Can anyone beat this Boo-boo??
#11
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Ellenboro, NC
Posts: 87
I have a 5' long arm frame with, of course, even less width available for quilting. it really doesn't do anything more than a baby quilt. Buuuut, I have quilted many twin and queen sizes on it anyway. If you are only a few inches off, you can certainly make it work. it's not easy, and you have to modify your quilt pattern but it is possible. This really only works for a meander type of quilt pattern or a very custom pattern where you have individual sections or blocks to worry about at a time.
You unfortunately have to baste the layers together in any traditional way, because you will have significant difficulty keeping the wrinkles out of your back and avoiding the layers shifting if you do not baste.
Pin the quilt to your leaders, but don't line up the centers. instead, orient it so that you can quilt from the leftt edge over as far as your machine allows it.
I use quilt clips and treat the whole clip as a "floated" top.
Stitch what you can and rol the quilt like normal. (if using a meandering pattern, be sure to leave a very irregular edge on the right so that you can integrate it better in the end without a visual line).
You will probably only be able to roll the quilt a few times before the quilt starts getting real funky because the right side just is not going to roll properly.
At some point, unpin the top then repin again, but this time orienting it so that you can quilt form the middle (or where you left off) all the way over to the end of the right side.
When you roll as far as you feel comfortable, unpin again and re pin. but this time from the bottom on the quilt in the same 2 ways listed above.
If you are really lucky, then that is all you need to do! but that is unlikely.....
so, then, I unpin everything again and I use more quilt clips to position the quilt onto the back bars (this may not make sense, so I can give pictures if needed) and just keep repositioning as needed to finish all the quilting.
Yes, this is a pain in the butt, but i don't have any choice. if this is kind of sort of is the solution you're looking for, let me know and I can clarify the bits that don't make sense!
You unfortunately have to baste the layers together in any traditional way, because you will have significant difficulty keeping the wrinkles out of your back and avoiding the layers shifting if you do not baste.
Pin the quilt to your leaders, but don't line up the centers. instead, orient it so that you can quilt from the leftt edge over as far as your machine allows it.
I use quilt clips and treat the whole clip as a "floated" top.
Stitch what you can and rol the quilt like normal. (if using a meandering pattern, be sure to leave a very irregular edge on the right so that you can integrate it better in the end without a visual line).
You will probably only be able to roll the quilt a few times before the quilt starts getting real funky because the right side just is not going to roll properly.
At some point, unpin the top then repin again, but this time orienting it so that you can quilt form the middle (or where you left off) all the way over to the end of the right side.
When you roll as far as you feel comfortable, unpin again and re pin. but this time from the bottom on the quilt in the same 2 ways listed above.
If you are really lucky, then that is all you need to do! but that is unlikely.....
so, then, I unpin everything again and I use more quilt clips to position the quilt onto the back bars (this may not make sense, so I can give pictures if needed) and just keep repositioning as needed to finish all the quilting.
Yes, this is a pain in the butt, but i don't have any choice. if this is kind of sort of is the solution you're looking for, let me know and I can clarify the bits that don't make sense!
#12
Power Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Southern USA
Posts: 16,515
The LA I use loads a bigger quilt then she has room for and leaves the extra off the frame and then reloads it to do the rest. I don't know how, she just told me that is what she did when I had her quilt a larger size. It looked great and I was proud to give it to my daughter as a wedding quilt.
#15
BooBoo
I found out last night that i had made the biggest boo-boo in my quilting life. I made my daughter a Lone Star Quilt for Christmas. I didn't gt it quilted though so gave her the top. Everything good so far. Here's where it get funny! I have to laugh or I would be crying. I have a 10' frame which would be 120". (But that is the inches from the outside of the frame) so I have about 110" on the roller. Backing is 108" but the quilt is 119"... Whoops. So I am needing to take off at least 14". The quilt is square so I can't turn it sideways. Does anyone know of any other way to fix this?
I have never quilted on a frame but wish you the best!!
#16
Junior Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Butte, Montana
Posts: 185
It looks like you have nice wide borders. It's a bit of work but what I have done in this situation is take off the two side borders and quilted the quilt without quilting the top and bottom borders. I then reattached the side borders, check to make sure they are still the right length, you might get a little quilting shrinkage. Then I just did straight line quilting in the border making a square framing effect. Good luck.
Your quilt is beautiful!
Your quilt is beautiful!
#20
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: northern minnesota
Posts: 2,480
umm...I have a 12 foot frame cuz I would run into the occasional same problem with my 10 foot frame...but if I ever do a quilt that needs a 14 foot frame....I would probably send it out to another quilter with a bigger frame....or I would check and see if I could rent time on one with a bigger frame....we have a local quilt shop that does this but you need to take a class first and then it is an hourly fee and I probably would just say...here you do it...I will pay you....but it is another option....I think they still let people rent the machines now but limit the times, number of folks in the shop, and you have to wear a mask.