justflyingin

You do it. I've done 110"x110" on my Janome 7700 and now 8900. The 11" harp /throat really helps. I've done some queen size on a little Pfaff Hobby and it wasn't fun. the big throat made all the difference in the world. Also, there wa sa huge difference in how heavy the machine is, as it isn't easy to push all over the place!

rryder

I have done queen sized quilts on my old domestic (Brother VX560) which has a 7.5" throat space, and although that machine does a beautiful job of FMQ, putting that large a quilt through the throat isn't much fun. It is doable as long as you have really good support on the left and to the back of the machine. For the larger quilts I rigged up a quilt suspension system using a couple of floor standing speaker poles, bungie cords and clamps (see Leah Day's website for ideas on doing something similar with hooks in the ceiling instead of the speaker poles). The suspension system really helped in managing the large quilts.

Quilt as you go is a good alternative to having to manage the bulk of a large quilt, but I find I'm not always happy with the look that is achieved when joining the pieces together. Another thing you can do is split your batting, but keep the quilt top and backing whole, this reduces a lot of bulk and the finished project looks just like a quilt that was quilted as a whole. For that reason it's my preferred method of quilting large quilts on a regular sized domestic machine. The only difficulty with doing it this way is that you have to be very careful to keep the part of the backing and top that don't have batting in them yet from getting under the part you are quilting (Yes, my seam ripper and I have experience with this issue LOL).

Check out Anne Pederson's Craftsy course on Quilting large projects on a small machine. She is an excellent teacher and shows several different ways you can accomplish the task. Also Cindy Needham has a Craftsy class where she addresses this issue. Marti Michell has a Craftsy class where she does a very good job of showing a variety of the Quilt As You Go methods that she has developed and you may find something that you like there. I am a little too impatient to enjoy using her methods, as they can be rather fussy if you want to get a nice looking result (especially on the back of your quilt if using the joining strip methods).

Nowadays I quilt all my quilts on the PQ1500s which has a larger throat (9" wide and also taller than the average domestic machine) and I find it much easier and therefore more fun to do the larger quilts.

As far as injuring yourself quilting on a domestic machine I suspect that most people run into trouble due to a couple of different issues having to do with a. improper ergonomics and b. not having enough support for the quilt, which can cause quite a bit of resistance. Both of these problems will cause additional stress to shoulder and neck muscles.

Rob