I've watched a few tutorials on how to fit that big ol quilt in the throat of your machine but does anyone else have any input on the best way to feed that through when quilting the most difficult section to quilt (the middle). Thanks

Sometimes you just have to "woman-handle" it. I've done a large queen-size quilt, but have a king-size ready to start and have procrastinated for several months. One idea that someone shared with me was to quilt it in 3 sections. This is what I will try because I use 45" fabric for the backing. I'll cut batting at 45" too and sandwich just the center panel and then sew on the backing and batting for one side and then do the other. Does that make sense? Haven't tried it on my own, but I think it will work.

Cut the batting in thirds, and remove the outer 2 pieces. Roll up the backing and top on both sides to quilt the middle. Quilt to within a couple inches of the edge of the batting, then lay out and sew the batting back in on one side, quilt, and then the other side. This removes most of the bulk but keeps the backing and top in one piece. It woks really good. I cut mine in curves and put a sticky note on each piece to indicate which side it goes on and it fits back together perfectly, then I just whip stitch the two edges together with big stitches.

I did an over sized king on my DSM. Must have taken me 3 weeks to get done only because my arms would get so tired from handling the heavy monster. You got some very good advice on here. Wish I had known this before I did mine.

Some of my quilts get their "names" from this part of quilting! And sometimes it's not good ones! Dare I tell you some of the names? LOL What I do is roll it up on the edges real tight(the part that is going to go thru the throat of the machine) Pin it with my quilting pins so it doesn't come unrolled (pin it really good, so it does't pull) then as you quilt you have to unroll, repin. That's what I do....... Why don't the mfgs. of sewing machines that say they are quilting machines give us just a little more room to work with? If it's a quilting machine, you should be able to do just that!

As others have mentioned, removing part of the batting works well. Marti Michelle calls it "low fat" quilting. She has some YouTube videos showing it and a book called Quilting in Sections.

Way too frustrating for me!

wow, glad I hand quilt. I could never do that, my arms get tired just from regular machine sewing if there is any "womanhandling" involved. You gals must have big biceps, :-)

I use the draping method. Just bundle it up to the section you want to quilt. What helped me most was wearing quilting gloves. It does tire your hand though.