Hi,
I'm still trying to figure all this out. How do you know where to start the quilting stiches at when your sewing you layers together and where do you find the designs?
Some of the quilts I've been looking at have real close stitching and not so close, which is the best??

Most quilters start in the middle of the quilt and work their way out. The closeness of the quilting depends on the type of batting you use. It will state on the batting what the minimum amount of quilting you can use is for that batting. Also, personal taste comes into play for the amount of quilting. Some folks like heavy quilting, some don't.

Quilting designs can be found in many places. There are stencils available at quilt shops, hobby stores and online. The quilting can also just follow the lines of the blocks.

Thanks for your help, that makes sense. Have another question. Is it hard to move your quilt on your machine to do the quilting? Since I have a queen size bed that's what I would want to make. It just seems like alot of material on the side where your machine is. Not sure if that makes sense!!

It depends on how large of a throat space you have but a lot of quilters still are able to quilt queen size quilts on their domestic machines. You just stuff the quilt through the throat. Also quilt only about 1/4 of the quilt at a time. So you start out in the middle and work one quadrant at a time, for example the lower right corner. Then you might do the lower or upper right quadrant and so on until you're finished. So you're really never stuffing the whole width or length through the throat at one time.
Good luck and show us pictures.

For quilting designs. Check out
www.quiltingstencils.com

YES! I was about to type the same thing! LOL!

Jan in VA

In my opinion, starting with a queen size quilt might be difficult. That's not to say it can't be done. Many people start big, but you might want to consider a smaller project first just to see how you like quilting. A queen size quilt will be expensive just for the fabric.

It can be hard to move a large quilt around in that tiny space. I always start in the middle because that is the hardest area to do, then it starts to get better. I also just used sewing silicone spray for the first time, and I think that helped a lot. Just spray it on your machine carriage and your desk and wipe off. Makes things a bit slicker.

My second quilt was a king size that I quilted on my dinky Brother mechanical. I only did SITD and I did have to pull it through the throat, but, it came out fine. I set the blocks on the diagonal, and did start in the middle and worked out, so that way, less of the quilt was under the throat at a time. At least that's how I remember it now.