I'm just now quilting my second kingsize on a domestic machine.
I use a bamboo batting and I find it much better to work with than hobbs for such a big quilt.
However....I've been quilting a few years now and therefor had a lot of practice......
The piecing of the top wil be no problem at all!

Since you asked about piecing the quilt top, I'm sure you can do that. My very first quilt was a king size as a surprise for my daughter. I hand pieced and hand quilted it. (No one told me I should start small! LOL) It took me over a year to do since I was working full time then. Ever since then, I have machine pieced everything on an old Viking, a trusted work horse that I love, with no problem. You might consider hand quilting it which would give you the chance to experience it, and make it a little more special for y'all. I love to do the hand work, but it is more tedious and slower. Just a thought! Good luck!

I made this quilt on a viking 118 which has a standard throat space and quilted it with straight quilting stitches and SID. It can be done . [ATTACH=CONFIG]433010[/ATTACH]

Beautiful quilt!

If the top is intricate piecing, one of the methods in the book that was mentioned talks about not having all the batting in. Like just make the quilt sandwich with only a strip of batting down the center, quilt it, then add more batting to the sides of the previous batting. Removing the batting removes a lot of bulk.

There are a lot of videos on youtube on how to quilt in sections.

This is a very interesting concept. I wonder if anyone has actually done this, and if so, what they think of this method. Sure sounds like it would work. I guess you could just baste the additional strips of batting to the strip that was in the center, and work out from there. Would love to hear from someone who has done it this way.

I have only just finished my second ever quilt - it's a queen size and was done on an inexpensive domestic machine with a standard throat. I 'stitched in the ditch' for the quilting (there was a lot as I used several jelly rolls).

I won't say it was easy, and it was made a bit more difficult because I used a heavy, high-quality king size flannel sheet for the backing. I did a lot of rolling of both sides and at some points had those rolls over my shoulders.

Despite the awkwardness of it, I certainly won't be shying off doing another one.

This is a queen-sized quilt I made for my mother, on a DSM with a regular-sized throat--using the quilt-as-you-go method. I made a similar quilt for our king-sized bed, also.

(I hope this posts, as I have never posted a picture before.)