Have you ever felt like you were trying to push a elephant threw a doggie door when quilting on a reg. sewing machine quilting a king size quilt. I spend the day doing this and I can't wait to get done with this one....

Yes!! It really gets my shoulders and back too, trying to shove some great behemoth through that tiny little space. But I don't have a long arm and the budget to send things off, so I must carry on!

YES !!! I try to do one quarter at a time so there isn't so much to deal with at once.

i know just what you mean

Yep, I started renting longarm time locally because of this.

After the last very heavy >queen sized quilt I free motion quilted on my DM, I made a rule for myself --only one large (Queen or bigger) quilt per year. Firm rule. No exceptions. It made me feel empowered to set limits.

RST

I guess this wouldn't be something to try for a first time quilt then... I am just finishing piecing a double bed quilt and have never FMQ before.

I wouldn't even attempt quilting on my regular machine. I cannot even imagine a KING size quilt. You folks are warriors!!!

I love that you are so correct! my first machine had a throat of 5" try quilting a quilt on that. Like giving birth all over again :)

LOL!!!!

I agree. Sometimes I pick out quadrants and rest after each one, or I pick out some cds (I really need music to listen to as I quilt). Once a cd finishes, (roughly an hour) then I get up and move around. Sometimes I go back and do some more or sometimes I call it a day.

I also take over the dining room table to do anything that's a size twin or larger. That way, the table is large enough to support the bulk of the quilt as I quilt so it's less strain on my nekc and shoulders. And, I invested in quilt clips to roll up the edges and quilting gloves to make moving the quilt easier.

LOL! Well stated!

I've never made a quilt larger than a queen size. I hand quilt mine. Oh, the weight! I've only used a hoop on a stand, but I lay they quilt on chairs and stools around the hoop to get it off the floor, but also to help with distortion.

I've done several kings on my smaller Janome 4623. It's work but it's worth it when you can say you did it all yourself!

Absolutely. I've quilted all of mine including one that was literally 120" x 120" (I barely fit the batting on that one) and when I was done there was a feeling that I can't even describe. It went well beyond pride.

I recently quilted a queen size flannel quilt on my old Bernina 830 - it came out really nice, but boy was it a lot of work! As with Jim's Gem, sending them out is not in my budget. Plus, I really like that I have done the whole quilt myself.

it takes more time to re-arrange than it does to actually quilt. I can't stand doing even a crib-size. I'm getting a mid-arm ASAP.

I'm glad I'm not the only one out there that feels this way.
Well lets get back at pushing that elephant again, I sure Hopr to get this one done real soon.

There are a few different methods of making this easier to do in this book:

http://www.nancysnotions.com/product/code/mm8025.do

I bought the book and experimented with samples. Different methods may be preferable depending on if you've already assembled your top, did the center, but not the borders, etc. I haven't done anything big enough to try for real yet, but will be soon.

Yup. I'm in the process of doing that now on a large queen size quilt. I'm doing squares so the quilt has to be turned. I'm on the edge blocks now so the whole quilt has to be shoved thru. I have a Janome 6600 but it's still a whole lot of quilt in not a lot of space.

A friend of mine added a quilt top and backing to a huge down comforter for her hubby. Then she had to turn it right side out. She said that was a lot like gutting a whale. LOL