Hi all,

I am making my first "big" quilt (81 x 81 inches) and wondered...I have rearranged the furniture in our living room to lay the thing out. Is that what you all do? Or is there some large space that I am missing or an easier way to do this? Thanks much!

The biggest I have made so far is about 70X75 inches and yes, I had to move the furniture around.

I have 2 thin wood boards 4x8 each that I lay out on my bed to do big quilts

I have to do the same thing. I warn my family the living room will not be available and push everything out of the way. The only ones I can't control are the cats and they hate the smell of the basting spay so most of them stay out of the way.

Sometimes I lay it out on the floor, but I have a queen-size bed and that helps, too. At least for the main body of the quilt. You can also pin a large sheet of felt to the draperies (or the wall, if you dare), and use that as a design wall. That's also an easy way to go.

I use the dinning room floor and yes, I have to move the dinning room table and chairs to make it work. That was for my twin size quilt. Nor will need to use the den floor for a larger one. Living room floor is carpeted so that wouldn't work as well.

I have made a design wall in my quilting room where i put my blocks......... I is made of a piece insulation board jpurchased at the local lumber yard..... I also lay them out on the bed in the spare room so I can look and see how it is going to look on a bed..... do I need more blocks or can I do it with borders..........

I know some people like to go to their church and use the tables and push them together.

I move the coffee table in the living room and lay it out there. Sometimes I have to push the Lazy-boys back as well.
I'm just glad that I have a space that is large enough for a queen size. I don't think a King size would fit.

The time my floor gets super clean is when I'm about to pin a quilt :oops: All my floors are hardwood, so I sweep, scrub and tape away to the floor. Then crawl uncomfortably around.

If you are using basting spray, Mamagus discovered that taping to the wall works great. I haven't tried it yet, but maybe others have and can give you pointers.

I will set up my quilting frames (as long as I don't have a quilt on them), and lay out the quilt that way. If I do have a quilt on the frames, then I will do it on the floor, if I am going to machine quilt. If I am going to hand quilt it, then I put it on a shelf until I am able to get it going. I prefer to use the quilting frames if I can, just because it is a whole lot easier.

I lay mine out on the bed to audition and I take the large ones to work and sandwich in the conference room or lunch room where the big tables are.

If you ever baste on the floor, be careful not to pin to the carpet.

I put it on the bed.

I nailed a king sized flannel sheet to one wall of the sewing room. Instant design wall.

You might check out your local library. Some have meeting rooms with long tables you can put together at least to get it pinned.

I am going to designate one whole wall of my sewing room as a design board :wink: I won't be making many queen/king sized quilts, but it will hold either.
To pin, I use my library's meeting room. I haven't spray basted anything that large yet, I am not sure who's garage I will be borrowing for that :D:D:D

It sounds like you are at the point of basting the three layers? Harriet Hargrave has a unique way of doing this on any sized table, where you divide your quilt into 4 sections, working on 1/4 of your quilt at a time. It's a rather detailed process to explain in full, but her method is a real back and knee saver. Here's the book: "Heirloom Machine Quilting" by Harriet Hargrave, 4th edition. You may even find it in your local library. The book is $29.95, though I recently purchased it for much less on Amazon.com. It is a WONDERFUL resource book for beginner machine quilter like myeslf. Hope this helps some of y'all who are rearranging your house to lay out a quilt, not to mention the stress & strain on your backs!

I almost always make larger quilts - some are twin size - most are double or larger. I have a glass top dining room table. I clamp the center top of backing,batting and quilt top, I pin all this and then move to one side, then other side,then top and then bottom and move however until all is pinned. I have never used the floor. To creaky to get down on knees. Am going to buy bed raisers to put under table legs to raise it. Easier on the back that way. Good luck !!!

I lay my blocks out on the floor and sometimes I need to move furniture.

By moving the coffee table -which is actually a large rattan type box with lid - I can lay it out in the living room but have to be careful that I don't pin it to the carpet. I can scoot the dining room chairs out of the way and use the kitchen floor too. How lovely it would be to have the perfect set-up of a room large enough to have all sewing stuff in one room with a huge table!

i laid out a king size one on the driveway once! but i tied that one. since the floor is so difficult for me to get up off of these days, i use a folding table if pinning. but mostly now i use fusible batting or basting spray. i do the center, then the ends.

We always pin ours at church. Sometimes during our class and sometimes we 3 or 4 of us will meet before choir and pin one. The big tables are great. Usually we put 3 tables together and can get a big one pinned in just a little while.

I guess I'm lucky. our living room is very long and wide with not a lot of furniture. I just lay my quilts out on the floor and stick a pin through the carpet.

I velcroed an old flannel sheet to the wall in my sewing room. For pinning the layers together, many quilt shops will let you use their class-room tables. Push as many tables together as needed and pin away. Just ask at your lqs. It is good p.r. for them. Quilters are more likely to shop at a user friendly store. :lol: :lol: Pam

I am very lucky. There is a group of ladies in my church who like quilting and we use the church kitchen and its wonderful big tables.

does anyone have any problems when pinning the quilt on the table with the table getting scratched. I was thinking of our church table and wouldn't want that to happen to them. my sister has taped cutting mats on her table. My folding table is so rough with scratch marks made by pins, I do the Harriet Hargrave method. I am too old (65) and knees too sore to do them on the floor totally anymore, I lay the quilt out on the floor and just pin enough to pick it up to finish on the table. I still get an occassional pucker on the back. I still want to learn more about machine quilting. I really like quilting that way.

Junie

In my living room, the couch goes along 2 walls. I've fought long and hard to keep a coffee table out of there, so that I can use that space to layout my quilts