penski

the only way you can find out if you can do it is to try!! you have to start somewhere so i say give it a try!!! thats how i started on my small Kenmore sewing machine, and i quilt all my quilts

TN Gal

Spray basting is really great if you cover everything that may be in the area! Sticky stuff!!! I use it a lot on small items. Looks like you've gotten lots of helpful tips!

TammyB

I would send it out. You can get a simple all over quilt design completed in my area for about $125. A queen size on your little machine will probably be too much especially if this is your first quilt. You'll have to keep rolling and unrolling, turning, etc. Try a wall quilt first and see how it goes for you.

Jennoh2

I machine stitched my first quilt - a twin size on my brother machine. It is a cheap little lightweight - and it actually was easier to maneuver than my much more expensive babylock. Only have to remember to start at the middle and work your way out. The walking foot is great. You may get a little more "bunching" on the backing than a professional who can stretch the material - but that's what doing it yourself is all about. And WOW - do you feel a sense of accomplishment when you've finished.

SharonTheriault

As has already been said, Practice, Practice, Practice. I start out with muslin sandwiched with my batting of choice. Draw what I want on paper a couple of times to get it set in my head and hand. Then do it on the muslin a couple of times before I ever go the the quilt. Good luck.

Stacey

I've done 2 queens on my DSM and cussed myself up and down the whole time, both times. More so the second time. Like, what was I thinking? It can be done but it is definitely not fun.

weezie

I've always quilted my own (all large quilts); I have heavy machines. My goal now is to have total control over free motion stitching ... I can do a meander stitch just fine, but I want to do accurate designs (feathers, flowers, whatever) and have them look good. So, I have taken 2 really large pieces of REALLY ugly fabric, put a quilt batting (bought @ half-price) between the 2 uglies, thereby making a practice quilt. I would recommend this method ... practice on a large "sandwich" until you are confident that you can do a large pieced quilt or discover that you cannot do it. It would also be a way of deciding your preferred basting method. If you do not already own ugly fabric and feel that it is to your advantage to buy some for practice, get something that has at least straight lines on it (like a plaid?); if you can get both straight & curved lines, better yet .... to serve as sewing guides, saving you the time/effort of marking the practice quilt using templates.

KSue

I send my quilts out to be quilted because I just don't have the time to quilt them myself. I work full time and I started doing this last year when I made my grandchildren Christmas quilts. It took a lot of pressure off of me. Yes, it does run into money but worth it to me.

Debbie B

I have a Brother XR 9000 and it has a small throat space, too. Is your quilting foot a walking foot or free motion foot, and does your machine have the drop feed? You can definitely quilt on these machines, but here are some suggestions from me...1) read some books & watch some you tube videos on machine quilting 2) get a pair of quilting gloves 3) make some 12" squares & sandwich them to practice on before you actually try on your quilt 4)use basting spray along with your pins 5) put an ironing board or a small table to hold up the sides of the quilt while you're quilting. Some say to roll your quilts, but I found this to be a pain and I just sort of wad the quilt up against the machine. Also, start in the middle & work your way out. My first try at FMQ was a queen sized quilt (what was I thinking?) & I went from edge to edge. Big mistake!! There were lots of puckers. Spend several evenings ripping out the stitches to start over. Oh yeah, start with a meandering stipple and not a pattern. Good luck!

Prism99

I don't know of internet instructions for this, but there well could be.

You typically want to machine quilt through the center of the quilt first. In order to make sure your first line begins and ends in the area you want, lay down a piece of blue painter's tape 4 to 6 inches apart as guidelines. Make your first wavy line with the walking foot between the tape strips. This can be through the center of the quilt, through the diagonal, or in whatever direction you want the lines to go. (Blue painter's tape sticks but is easy to remove and does not leave residue.)

A lot of walking feet come with a measuring guide attachment you can use for subsequent lines; basically keeping the guide on your previous line of stitching so that your current line is following the same path. However, I really believe it is not necessary to be so exact. I just decide how far apart my next wavy line is going to be and "eyeball" it as I sew. It doesn't need to be perfectly aligned with previous stitching to look nice.

Make a practice quilt sandwich and experiment making wavy lines with your walking foot. What I do is simply guide the fabric left and right as I sew. It's easiest to do gently wavy lines with fairly long, large curves. If the curves are too tight, it kind of takes the fun out of it because you have to maneuver the bulk of the quilt too much. What you want is a nice, steady pace for the walking foot that allows you to gently move the fabric left and right.

When you make your first line through the middle of the quilt, you will find out why so many people are cautioning you about a queen-size quilt on a domestic machine. It's *hard* to fit that much bulk under the arm of the machine! Your first line will be the hardest, and you will need to stop and start frequently to adjust the quilt bulk. After the middle line, each subsequent line is easier because there is less bulk under the arm.

Before starting, you might want to mark the center of the quilt with a piece of tape, then bunch up the quilt to slide half of it under the arm. That will give you an idea of what you will be working with.