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.:)