Need advice from longarm pros
 

Good evening. I have a dilemma that I hope someone can help with. A dear lady at church has a very aggressive brain cancer. She hasn’t directly said it, but I suspect her diagnosis is terminal. She has been trying to finish 2 quilts for her children and is to the point that she knows they will not get done. Her sister asked me to finish quilting them. She has done minimal hand quilting on both of them, which I really want to preserve.

I have the first one on the frame, with her rows of quilting, which are in the middle of the quilt, in the work area of the frame. My thought was to get that part lined up and quilt from the middle out. When I try to run the front and batting through the dead bar and up the take-up bar, it bunches and puckers. Now I have separated front and batting from back, and just laid them over the top of the take-up bar. I’m hoping I can quilt one row with minimal tension on the top and batting, then try again for proper tension with it stabilized. Will this work? If I need to, I can run a line of batting stitches near the dead bar.

Hopefully the pictures show what I’m saying. First pic is from the front. It’s pretty square looking from here. Second pic shows the back, with the batting and top just laid over the frame. Third pic is part of her stitches. Last pic is different angle from the front.

Are you hand quilting to match or machine?
I like your idea to run a row of stitches to stabilize. If you make them a good bit larger, they won't be hard to remove. Or you could pin. You would continue quilting to the bottom of the quilt, then turn it around to quilt the other half.

I am a fairly inexperienced long arm quilter who always floats the top and the batting. I get puckers everywhere if I don't. Each time I roll, I pick the batting up and make sure it is smooth under the top and still properly aligned. Then I make sure the top is still lined up by kind of fluffing it up and let it settle again. As I am quilting, I pin or baste each side of the quilt to make sure the sides don't move, then I quilt across the quilt.

bless you for doing this for her--had a similar situation in our guild and know the ill quilter is really appreciative of friends helping with the finishes. I think Gay has given some excellent advice--definitely pin or baste and then quilt.

I think that sounds fine. using either basting stiches to get it iniitally secured, or do some regular quilting at the lesser tension, then secure better later.

I'm not a professional by any means, but when I'm doing something similar to this, I will use big clamps to hold the quilt along the bars for some firmness. I get the quilt lined up how I want, then clamp to the bars (take up and/or belly bar) to make sure it stays where I want. I use those type of plastic clamps that you squeeze to open, put over the bar and the quilt ends up trapped in place. This makes it easy to adjust as needed.

I would only attach the backing to the frame. Allow the batting and top to float, smoothing as you Quilt.

I am no help, I quilt on a 9" throat machine.

Just want to say how generous your are to finish the quilts for her.

I was going to suggest the same as ckcowl, attach the backing, and float the batting and backing.
How generous of you to do this. I am sure they will be cherished.

Agree with ckcowl, but would also add that the pic of just the block..the 3rd pic..it's not that bad..I would quilt from left to right to try to make up for the ripple. Also, what you quilt on it can hide a lot of sin..if you just stitch in the ditch, all of the bubbles will show up more than if you quilt something in the sashing..a feather border, for example would hide 99% of the bubble..also..after you have the center done, you can sneak in an extra piece of batting where it bubbles and that will take up a lot of the extra, and not show when done.