Ack I'm making a monster

I just finished a 92" x 92" and did the majority of it on a regular Bernina machine. You can do that by starting at the middle and tightly rolling the quilt and, slowly moving the quilt through the harp. People have been doing that for as long as there have been sewing machines. It is a bit difficult for the first few passes, but it gets easier with every pass of the fabric. It helps if you have a large surface to support the overhang of the quilt, so that it doesn't drag on the quilt when you are handling it. I think you should be able to do it, as it is not as large as a king size and those are done by some people on a frequent basis. It just takes patience . Good luck.

John

Sunny-

What I do is make the quilt in 4 sections (or more) and quilt each section and join the sections when I've finish quilting each of them. It's much like quilt as you go or quilting a block at a time, but you're doing 1/4 of the quilt at a time. Consider trying it that way. Otherwise, what John says works. I've wrassled an over-sized queen thru a regular sewing machine quite a few times (and one king-size). Start in the center area when you're fresh and then it gets easier as you work your way out from there.

If you need more info on quilting it in four or more sections, just ask. We all have lots of advice to share. And if there's no math involved, I'm probably still coherent enough to give you a good answer! VBG

Leslie- fighting a fast approaching deadline on two quilts, Missy & The Furbabies in MO.

I've quilted king and queen size quilts on my regular home machine. As others have said, the center is the hardest -- get that done and it gets easier. If you can cut away some of the batting temporarily, while you quilt the center, that will help reduce the bulk. That's what I did with the trip around the world at .

It sounds like you have the top already done (or almost done), so the technique that I describe at probably won't help you, although if you haven't added the borders, you could quilt the center before adding the borders. That might help a bit.

Julia in MN

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----------- Sunny wrote:

Thanks for asking.... I think??? ;-) Not great- I'm light-headed, dizzy and shaking- and salivating... very weird. Not great.

Leslie, Missy & The Furbabies in MO.

Hey Leslie -

Hate to ask but how is the no-smoking going? Been there done that and I feel for ya........but we all know you can do it.

Hang in there! You have a huge cheering section! Just a minute at a time...then an hour....etc. You CAN do it!!!!! You know you can!!!!!

Does your doctor know you are quitting Leslie? It might be a good idea to mention it. I know you didn't want to take any medication, but it's probably not a bad to keep them informed.

That's true ... I've always heard that when you're quittin' smokin' your cough gets much, much worse temporarily (while your lungs clear out the nasties you've been forcin' into'em). Your doc should know in case you need an nebulizer to make the coughin' tolerable ... or so he doesn't diagnose you with something horrible unknowingly!

When I "quit" last time (about 15 years ago), I coughed something fierce. My doc put me on a nebulizer and "breathing treatments" to make it easier for me to breathe ... it did make it a lot easier to breathe - and I really think therefore, easier to quit (I had been beginning to figure that if I'm going to cough THAT bad as a non-smoker, I might as well smoke!).

My two cents. :)

Again, Leslie, you really have my admiration ... and my prayers, Darlin'. I'm rooting for you!! :)

-- Connie :)

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Doing it as John has spoken of I have managed some pretty ginormous quilts on my little Bantam (about the size of a featherweight). I think the biggest I have done that way on that machine came out 98x110 finished.

If you are going in that direction I strongly suggest doing an X corner to corner and then quilting it by quarters with either a lot of straight lines, or a meander. You will make yourself just crazy trying to do anything the least bit fancy with a big quilt and a little machine. Well, crazier anyway. (G)

So Leslie, doing it the way you are talking about, do you ever do unpieced backings? or always seperate and distinct quarters?

I have had sort of idle notions of pieceing directly onto the backing and batting with a quilt as you go thing going on. Sort of the biggest most planned out foundation piecing project ever. Doing the batt in pieces you would be able to easily manage a pretty big quilt on a pretty small machine. Idle notions they remain however. Maybe someday with something like hexagons, a peeled orange or one of the interlocking mosaic patterns where it would be as easy to do it as a whole as in pieces.

NightMist

That really sounds rough, Leslie! I hope the nasties subside soon, but do try to hang in there and not let it beat you! (It can't be as bad as learning FM quilting, and you conquered that!) ;) chipper

Or don't roll it at all, and work on a section at a time: much easier to handle. I do free-motion stitch in the ditch rather than side to side, and yes, I have quilted MUCH bigger than 86" square....just remember, the only part that has to be flat is the part that's right under the needles: the rest can pretty much do what you want so long as it doesn't hang off the table and cause drag on the needle. I sort of scrunch up the part that's under the harp, and let the rest puddle on the table. However, I do spray baste rather than pin baste so I have a more stable quilt sandwich to work with.

I'm not good at photographing the actual quilting, but you can get an idea of the kind of stuff I do at

That's strange, I am always light headed, dizzy, and salivating, and I haven't smoked in 35 years. I guess it is not related to your experience.

John

Well, you might want it just a couple of inches bigger.... go check your bed fully made up, not just the mattress size. This size is definitely doable -lots of us have lived through it. You can do it in sections as some have suggested. It also works to divide the batting in, say, thirds. Quilt the middle bit, which will fit pretty well in the throat space without bulky batting, then the sides. Or go get some practice on the longarm! Roberta in D

"Sunny" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@e10g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

We all go thru the weird salivating, dizzy stage....of course...John more than most!! LOL! amy in CNY

I talked to DH last night and we both agreed that it's time for me to have a practice session on the long arm and then long arm this quilt. Russ looked at it a long time, very thoughtfully, and t hen said 'there's no way you're going to spend that many hours on your hands and knees on the floor pinning that thing together.' He's right. It would be more than painful.

I don't know how I'm going to quilt it. Straight lines just don't seem right. Probably some sort of meander -- keep it simple. But I might try something bold in the borders. I can see meandering the center and trying something like a form of sashiko on the outermost border. I've been practicing that on my home machine and I can do it ok (not good, just ok). The marking is the hard part, LOL. I have a nasty tendency to smudge the part already marked while marking new lines.

Anyway, thanks for all the advice. I need to think now. Next time I will be smart and try the quilt in sections thing. But remember, I didn't plan on this being a monster quilt. It was supposed to be a quiet little lap quilt. LOL

Sunny

Sunny, I quilted this one: on my sewing machine. Granted, one dimension isn't as large as yours, but the other is larger. I simply started in the center and worked my way out, and it wasn't bad at all. Yes, I prefer quilting smaller pieces, but this one was just fine. I hope that was enough of a pep talk to give you a bit of confidence.

86X86, big? Nope! I've got a 110X110 to quilt somehow, and I'm not even sure I can sandwich the monstrosity much less feed it through my machine. I do have a plan though. I'm going to hand quilt the center medallion, about 3 feet square, and then machine quilt the rest. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Leslie: With the money you will save on cigarettes, you will be able to splurge on a trip to Houston or Paducah! I've been to Houston three times since I quit smoking!

Here's a hint: while you are in the house, be ready to leave instantly (shoes, sweater, purse and keys nearby) and then when you want a smoke, you just LEAVE! Go walk it off ... in the neighborhood, in a gym, or in a mall. When I first quit, I must have gone on several walks every day. I did it ... you can too.

Hugs, PAT