I have quilted on my regular machien but I try not to quilt anything bigger than a twin size. Turning them is just too hard.

sewing the quilt altogether is the very best part....suddenly the quilt gest life and it changes from a caterpillar into a butterfly.
RoO: I feel exactly the same way. The tranformation is almost like magic. My family thinks I'm crazy.

I too quilt with a regular sewing machine. So far, the largest I've made is a queen size. Sat the machine on the kitchen table, worked from the middle out... was amazed it turned out just fine. Mind you, it was no fancy quilting stitches. Don't see myself spending $$$$ for a machine to quilt. I'm ok with what's happening right now. Plus, I'm enjoying learning to hand quilt.

I would like to get a midarm or a machine with a larger throat but right now I am quilting on my older Bernina. I have quilted lap quilts and full size quilts. I played with doing feathers and it was OK

I quilted a king size quilt for a grandson who graduated last year and I quilted his quilt on my regular machine. I did spirals in half of the blocks and stippling in some of the others. On the borders I did what look like lazy eights. It wasn't really easy but well worth the effort. I am making another one this year, whew, but this will be the last one.

I quilt on a Viking Sapphire 875(10" throat), I've also quilted for many years with a Bernina 1031. I've done as large as queen size with the Bernina, so it can be done. Check out Leah Day's website, she gives lots of good instructions for quilting with a regular sewing machine.
http://daystyledesigns.com/

I have a friend who does beautiful elaborate fmq on her regular home machine. She now has the new janome 8900 that has the larger harp area, but she has quilted many queen size quilts on her old Janome 9000 which only has a small harp area. It can be done, but it is a lot of quilt to wrestle with. It depends on how determined you are. lol

I have an inexpensive Brother XR9000. It does not have a large throat. I quilt up to lap quilt size, using a walking foot and Machingers gloves. I have not had much success free-motion quilting. But I can do anything with my walking foot. It might take me longer, but I can do it. I have a dear friend that I barter with: I babysit her dogs and she does long arm quilting for me.

I quilt using a bernina with a 5 inch throat. I split my batting to do this which, to me, is a simple process. Thus far my largest quilts are 54"x70", but I am currently piecing a queen size and will be quilting it in sections.

If I were going to infest in a new machine I would be sure to get one with as big a space in the throat area as possible.
using a dining table to support the bigger quilts would work fine. I like some quilting and to tie quilts. After all gals don't
forget that Grandma never quilted on a long arm. Their quilts were beautiful.'

Flo in NNY