Need advice about quilting on a standard sewing machine.
 

I have a queen size double wedding ring quilt top.
Anyone ever quilted one on a standard machine??? It is so nice and I would hate to start it and then mess it up. I usually do smaller quilts and manage fine, but this one seems like a mountain. I will gladly accept all help, short of sending it out because I absolutely cant afford it, and Besides I allready bought the thread. (that was costly in itself on my income. lol)
Second question... I have one of those feet that feed top and bottom material. I use it for straight stitches, but can you use it to do the curves of a double ring????? Never know till you ask.
This is the best place in the world to ask these questions because I have seen your work and it leaves me in awe.
Thank you so much
Linda

I have quilted a king size quilt on my dinky mechanical Brother. It was a job, but very doable. It was stitch in the ditch and it took a while to keep repositioning it, but, I didn't want to send it out. I started in the middle and worked out which made it somewhat easier. I have also quilted other large quilts, nothing fancy, but manageable. You are really only quilting the small area under the needle and sometimes you do have to wrestle the fabric through the throat plate to reposition, but, if you are willing to do that, you can do it. I don't know about using a walking foot on the curves for the double ring. I'm sure one of our other board members can advise on that. Good luck!!

There is a method for cutting the batting into 3 pieces that cuts down on bulk under the arm of the machine. First saw this described in detail in one of Debra Wagner's books. Marti Michell has a whole book out now on methods like this.

Basically what you do is cut the batting into 3 parts using a rotary cutter to make big S-shaped cuts (about 6 inches wide). Before moving the batting, use a Sharpie permanent marker to make registration marks on the cuts. That is, you mark a line through the cut every 8 inches or so. Also label the tops of the batting with right, mid, left. This makes it *much* easier later to line up the pieces exactly as they were before they were cut. The reasoning behind the S-cuts is that later on, after the quilt is used, the batting will not crease the way it might if it were cut in a straight line.

Layer the quilt sandwich with just the middle piece of batting, and baste that middle section as desired. (You can even spray baste if you are careful to cover up edges with paper first.) Machine quilt that middle section, leaving perhaps 6 inches on each side unquilted.

When finished with the middle section, lay out the quilt, peel back the top and backing, and re-attach one side of the batting. Wagner suggested hand joining with a tailor tack stitch, but most people use a wide and long machine zigzag to re-attach. These days you could also use a fusible to rejoin the batting pieces. Just make sure that you are matching registration marks and re-creating the original batting as it was first laid out. Once the batting is re-attached, smooth out the backing and top and baste them.

What this process does is greatly reduce batting bulk under the arm of the machine, making the quilt much easier to maneuver while machine quilting. No one knows you used this method after the quilt is finished, because the joins in the batting are invisible.

I know several people who have successfully done a large quilt on a domestic machine this way.

Thank you so much. This sounds like a plan, and I have used batting pieces before when doing smaller quilts. I am off to the sewing room... finally... been putting this off for weeks!!!!

This is so uplifting. I think I can, I think I can... lol

Of course you can!!!! :) (And yes, for as long as the curves are on a DWR, you can use your walking foot!)

Just remember to scrunch up the material, don't roll it since you'll find you are constantly unrolling it to move it around the pattern under the small throat of your standard machine.

I've used my old Singer Featherweight for the majority of my quilting (including queen sized quilts). Yes, it is a pain, but it definitely is do-able. Just don't expect to be a speed demon when quilting.

P.S. I've never tried the split batting technique but it sounds like it would be a very easy thing to do; much easier than manipulating all of that batting and material!

Prism99: Bouquets of roses to you for taking time to type out all those excellent instructions. Thank you!

Using/adding the batting in sections REALLY reduces the bulk. I am a huge fan of adding the batting as the quilting progresses.

Really a little slow with the short-cuts... what is a DWR????