How do you control your quilt when you are machine quilting???!!!
 

I have a Twin XL quilt that I am machine quilting.. and it is quite a handful. I roll up both sides and quilt in the middle.. but how do you guys keep these quilts in control?

I bought some Dritz Quilting Soft Grip Oval Quilt Clips.. these are OK but only when there is plenty of fabric.. otherwise they just fall off.

Is there anyway to make these grip tighter? Or what do you guys use?

I have those but have only used them on a large crib quilt. Stopped the other day at a friend's mother's house. Didn't know she quilted. She uses the only machine she has ever had. It's a Singer REd Eye and beautiful. What I found her using was she carefully rolls the edges of the quilt then puts a 2 ft piece of trim molding on top and on bottom of each side. She then uses the large clamps (black w/red grips) to keep them in place. By doing it like this there are no clamp impressions on the quilts. The trim molding is the vinyl that has been prepainted. Paint doesn't come off. She said she's been doing it like this for years. She does some beautiful quilting.

What a great idea!! That's why we seek the advise of out elders!!

I've rolled the sides then used clothes pins to hold the ends. Works pretty good.

I don't roll up the quilt areas that I am not working on....it makes it much more difficult for me to fmq larger patterns.....I "puddle"....which is basically just scrunching up the quilt around the work area.....I also keep my ironing board to the left of my sewing table to keep the bulk of the quilt off the floor and not pulling against me while quilting.....with all parts of the quilt supported, I just center my hands around the work area of the quilt to keep the fabrics smooth and taut, then move the quilt under the needle... I don't use anything special to grip the quilt, that just gets in the way for me....I did have problems this summer when the humidity was high, but I just worked on something else, but you will need to make sure the area around the needle is slippery.

Why roll it. Check out you tube for HM quilting. I also took a craftys class and sure helped me. Did my first king on my machine and didn't use clips. Check them out.

I puddle my quilt, too. I usually roll up the sides to start out but it gets unrolled pretty quickly...... It's too much effort to keep rolling back up. Since I start in the middle and work my way toward the sides, it get's easier as I go.

I used to roll the quilt under the arm, but later found out that accordion pleating is much easier to handle. Just make large folds to create the accordion pleating under the arm.

Should add that I tried bicycle clips a long time ago, when I still rolled. What I find is that anything like that ends up getting in the way. Loose accordion pleating lends itself to re-arrangement easily and does not stiffen the quilt the way rolling does.

Some people fashion "bungee-type clothes lines" from the ceiling to clip to the tail end of their quilt. This takes the weight off.You put the clips of the line to the ends of your quilt that are one the other side of the sewing machine, i.e. what you have already sewn. I haven't done it, however, if I were to quilt a large quilt on a domestic, I would surely try it.

Check out Leah Day's FMQ class on Craftsy. She explains about puddling the quilt and talks about keeping the weight of the quilt from putting drag on the quilt. Also, I think there is a thread with photos showing someone's system for holding up the quilt to keep it from dragging.