Working with large quilts

[Gael P.]

I am a fairly new quilter and am just starting to get into queen-size quilts. I'm finding it incredibly challenging to work on such a scale with the limited amount of space I have in my apartment. Does anyone have any suggestions/tips for working in a small space on a large quilt? I can't keep pushing my furniture out of the way to lay my quilt on the floor! And the weight of it all is literally bringing me down.

[Margo C.]

You might want to check out books like Sharon Pederson's "Reversible Quilts"

http://www.amazon.com/Reversible-Qui...732&sr=1-1

or Georgia Bonesteel's lap quilting books where the quilts are broken into smaller segments and then assembled.

http://www.georgiabonesteel.com/store.html

[Mandella E.]

There's no floor or table area in my house large enough to layer up a queen size quilt for basting. I took the advice of a friend and hired our village hall for an afternoon. It was inexpensive and with my Mum's help we got three done.

[Mandella E.]

No room at my house either. I call the LQS to make sure there's nothing going on and take my stuff there. I bring clamps and tape and something to drink. There's no charge and I get to hang out with quilters at my favorite store.

[Betty J.]

I give mine to my daughter-in-law to quilt who has a long-arm. :lol: :lol: (I know, I'm particularly blessed that way). Hope you can solve it...If you have a home-owner's association sometimes you can rent their space for a bit. Also, some long-armers will baste your quilts for you at a modest price.

[carol m.]

I also have limited space but what I do is:

I have two, 4 drawer sterlite cabinets, and on top of that I have a "big board' and that is next to me when I am sewing. When I need to do a lot of cutting or pin a quilt I remove the big board, place a paper box ( the box that holds reams of computer paper but is now filled with fabric) on each of the cabinets and put the big board on top of the boxes. It is now the correct height. I then put my cutting mats on to protect the ironing surface and I pin away. I start pinning in the middle and then move it to reach other areas. I have done a king size quilts this. By the way, I made my own board out of plywood, 2 or more layers of warm and natural and teflon material. That way I got the size I wanted.

Carol

[carol m.]

I don't have room to spread out anything other than the smallest of quilts at home.. The third quilt I ever made couldn't have laid flat on the floor of our biggest room if I had emptied it.Before I got the longarm I borrowed space wherever I could to layer quilts. The office I worked at were really nice about letting me use meeting rooms out of hours.

I also used wool wadding whenever I could it's lighter and squashes better than most waddings. I found it a lot easier to fit into my domestic machine. I also looked into ways of supporting the weight of the quilt while I was working with ceiling mounted pullys. There are a few on the market for supporting the weight of the quilt, but you could make your own.

The biggest improvements for me were learning not to roll quilts and having a really big extension table for the machine.

I read on another thread that your machine isn't behaving for free motion. Depending on the problem servicing might help, then again it might just not like doing that. I've certainly met Designers that work great, although I think most were using a hopping foot.

Good luck. It's amazing what you can produce in a small space. I only see my work hung at shows and galleries. I sturggle to even pack mine in the house. Anything is possible if you really want it.

Ferret

[Kathryn S.]

I have a cutting table from JoAnn that has 2 drop leaves, so it folds down to about a foot wide and 3 feet across. Usually
there is one leaf up and I use that for cutting. When I want to baste a quilt, I roll the table out more, pull up the other leaf, and
center the backing/batting/quilt on the table, clamp it down, pin the center. Then unclamp, move it over, repeat. It doesn't take
that much time or effort, and it spares me from getting down on the floor. It's worked for queen size quilts. Kathy

[Kathryn S.]

Avoid using cotton or cotton blend battings for large quilts as they are very heavy, wool or lightweight polyester are easiest to handle in the monsters . Also, think about making your quilt with the quilt-as-you-go method, you quilt blocks or panels as you go along and join them all together at the end. Shout if you need advice on techniques (or Google or uTube for the answer)

[Margo C.]

FWIW.....I'm not sure that Ann Tilley (who made the original post) is still participating. She's only made two forum posts so I'm not sure she has come back to see any of the responses. :?

[Hannelore N.]

I think it doesn't really matter, Margo. I bet there are lots of TQS members who read this thread and find it very interesting.

[Hannelore N.]

No one mentioned Sharon Shamber's technique for basting quilts. She uses 2 rails and can baste a quilt on a table. I use my Flynn Frame rails. Part of the success is from heavily spray starching the backing and lightly starching the quilt top. Then when spreading them out and rolling them on the rails, they stay very nice and flat and smooth. It's easy to roll a foot or so out at a time and baste. She has videos at her website. Check it out! It works great. I used the technique for a king sized quilt and had no puckers on the back at all.

Nancy in western NY State

[Hannelore N.]

Thank y'all so much! I am reading the responses and I really think the problem is my heavy batting. I'm using Warm and Natural cotton and I think when I move to anything larger than double size, I'll just move to a different batting. Thank you for helping me out.

[Pat L.]

Thank you all for the advice, that's one of things I love about this site. I also have the small space problem,so you have given me some great ideas and as I am nearing that point on the Stars for a New Day, I definitely will try something other then the floor. Happy Quilting, Pat

[Pat L.]

i use Sharon Schamber technique to batting my quilt.
i have 3 table surface from ikea, and 6 table foots, i hide it most of the time behind the curtains, when i need it, i clear my living room and my eating corner, i put those 3 'tables' and use 2 long wooden bars (See sharon schamber technique) the only thing, that i do different is that i spray glue and not sew the batting.
last quilt i did was broader then the tables so i had one shelf from one of my cubed (with SS technique you need aprox 20" only)
good luck