few. I like to do the entire quilt from start to finish. So I just make wall hanging, and some lap quilts. Years ago I hand quilted everything, but that's to hard on the hands any more. So the smaller the quilt the more creativity I try to put in it. Good luck and don't be discouraged.

So far I have done two queen size and 6 large lap/couch quilts. I have only been quilting a little less than a year. The smaller ones have all been gifts.

Hello Kelly, I've only just joined this group but in answer to your question have you thought about a quilt as you go? I started one about 2 weeks ago and it's coming along very well.

You can look around - there are some quilt shops that have long arms and have you take a class and then you can go to the shop and pay per hour to use the long arm yourself.

there is always the quilt as you go method, also.

Ohhh, I so agree. Have one more king size promised to our GD and then I'm done with these! The amount of fabric (we so love) is overwhelming!

I've done several queen-size quilts on my domestic machine. I just put my pride in my pocket and stich in the ditch. On the attic windows I had to give up and hand quilt it. It took "forever" to finish.

I would save my money 'til I had enough to have it quilted. I quilt all sizes on my machine but it's definitely harder to do on the queen/king sizes.

Kelly, have you looked into going to a nearby quilt shop and renting their long arm machine by the hour? That is what I do and it is $15 per hour. It usually takes about 2 hours for a large one and trust me, I am NOT an expert at it by any means. It is a lot less expensive than paying $125 to a long arm quilter in my area (although I would love to be able to do that on a regular basis).

The only way that I will tackle a big quilt is to use the Cotton Theory or quilt as you go methods. My arthritis makes handling the weight and bulk of a large quilt, nearly impossible.:)

I am a fairly new long arm owner and have been toying with the idea of trading my long arm services with someone who is a talented and precise quilter. I have several tops that I need pieced. Some are already cut and ready to go and some need to be done from the beginning. Maybe we can work something out with a couple of quilters.
Debi
Polo, IL
fire-raven @ comcast .net (without the spaces)

I genrally make Art Quilts and the largest of those is 63" X 75". That one I made in 4 sections, thinking it would be too large to fmq in one piece. I ended up sewing the sections together and fmq the whole thing anyway. I am part way thru making a 2 sided (different patterns on each side),king size duvet cover with separate pillow cover, for our comforter. I've thought all along that I will fmq each side to a piece of muslin, to protect the seams from rubbing on the comforter and help prevent fraying in the future. That will probably be stitch -in -the -ditch or a large meander. After the machine quilting is finished, then I'll sew it together to make the duvet. I think the key to fmq w/ a reg. sewing machine, is lots and lots of practice first, before attempting your quilt top. I also found that scrunching the quilt is easier than rolling it into a roll. You aren't fighting that unmanagable roll. A lot might depend on the design you are doing though.

I love the idea of doing duvet covers and skipping the quilting.Thanks.:)

I don't do large quilts because I find them too hard to handle on my home machine even tho it has a larger throat/bed than most machines. It is hot to have on my lap / draped over my arms or shoulders, it aggravates my neck where I have degenerative disc disease/osteoarthritis and cervical herniated disc.

When I win that ever-illusive lottery, I will get a long arm machine!

warm quilt hugs, sue in CA

Oh, I do want to try a QAYG and then if I find that I enjoy that process I might give it a go on a large quilt.

Regarding renting a long arm, check with the local quilters and compare prices etc. Most likely they will be pretty close cuz they want to be competitive with each other.

My local long arm quilters and LQS that will rent their setup all charge for an hour of instruction on how to use their long arm AND all charge a minimum of 5 hrs even if it only takes 2 or 3 hours. But the local gal that has 2 setup in her house charges less than the LQS. And she will let you use it for an additional 3 hrs beyond the 5 hr minimum charge for free. So 8 hours of quilting on a 5 hr charge...and you can do more than one quilt.

warm quilt hugs, sue in CA

I have a king size bed and I do machine quilts for it. I make them in sections, quilt and then put together.

Have you looked at patterns for quilted bed scarfs? They seem to be the new thing to do and look great

I know having a huge mountain of fabric there to be quilted, can seem to be insurmountable non-the-less once it is done the reward is nothing like I have ever experienced in my life! Now I am not saying that I wouldn't love a long arm, however the $$'s just don't seem to grow on trees!

I guess that what I am trying to say is make what makes you truly happy!

I'm with you. I started hand quilting a full size vintage quilt top about 5 yrs ago, it's still not done. I make full and king size quilts and tie them in each and every little corner. They look nice and I'm able to then get them done in a reasonable amount of time.

This is a beautiful quilt. I love stars and can't pass up anyone I see. Love the colors too.

My first quilt was a queen size! I could NOT quilt that on my machine so I learned how to hand quilt in a hurry. I have made several others since then, and anything over a twin I use a QYAG method. I have done some machine quilting as well, and find I REALLY miss doing the hand quilting, and most of my designs on the machine are straight-line designs, whereas I am making beautiful roses with my hand quilting. I have not attempted the FMQ as of yet. I am making a queen size quilt right now that will have a combination of both machine and hand quilting.

I am looking forward to the day when I can send at least one quilt "out" to be quilted as the work is SOOOOO beautiful. :D

I have too many small items. I make mostly large things now. I am sooooooooo blessed. My daughter gave me her quilting machine when she bought her new Gammel. I sew tops and my DH is the quilter!

I have done machine quilting with my regular sewing machine. I am not really good at it but I do it sometimes. I will do hand quilting and that can be done when watching a movie. But I do like making larger quilts than small ones. I haven't made lap-robes and I don't care for wall hangings and I love making quilts. I have one in progress right now: Basket of Flowers by Marian Shenks. While I am working on my blocks I am thinking how I want to quilt it. I will probably know when I get to that point. It is turning out pretty so far. I have others in mind I want to do. I can't wait!!

I was just thinking, sometimes you can find someone with a quilting machine that will quilt a large quilt for you at an inexpensive price. I know most are expensive but once in a while there is someone that does it just for the joy of it and little money.

WOW!! That is a blessing! Good for you!

It is really worth it to me to pay someone else to quilt the large quilts on a long arm.

It's not the quilting I mindas much as cutting the batting. I did one today, my cutting table is only about 4' X 8' and I promised myself, no more biggies. Of course I'm old and tend to forget.

I have made a few large bed quilts and just SITD because I don't really enjoy that portion of the process. I did just purchase a Brother SE-400 from WalMart (less than $400.). I downloaded some outline quilting designs that I can use as quilting on the blocks now. I am currently making a queen size quilt that I will use these designs on. I also just downloaded a program that allows me to make quilt labels on this Brother machine using the 4 x 4 hoop. THAT really excited me! I tried it out tonite and very happy with how the label turned out... now I am motivated to get the quilt done!

My sister-in-law in OK sent me a lap quilting book written by Georgia Bonesteel which shows you how to make and quilt (hand or machine) one block at a time and how to then sew them together to make any size you desire. She had a stroke and her eyesight was affected in such a way that she is unable to work on a large quilt, but can do the individual blocks and then sew together. I learned this way and that's how I do it.

I am with Raptureready on this one...I too admire all the other forms of quilting, but for me I like my quilts to be on beds, chairs or couches. I make them to keep people warm and give comfort.

I do bedsize quilts and hand quilt them, trying to quilt a little each day, and that gets the job done. I have also machined some with very simple quilting. I also like to do wall quilts, throws, table runners, etc., because it is fun to use a new technique to make them. I must admit that I have run out of wall space to hang them, but I swap them out periodically for a change.

I have read several articles lately about big stitch quilting. The stitches are larger and therefore the quilting goes much faster. Might be worth a try.

Nope..I do large quilts and I quilt them myself on my little domestic machine. Some get a little difficult to handle in the center part, but I've found that if I can do it using the kitchen table and an ironing board to hold the quilt up...then I'm good to go.

I've hand quilted a queen (my 1st quilt)..then started trying to machine quilt. I like to vary the sizes of my quilts and also the techniques...it keeps it interesting for me. I get bored easily. :roll:

I have large quilts in progress but I love the baby quilts and have made several of them because they whip us so quickly. I do like large quilts but do hesitate to start one only because they take soooooo long.