I would find another quilter with a larger LA. That is a wonderful quilt.

That is a beautiful quilt. I would not cut it down the center & have it quilted as 2 separate units. You will be loosing 1/2" when you sew it back together. I like Gay's suggestion above about removing the borders & hopefully the quilt would then fit your quilter's machine. Then you could add the borders back on when it comes back from the quilter & do the border quilting on your domestic machine. If that will not work I would find a different quilter & just pay outright for it if you can afford to.
What a treasure you have in that quilt. Give it a lot of thought before you jump into something you will regret.

Because this quilt is important to you (sentiment) I would find a longarmer that has a longer frame to quilt it. I would not dismantle parts of it and hope to get it back together after it is quilted. Besides that——-look how long it took to get it together the first time.......you don’t want to take that long to reattach everything.....and who will be quilting that part???

You can continue to trade with your friend on other projects. Pay for this one. An edge-to-edge will be reasonable (especially for the size of this top).

Speaking from experience: I had some borders I did not like after I had quilted and bound a quilt. I cut them off and re-bordered, quilted and bound the edges. It was a major feat to do this but here’s why I would not do it again.....the quilt does not hang straight....did not look so good hanging in a show. Not worth the hassles.

So glad to see you back Wendy and what a lovely top. So many people did so many wonderful things and I just sat on my squares...

Don't change it. It's a huge quilt but maybe someone with a sit down machine would be willing to do it.

since you barter for the work...I'd agree with your plan to take off the excess and make it into whatever you will do for the backing. And way more interesting than just a big piece of fabric.

well done Wendy, I didn't participate but knew many people who worked this exchange on all the groups :) and I dearly love the actual Y2K fabric that still surfaces occasionally.

Find someone with a larger frame, mine is 14' long and it can be done. Try Missouri Star Company, they quilt for people.

Too late to edit!

After thinking about it, I think to take off the borders and incorporate them on the back with the story, they can frame the story even. I've been adding in stuff that didn't make it to the front of the quilt into the back and rather enjoy it.

Yes, your printer should be able to print on fabric just fine, follow the directions, since it is important if they have an optional step with retayne or other substance, do that too!

You have an established relationship with your quilter and that is important in bartering relationships.

That's quite an amazing quilt top. I love the rainbow effect.

I'm going to side with the ones who said to find a quilter who can handle this size. I think your quilter could easily understand why you wouldn't want to have the quilting done in sections. Especially if you often let her do quilts that are appropriate for her machine. I added a row in the middle of one of my quilts, but it involved a lot of hand work to get it right. Also, you'd be joining the batting, which might or might not be a problem someday. It would be a shame to have to add a random seam anywhere on the back, and it might be hard to reseam the top just the way it should be and currently is. (I assume you were being facetious when you typed "cut" the top, which made my heart skip a beat!) Also, there's probably no seam on each side of the inner border in a place that would work for separating the halves, nor seams in the pieced border that would line up with blocks in the center area. I had to add pieces to my narrow border when I opened seams to add a row. If you still want your quilter to do it, your best bet would be to take off the two wider pieced borders (If they add up to at least 31 inches) and add them later, and maybe do the quilting on the border on a sit down machine. If they are side borders, it will be an area that gets relatively little stress when the quilt is in use, and the handwork that's involved in joining the back will hold up better there.

Your Epson is an inkjet printer if doesn't use toner. Good luck, and please show us when it's done!

ya'll are a wealth of information. I'm so glad I posted, . Off to play with that. Thanks for all the input. I'm going to practice seaming quilted stuff and see how it does. I'm very fly by the seat and it will never be "shown" so I don't have to fret about all that.

I just have to say I've seen plenty of quilts in quilt shows that were no prettier than this one of yours. Don't sell yourself short! I see no reason at all why this one shouldn't be shown. You have great color sense and the design is very appealing. The workmanship looks great, too. In fact, after all you've put into this, showing it is something you should definitely consider.

This is the first post I've seen of yours, and I tried to find the rest of the story. So I found the first one, but I'm not able to find anything about when or where you found the blocks, and I'm curious to know that. In any case, I'm very happy for you that they turned up.