I have been cruising along, piecing my first quilt, but I am having a heck of a time with the actual quilting on my sewing machine. It's so big, it is just impossible. I don't know how I will ever finish it without it puckering or having crooked lines. Does anyone have any tips on the actual quilting process on a regular machine? I guess that is why some of you have long arm quilting machines, they look nice but expensive. If I don't find a way to do this, I'm afraid I will never try this again. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I have a walking foot and I'm just doing the ditch stitching right now...I am starting in the middle and trying to work my way out, but I can't really switch direction of course. I have the quilt kind of rolled up but I have to move it all the time so everything bunches and shifts. I have about 100 safety pins holding the sandwich in place though so it is probably ok. This just doesn't seem fun =/

One thing I do is roll the quilt so it fits well under the arm and put another table or your ironing board in front of your sewing machine table to help hold the weight so it won't drag on your needle. Maybe this would help a little. Don't give up!! It is such a great feeling to see a finished quilt !

search for some tutorials of machine quilting a large quilt. there are sure to be several out there. I tried rolling, didn't like it. i usually just bunch it up and quilt where i can and move from there. depends on the design you are quilting too, it is more difficult and slow if you must turn your quilt all the time.
good luck.

Sorry I'm of no help.....what you are describing is why I got my longarm in the first place!!! Welcome from Illinois.

As big as your quilt looks, I use closer to 300 pins. Dunno! I've never quilted one on a sewing machine. I hand quilted 2 0r 3 and used that many pins.

Are there any inexpensive long arms? I keep hearing they are in the 8 to 10 thousand dollar range (eek!). I have a cheap machine that cost about $200 but it is trucking along.

I agree...don't give up. The first one might be a struggle but you eventually find your way. It takes time and lots of practice. The long arm machines just present new challenges...I have one and it's not as easy either. That too takes lots of practice. This is definitely a hobby that requires patience which I do not always have. So, learn when to walk away and take a break. Deep breathes...you can do it!

Before I got a machine quilting frame (and after pinning the layers together) I would use bicycle clips (something like this http://store.quilting-warehouse.com/notions-clips.html ) and roll each side towards the middle, but leaving enough space to quilt down the middle. When I finished one row, I would unroll one side a little bit and take up the difference on the other side so that I could quilt on the next row. I hope this helps.

It depends on what you consider inexpensive. My HQ Sweet Sixteen sit down was around $5000, which compared to most long arms is relatively inexpensive. And I love it.
:D

Better to start with smaller quilts and build up to this size. Use tables/ironing board to help with the weight. Once you get enough of it done, lay it down, take a couple steps away and look. Minor mistakes fade away from the overall quilt. I puddle the quilt instead of rolling it. Leah Day has hundreds of awesome free tutorials on using a sewing machine to quilt. Keep at it. you won't be disappointed once you get the hang of it.

I didn't think I was going to get my first quilting project done with a regular sewing machine. I use 505 Basting Spray and also pins around the outside. You just have to roll or squish the quilt up to get it into the throat of your machine and there are times it certainly isn't easy. You may only be able to quilt a small section and then have to reposition everything which does become aggravating. Someone else suggested to realize you do have to walk away sometimes and that's so true. Hang in there and keep trying. You'll get it figured out.

Yeah that is to much like work, no fun at all, so I got a LA.

I pin mine no less than hand-width apart. I also take a lot of effort to tape the backing down very taut and smooth out the other layers so I can keep puckering to a minimum. Are you planning to SID? If so, you can roll the quilt in half and work at one half at a time. Don't let it pull off the table or the stitches will be wonky. Don't forget to take breaks and just have fun with it. Rome wasn't built in a day.....

Just sent you a PM, Crystal. :O)

I've quilted about 5 queen size quilts on a sewing machine.
I can give some tips, but the most helpful one is that experience will improve each quilt you do. It might be easier to machine quilt a baby or lap quilt for your first experience.

My tips are to pin baste, which looks like you've already done. I pin baste by putting the three layers, quilt top, batting, and backing on a queen bed and sticking safety pins
all the way through to the mattress. After the quilt is literally stab pinned to the bed I take each safety pin and close it. This method meant less shifting of layers for me and the pins make it secure when I quilt on my sewing machine. Yes,
I can imagine this sounds so unorthodox to other quilters..but it works for me.

You can fold or roll the sides of the quilt so that it handles somewhat easier I prefer to fold both sids, leaving the middle of the quilt open to begin quilting.

Also, I quilt from the center of the quilt out, kind of like quilting pie slices from the center, start from a new section always from the center out.

I have quilted with stitch in the ditch, but prefer free motion quilting. If you want to free motion quilt, practice sketching on paper to get the feel, then on to some scraps of fabric with batting and backing. (You need some quilting gloves for quilting>it will also make it much easier.
Sorry for the long post, but hope it helps.

Years ago I made the decision for myself to never again quilt a bed-sized quilt on my home machine. I had spent a a weekend pushing hard to complete one for an upcoming show. I then spent the next 6 weeks under chiropractic care and it cost me all the $$ I could have used to have the thing long-armed. :evil:

For me, never again. Period.
Jan in VA

I love the long reply - thank you! It sounds like I just need to reset my expectations for how slow this is, and that readjusting the bulk is a huge part of it. You guys are a great help. I will reply to the private messages shortly...going to try some of the advice for a little bit.

Jan - I'm sorry you had to go to chiropractic care but your story made me lol! Thank you for sharing! It seems like I may be going that route but I'm going to try to finish this one myself. I will take lots of breaks to avoid the chiro visit =)

Your quilt top looks beautiful! Do not give up. It can be very frustrating to quilt on a domestic machine. But with each quilt it brings a new experience. We expect perfection so often, but that takes a lot of practice and patience. If you continue to get really frustrated and upset, stop quilting for awhile; even try a different technique...like tying it. Have a friend come over and sit and talk with you. A friend of mine, could not stress enough...quilting is about having fun.

I have wanted to give up a few times but finishing a quilt feels so amazing. One thing that helps me too is having another project going and when I get too frustrated I put the one aside for awhile.

This is the way I did mine when I quilted large quilts on the machine. But now i use my longarm. You do have such a great feeling of accomplishment after you finish one, even with the difficult job on the machine. I would always feel underneath with one hand to make sure it was smooth. Hang in there- you can do it!

do you have the bicycle clips to keep it rolled up???

I also put pins no farther than hand-width apart and I have a large area of support (around & level with my machine bed) so there is no pulling from the weight of the quilt. Nor do I roll the quilt ... I bunch up and can then easily shove/pull/move??? quilt portions wherever they need to go. I have no room at this time for a long arm/frame; I have machine quilted several very large quilts. I try to always do SID first, then examine the quilt thoroughly front & back before I do more intricate stitching in the individual blocks or pieces. Important for me is to not overdo at one time; I don't allow myself to get tired; better to take many days to complete a quilt than to do myself an injury.

Like you, I attempted to do my very first bed size quilt by machine. I got the center block done and realized very quickly that I would ruin my beautiful top if I attempted any more by machine so I hand quilted it. Yes it took years to complete but it was worth it. Your top is so pretty, I would get a few more smaller quilts under my belt before attempting this, or you can do what I did and finish it up by hand. I love knowing how to handquilt as well as machine quilt.
I highly recommend Harriett Hargrave's book "Heirloom Machine Quilting" for loads of tips and advice. Diane Gaudynski's book "Guide to Machine Quilting" is also great.
To this day I will not machine quilt on my domestic. I got a LA.

I do mine that way, too :D

Personally I HATE the actual quilting part. For now, just go slow. use a walking foot, a table to hold the bulk, and you may want to try a silicon slider or spray on your machine...I have never done that but have heard of it. Next time, try a quilt as you go....the quilt you are showing is perfect for that type of quilting and you only work with a single square at a time.

I sen d mine out to have someone else do it.

When you get to the point of nothing but frustration, you need to walk away from the project for an hour, day, week, whatever. Sometimes just finding the patience makes the project go much smoother. Other than small projects, I quilt by hand as I need to get a break from the machine.

No one ever mentions the method I used for quilting my large quilt with my DSM.
So here it is:
1. lay out your quilt-top, then batting. Making sure your batting is large enough find a nice way to divide in thirds. Each quilt is different so you need to look at yours and see what can be quilted nicely in the first go over.
2. mark two lines, with quilt markers, dividing the batting into manageable thirds. These lines can be gently waving and your markers should be on both sides of the line for matching later (registration lines)
3. cut and remove the two side pieces marking somehow "right" and "left"
4. Lay out the backing, spray the middle, lay down the middle section of the batting, spray and lay down the top
5. Now you are ready to quilt the middle section without all the bulk.
6. When this quilting is finished, fold back the top and the backing and with a wide zigzag stitch stitch the left side batting back in place (use the walking foot) spray this part and continue quilting, repeat with the other.
7. This method really works and it is easy to get that batting sewn together. It will hold with all the quilting you are going to do on it and the wavy line helps to disguise the joining.

Try this method on a table runner or small quilt and see if you understand the cutting, spraying, quilting, joining, spraying, quilting and repeating for you. That's what I did and found my next large quilt was not a struggle for me or my walking foot.

By the way, I think stitching in the ditch is the hardest kind of stitching you can do. It never goes as straight as one would like. Look closely at the picture of the hand quilted one on this thread and that stitching to the side looks great and is much easier even by machine IMHO. Also plan on leaving lots of ends (result of lots of starts and stops) and using an easy threading needle (spiral) to get them tucked in. I personally avoid pinning-they are always in the way.

Quilting a large quilt gives you quite a feeling of accomplishment-it just doesn't all have to be done at once-keep at it.

I agree, you need to start with something smaller. With larger quilts you can roll them, or you can nest them, sort of scrunch the quilt up. Additional support around your sewing machine to hold the quilt is beneficial, an ironing board works well. You don't want the quilt to hang over the edge and drag it in a specific direction. Finally you need way way more than 100 pins! You should not be able to put your fist down without touching a pin.

I find it helps to turn the sewing machine side ways so the the roll goes through the harp from left to right. This gives you a width across the whole quilt to quilt. Once one width is finished, I advance to the next line across from left to right. Give it a try, you might like it better.

First let me say.... beautiful quilt :thumbup:
I understand your frustration. I went thru the same thing for a very long time.. then I was in WalMart one day and saw a Brother SE400 (sewing/embroidery) machine. Very inexpensive.
It is only a 4 x 4 hoop but I really love it for quilting. I download tons of outline stitches from several embroidery sites and love the outcome! I am fortunate in that I have a large kitchen table to lay out the quilt to support the weight. I have done oversized queens in this method.

Hand quilt it with long basting stitches and combine your quilting with hand and machine stitching.

What helped me the most was putting my ironing board perpendicular to my machine to hold up the weight of the quilt and buying a stitch in the ditch foot. These two things together have made me actually enjoy the quilting process. I get a great deal of satisfaction from it.

I did have to learn patience...but then, I am still working on that. I have only been quilting 2 years. It does get easier with practice, and I sure wish I had started on something small...but I didn't.

Your quilt is beautiful, and you will be able to quilt it. Just take your time.

I agree with those who said 'patience'. The first quilts I made were larger queens...and at the time I had a smaller machine. I just took my time.

I think the first reaction for most is to say "oh, I need a a LA " when the truth is everything worth doing well takes practice and patience.

Hang in there.

you can purchase an 18" long arm at wowquilts.com
these are modify sewing machines. they range between $2000-3500. it beats paying $8-11K for a crown jewel or some other nice machine i wish i had the money to spend but i'm happy with my stretched long arm.

That is a GREAT idea...it would feel so much more natural. I will try that tomorrow - I finally turned off the machine tonight =) I know it's not going to look perfect, but I think I am too stubborn to let someone else do it right =)

CrystalTx - you are a genius! I sew batting together all the time but never thought of sewing it as I go!! I just love this idea. It will really help quilting on my DSM. I even have an 18" throat on my machine and it can still be difficult, but now, thanks to you, I have a new plan :thumbup: :lol:

I have turn my machine sideways and it works better. Sewing in the ditch is hard to do.

I use 505 basting spray instead of pins...it works so much better...only 505, though...I found a great video (4 part series) about it, and it also includes all aspects of machine quilting. Its on youtube, here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39I5A3iyCtw
I know it says for free motion quilting, but it is such a great video series in general that it works for stitch in the ditch, too... I have also had so much frustration, and can only say to keep trying! Do google searches, and get all the information you can...this board has great advice, too...as we all know...I also used the following video to make the home made table that helps hold the weight of the quilt, and you make it so your machine will fit down in it...here is that link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g14go...feature=relmfu
I also don't do exactly stitch in the ditch, I stitch about 1/8" away, as I think it just looks nicer, and it can be really hard to stay right in that ditch!
Good luck to you, and please know that it can be done. I really hope you won't give up on it...as your quilt is beautiful!! And if you can piece that, you can quilt it...I am sure it is not as easy to do it on the domestic machines, but I also have several gals in my quilting group that also quilt on their domestics...I really debated sending my 1st one out to be done on the long-arm..but, I really wanted my quilts to be done by me...the whole thing...Lastly if it turns out to be something that just is not going to work on the machine...I hand quilt it!! :-)
Regards,
Kif