Try looking in long arm university. A woman in Vancouver is selling an hq16. I think that may work for you.

Most of my quilts are queen or king size and I do most of my quilting on my domestic Viking Sapphire. I love it.

king size on a regular machine
 

I quilted a king size quilt on my regular machine. the design was split rail and I made the quilt top in 3 sections. then I put my backing and batting together with each section and quilted each part separately. after each section was quilted I sewed the sections together. I took a class in quilting this was at the LQS. And I think there is a book available on quilting this way, actually listing 2-3 different ways to join the sections.

I have quilted many quilts on my DM. I baste the dickens out of it, start in the middle and work my way outwards. I have made at least 3 twin size, several double, and several queens. A job, but it can be done. I use 2 ironing boards with plywood boards on them--one in front of the machine and 1 to the left of the machine. I don't wind up with wrinkles, etc. My recipients like what I do.

Quilt as you Go
 

The quilt feels wonderful and looks great. I loved the fact that I could stash them quickly in the car (or by my chair when at someone's house) when we stopped every three hours or overnight. Here are three pictures. I will do this technique again. Hope this helps

I do all my quilting on my regular sewing machine. I have a struggle with the bigger ones but it works out ok. I don't send anything out to be quilted by the ladies who have a long arm. I just can't afford it.

I have quilted 87 quilts on DSM, Most on a Juki TL98QE w/9" throat. It is a straght stitch only machine. I do a large stipple or meandering. No fancy stitches for me, I don't care for them. I wear rubber tipped garden gloves, start in the center, work out to the edges. No way would I have my quilts quilted, I like the fact that I make them all myself. I have done up to a queen, no need for a king.
I have made a few QAYG, otherwise I work with the whole quilt, never in sections. It is so easy to quilt after a few.

I have a long arm - but I have quilted even large quilts on my regular old Brother sewing machine from Walmart for years before hand! I bought my long arm mostly for myself but I do quilt for others to earn a little extra fabric money. But I also quilt - A LOT. Daily. LOL* So that's part of why I bought it. But if I weren't going to ever quilt for others I probably just would have bought an extended throat sit down machine. Those expensive toys are FUN but not necessary. You and do it! The more you sew the more you'll know what is right for YOU. ;)

Thank you! Pretty quilt!

I have quilted a few quilts on my Janome 6600 cot, single and what I think is called a twin in the USA, in the UK we call it a double. Again just meandering FmQ on the larger sizes but on the cot size I have started to be more adventurous. I think the most important part of quilting on a domestic sewing machine is making sure you have really sandwiched the quilt well and that there are no creases in that bottom layer......for me sewing the quilt altogether is the very best part....suddenly the quilt gest life and it changes from a caterpillar into a butterfly. I dream of a mid arm or a long arm but don't think I'll ever save enough to get one, but I also don't like the thought of someone else finishing what I have started so wouldn't ever send a quilt off to be done......but that is just a personal view as I know a lot of people do and they look amazing.

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

I took my first quilting lesson 7 years ago. The class project was a twin but I chose to do a queen. It took me 6 months to completely piece it and quilt it from beginning to end. I learned how to put the batting on (3 times) and pin it and unpin it 2x and then I rolled it up and did stitch in the ditch. It turned out beautiful and I did it all on my domestic older Singer. Now I use a Bernina most of the time and will never buy a long arm. I am determined to learn how to free motion quilt this year. I have taken several quilts to be longarmed by a lady I know who only does panto. I don't think you have to buy a long arm. Your choice.

Piece on Janome MC4000 and quilt (at the dining table) with my White heavy duty school machine (no FMQ).

I can't seem to make anything smaller than a queen-king size. I do all on DM but mostly sweat ghat line and meandering stitches.

A few years ago I made the choice to get a Brother 1500. I absolutely love it, sews a wonderful stitch cuts the thread has a pin feed and of course you can lower the feed dogs. It has in fact 4 presser foot settings fro no feed to regular. It is very powerful and I quilt all my quilts on it. I do a combo of quilt as you go and quilt in larger sections then add borders. Ihave made quilts up to 110 x110 with no problems. The investment was small compared to a long arm. It also has a very nice size add on table surround. You might want to check it out. A lot of value for the money. It comes with a nice set of attachments. a great walking foot and a very accurate 1/4 inch piecing foot. The height under the arm is a little higher and there is a little more room from the needle to the upright arm, which makes it easier to maneuver a heavy quilt.

I piece on my machines (FW, 301A, & 66-).
I hand quilt on a Hendiburg (spelling) frame.

I have quilted over a hundred on jy DSM and 6 of them have been king size. I am getting ready to do 4 more king size. I usually do very intense quilting on my quilts. I have used the same machine for all of them. It is a Juiki and I not only intend to sew many many more on this machine, but dearly love my machine.

suzyquilter
 

I have used a regular machine to do my free motion quilting since I learned to quilt, some years ago. Thanks to my quilting instructer, she made me learn every aspect of quilting. May I suggest that since you are going to buy a new machine look for one with as large a throat as possible. That will make your quilting much easier. Let us know when you get your machine and will give you some tips to make the process easier.

Jainie: What is that all about. I very rarely make a quilt smaller than 96 X 96. Maybe there's a 12 step program?

Pat: I so agree with you on the 1500. The power in the machine, plus the larger harp, plus the dependable quality of the stitch. Well I could go on, but basically, I have never been so pleased with a machine. By the way, I am not affiliated with the Brother company just really a convert.

I made and quilted about 100 large quilts (king/queen) on my regular home machine before my arthritis got too bad for this. A large percentage of those won blue ribbons. Almost all of the work was FMQ. It is certainly possible, but time consuming. When I switched to a Janome with a slightly longer arm, it became easier. My guild owns a lovely LA, but I am not physically able to use it. One does what one can.

Just some food for thought:

I have free-motioned two on my home sewing machine, and done two on a local shop's longarm (rented the machine, did it myself). Shop rental rates around here are $26.50 an hour, and most shops do not rent. The going rate to have a shop do the quilting is about $ .02 to $.03 per square inch (I think). I have struggled with my machine because it's a sewing/embroidery machine, and it's not ideally set up for quilting. I have made modifications as much as I can, but there are limits, for example, a single-needle plate would make the entire process MUCH easier, but it was never made for my machine. The machine I have retailed for about $1,000 when I bought it in 2005. Had I known then that I would use it primarily for quilting, I would've invested the money in a machine more designed for that.

I am considering purchasing a machine just for quilting, so I would advise you to carefully consider what you want to do. If you have the right machine, doing your own quilting can be easy and fun. If you don't, it can be a pain in the butt.

I love to free-motion, when it works. That's quilting the sandwich. On my current machine, it has been a challenge, and not just because of the space factor.

The kind of machine I am considering purchasing now is designed specifically for quilting:

- straight stitch only
- high speed (up to 1,500 stitches per minute)
- maximum control (i.e. several different settings) for controlling thread and presser foot tension, and lowering the feed dogs in gradations (i.e. more than one setting to lower them to)
- thread feed that minimizes curling/spiraling (and hence, breaking)
- has a deeper throat (the distance between the needle and the right pedestal of the machine) that makes managing the quilt so much easier

If you're just getting started, and you think you're going to want a sewing machine that does more than quilting, you may want to buy just a simple, more economical sewing machine, until you've played around a bit with making the quilt tops, and perhaps having someone else do your quilting on your initial quilts, and consider investing in a specialty machine later on, if you want to do more of your own machine quilting at home.

Hope this helps. It can be a complicated decision, but you have to make the right one for you.

I have done a super-king on my little domestic Singer. I do not split the batting. I sometimes will hand quilt the center section and then machine quilt the rest. It's a struggle but the gloves really help. It can be done! I couldn't afford to send my quilts to a LA.

I bought a husqvarna designer 11, and made a king size one with it. The sapphire 875 replaced it and they are a little pricey but have 10 inches of room to quilt with. It a step down from an embroider machine and is made strictly for quilting. I would start small and work you way up if you not experienced. Scrunch and don't roll if you do one. The quilting with the machine wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

I have always quilted on regular sewing machines. I used my old Bernina Record 830 until the tension got messed up on it. I recently bought a Juki 2010Q because it's all mechanical (no computer) and STRONG, and intended for machine quilting. It only straight stitches but is a wonderful quilter. HUGE throat space, too. I sew other things on it, as needed, but because I primarily quilt these days, this was the best machine for me. It sells for about $850. There is a Brother machine that is very similar to my Juki that sells for about $650. Don't remember the model number. If you are interested in machine quilting, be sure you buy a machine that does it well. It gets really expensive to send quilts out to a longarmer.

I quilt on my DSM, up size double, I meander and stquilt
I have a pfaff expression 2480 but it quits working after or during quilting a quilt it's hateful!!!

​my dsm is a kenmore.

I quilt on my regular Janome machine. I regularly do twin-sized quilts (that's the size I make my "lap" quilts, LOL), and have done a queen sized one as well. That's as large as I need in my house.

Cost for Embroidery Machine
 

Please just throw me a figure? How much does the Baby Lock Endurance cost? I love my Bernina for quilting but
embroidery is really looking fun.

I have 2 Vikings and I have quilted on both with a walking foot. I have tackled queen size, but it takes patience. I have had a few done by longarmers, but most of them I do myself. I'm at times very frugal. Good luck

Forgive me for being a dummy, but tell me about the "domestic " machine.

A "Domestic" machine is a regular size sewing machine. Not a small, portable size, and not the little bit bigger ones. Just your regular size that the majority of sewing machines are