quilting machine? I read and read how everyone does their own quilting and FMQ on their machines, but how do you get a queen sized quilt rolled up enough to go in the throat of the machines? I had a Juki once and the throat area was too small to do much at a time. Would really like to know how big of a quilt do you quilt on your personal machines.

I have a Juki and just finished a queen quilt on it. I have even done a few kings. The trick is to puddle the quilt, not roll it.

I have a Viking Sapphire with a 10" throat area. I've done as large as 60x80 so far. I don't roll mine up, I scrunch them up. It's easier for me to handle the excess that way. If you've got a regular domestic machine, you could try quilting in sections, then attach all the sections together once you're done.

I do queen size on my Brother - just scrunch and puddle rather than roll.

I only do lap quilts,everything else goes to a long arm quilter.

Another trick I saw (but haven't tried yet) is to sandwich in sections (with plenty of overlap), quilt that portion (and the un-sandwiched 'stuff' is easier to roll or puddle), then add more batting - quilt that portion - etc. Gave me inspiration to quilt the king top that I was going to bring to the LAQ. There's a tute on here somewhere, posted with a video from Youtube.

ahh ... here's the thread.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-94447-1.htm

Amen. Life is too short to wrestle a big quilt through the throat of a regular machine. That's not fun, and when something stops being fun, it's time to stop doing it.

I once did a king size on a 30 year old Kenmore. I rolled it really tight lengthwise and stipple quilted it. Quilting stores have clamps to help hold it.
You start in the middle and go towards the outside edge, then roll the other half and go towards the outside edge.
Now I have a baby lock and have done up to a queen size on it. Haven't needed to make a king size on it yet.

O.k....Puddeling...What is puddleing and how do you puddle? I have an older Singer that does not allow the feed dogs to drop, so guess I need to update?

I did a queen size for my mom on my Bernina 630 I did it on my kitchen table so I could nest the fabric and keep the weight of the fabric up so it would move easily in all directions I start in center and work my way out keep area in throat rolled up and unroll as I work my way out.Usually work in quarters one section at a time my Bernina throat area is 9 3/4 I move my fabric in all directions so the nesting part was very important for me to be able to move fabric easily you have to keep rearranging nest due to weight of quilt and area of work. Hope this helps this worked for me and I am new to FMQ .