Just curious (yes, it's an on-topic question...)

Has anyone ever quilted a king-size quilt on a home machine?

King size, according to my pattern packet, is 118" x 118".

Yes, I mean quilted, not pieced.

Having just about finished my thus-far-largest project, my ambitions are turning to the next one: a REAL quilt for our king-size bed. The spousal euphemism is a big guy. We have 3 cats. There's storage underneath. We NEED the king bed, and have been making do with queen-size duvets so far. I have the pattern, the base fabric (the remains of one queen-size batik comforter set that suffered some cat-wrath), the background, and I'm gathering the required FQs.

The thing is, of course this will be huge. I don't think my sewing room is 118" across. It would be entirely sensible to have someone with a longarm do the quilting for me. But, I'm rather attached to the idea of my work being "my work". I like the idea of doing the quilting myself, I enjoy the process. But I have a small room and a Janome.

Does anyone in the world either rent out their longarm, or provide lessons-as-you-go? I will of course start sniffing around the guild that I joined in September. I've already learned of a business that does long-arm for you, and I'm sure they're good, but I don't know yet if I want to give it all up.

Comments welcome - I'm just in the idea phase now.

Johanna

Reply to
FurrsomeThreesome
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Johanna, I don't know how it is where you are, but here all of the quilt shops that have long arm machines typically rent out time on the machine. You have to take a class or two first and learn how to use it, then you pay per hour or per square foot, depending on the shop. Usually people rent a short amount of time to practice on smaller quilts prior to taking on a big project. I'm saving my nickels and dimes to do a big quilt on the long arm. This, of course, assuming that I ever make a big quilt. And finish it.

Good luck, and keep us posted. I also have big DH -- 6'4". He wants me to make a quilt for our bed that will be big enough to cover us and both the dogs too. LOL. Let me know how it turns out. I also have a small sewing room and a Janome. Sunny

FurrsomeThreesome wrote:

Reply to
Sunny

Reply to
Dorothy McNutt

Jeepers you are game! Just sewing the binding on a queen size quilt on a Janome nearly drove me bananaas. heaven help my sanity if I decided to quilt on it! Good luck!!

Reply to
Sharon Harper

I hear it can be done but the mind boggles. If you go to

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you can see some of the quilts by Caryl Bryer Fallert. I believe her earlier quilts were quilted on a 'standard' machine, but am not certain. I know it is only comparitively recently she obtained a long arm machine but I suppose that does not necessarily mean her quilts were quilted on a standard.

Reply to
Edward W. Thompson

I would most definitely quilt this in sections, Johanna. There are several ways of doing this - and there are many entries in our Archives about the various methods. 'Quilt as you go' and 'Quilting in sections' as search keywords might get you to the right places. You can decide whether you are going to quilt each block - and join them with the sashing; or you can quilt in large sections, 3 or 4, as has already been suggested; or you can leave the quilt whole but have the batting in sections - do the centre section first and the two outer ones. This means that there isn't so much bulk under the machine. There are definitely ways to do this. If you are one for learning from books - Georgia Bonesteel has written several books on this subject.

Good luck. Well done for thinking ahead!! . In message , FurrsomeThreesome writes

Reply to
Patti

Are you crazy? I've never quilted anything bigger than 90 X 95" :-) Although an extra 10-15" should be possible...

If you can't rent a longarm, maybe quilt-as-you-go would work for you. Do the monster in 3 sections, buttoned together (Georgia Bonesteel has a button arrangement in one of her books). Then you could take it apart for washing, and it would fit in your washer too! Roberta in D

"FurrsomeThreesome" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@11g2000cwr.googlegroups.com...

Reply to
Roberta Zollner

I quilted my king-size on a Singer Rocketeer. It was bulky to maneuver under the arm, but patience and good close pin basting went a long way to making it easier. Of course, this was straight-line quilting using my walking foot. I have yet to attempt free-motion.

Reply to
Valerie in FL

Yes, I have. I used very thin cotton batting, though, hoping to "decrease" the headache. Didn't work. It's something I'll never try again. I've sworn off king size after that monster. There is a picture of the finished top in my webshots album as "Tulip Quilt from Hell." I still haven't received pictures of the finished quilt as it lays on mom's bed, though.

Anastasia

--whose classes start up again today! Hopefully it's a less-intense semester!

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Reply to
Teacher Gal

Yes, I have machine quilted a California king-sized quilt on my Pfaff

7530. It was a batik quilt with Warm and Natural batting. It required some skootching around when working in the middle, but it's do-able. Would I do it again? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the quilt. For larger quilts I now mostly have them done at the shop where I work. But we only do a computer generated, side-to-side pattern. If the quilt needs something else, I'd do it myself. Whether I'd do the quilt in sections and join them after quilting depends on the pattern I'd chosen. Some work well, some won't. Plus, the joining can be a pain because you're still wrestling the monster thru the sewing machine.

joan

joan

Reply to
joan8904 in Bellevue Nebraska

There's a book out there called Divide and Conquer. I haven't tried the technique yet but it sounds very interesting.

Basically you divide your batting into thirds. Quilt the center first up to a certain number of inches away from the edge of the batting. Whip stitch one side of the batting to the center and quilt that side then turn the quilt around and repeat with the other side. Doing it this way, only the top and backing (which scrunches up more and takes up much less room) goes under the throat area.

That's probably clear as mud but you might want to check out the book.

Reply to
Jeri

Reply to
John

are bicycle clips really that hard to get there?? every bicycle shop and then some have them over here!

Reply to
Jessamy

In 1978 I machine quilted a Cal. King for my folks 30th anniversary. I sewed a lot back then but was a kid and wasn't a quilter. I pinned that sucker with straight pins and quilted it on my Kenmore machine. We are talking poly batting. Yuck. It came out surprisingly well but I am not sure how. The blocks were machine appliquéd with only pinning the appliqués on. Looking back it was pretty amazing. I'm glad I have improved a lot but mostly glad I have a zillion safety pins! Perseverance is an amazing thing. Taria

joan8904 > Yes, I have machine quilted a California king-sized quilt on my Pfaff

Reply to
Taria

Reply to
John

oh those horrid new fangled ones that are easy to loose :-S yes I'm lucky to live here - I can get any kind of bike I want at a reasonable price and kids bikes come with hand *and* back pedal breaks. and bike paths often have right of way too :_) (just to make you more green )

I don't own a car but I do own a bike (back pedal) and a kiddiecar trailer for the kids to sit in and after next summer I fully expect my then 6 year old to bike next to me on his bike when we go somewhere - he just needs to loose the trainer wheels he has :-)

Reply to
Jessamy

Most of the ones here are reflective flexible strips that attach with Velcro. As for me, I don't wear them because I don't wear jeans when biking. If I'm commuting on the bike, I throw the jeans in the bike pack and put them on over my bike pants. (Or change into them if facilities are available).

However, all is not lost. Most of the quilt shops here carry clips. :)

Reply to
Kathy Applebaum

Yup.

Before I had my longarm, I quilted two king-sized quilts on my home machine. I don't remember the exact dimensions, but I make my bed quilts quite generously sized (living with a guy who steals covers has taught me the joy of large quilts! LOL), so they were big.

Baste it well, roll it tight, and take lots of breaks. I would quilt for 20 minutes, take a 20 minute break.

Reply to
Kathy Applebaum

they do here too.. at twice the price ore more :-S

around here most standard bikes have chain covers so one can wear anything on a bike and not get caught - well except that one time when the cover was broken and I got stuck in the chain a friendly shopkeeper cut me loose all the while worrying that my father would get upset with him destroying my trousers - actually my dad took him a bottle of wine as a thank you LOL

Reply to
Jessamy

Yes. I've done at least one king-size and several queen size on my Elna. I have used the bicycle clips, but find it easier without them. The first ones I did, I had the entire top and all the backing and batting. Then I tried doing one in sections; I have documented what I did at . More recently, I have done several by cutting away part of the batting around the outer edges of the quilt while I quilt the center, and then add the batting back before quilting the outer areas. Read a little more and see the quilts at and . Marti Mitchell has a book called "Machine Quilting in Sections" that has a lot of different ways to reduce the bulk when quilting a big quilt.

Julia in MN

Reply to
Julia in MN

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