Ladyjanedoe

Pat,
I LOVE your pug. We have two and they are the sweetest dogs :)

Prism99

To starch the backing, I use a 1:1 solution of Sta-Flo and water on the yardage before cutting and piecing. My method is to "paint" the starch on with a large wall painting brush until the fabric is saturated, unfold and toss in dryer, then iron with steam.

What brand and model is your machine? I think some do not have a strong enough motor to handle using a walking foot on a large quilt. If there isn't enough power to the feed dogs, you could get the kind of problem you are experiencing. The only solution I can think of is to make sure that you *lift* the quilt up in front of the needle so you are feeding it from slightly above. That way there is no drag from the quilt hanging over the edge of your working surface. You would need to do stop and lift about every 10 inches so that the quilt is constantly being fed from above.

The solution for FMQ would be similar except that in this case you need to make sure there is a foot of quilt "loose" in all directions. This is the nesting technique I think someone else mentioned. Before you ever start stitching, you make sure that the quilt is mounded up like a volcano crater in a circle about 10 inches from the needle (or however far your machine arm permits). You FMQ in the flat nest area inside the cratered quilt. When that area is filled, you have to stop stitching and re-arrange the quilt crater edges so everything is mounded enough not to create drag in the area of the needle.

patdesign

Prism, my machine is a Brother 1500s made specifically for quilting. The arm is about 9 inches long and the height is about 6 1/4 to underside of arm, just a little longer and higher than the vintage Singers. It has a thread cut feature which works well with free motion work since you can simple put 2 or 3 stitches in at the beginning or end of a run. I think the problem with all this is that due to some old neck injuries (whiplash and resulting bulged discs) I just do not have the strength or stamina to push a big quilt around. I do have the machine in an 1980 table designed to hold machines so that the bed is level with the table and I have a small folding table that I put behind the machne cabinet to help keep the weight of the quilt from causing a drag. I had not heard of the nesting technique before, so I will have to try that on the next quilt I do.:)

patdesign

Have slider, support tables, No gloves, guess that is the next thing on my list. Also have Martis book, which helped me to make the last one which i made in 3 sections then joined, but there was a lot of hand sewing on the back. I used the iron on tape (which I love) to butt and connect the batting.:)

Prism99

You might want to try quilting the way I do it -- standing up!!! I sit my machine on the cutting table and place a foam "table" around it to create a large flat surface (directions for creating the foam "table" are on Youtube).

I find that I can quilt much longer standing up and don't get the shoulder and back stress that used to lay me up for days when I tired to quilt sitting down. I do have to wear good supportive shoes; otherwise my feet would hurt from standing so much. All in all, though, quilting standing up works ***much*** better for me than quilting sitting down!

patdesign

Definitely will try this, I keep hoping I will be able to get a platform and rails to put mu current machine on. I know I would stand then for sure.

Grandma58

It may be doable but it would be so much easier to have a long arm person do it or free motion. Even before I had my long arm the only way I was willing to use my itty bitty machine was with the handi- quilter which stretched it like a long arm in a much smaller area. But each to her/his own. I would rather see some one start on a small project, get comfortable, enjoy the process then to become so frustrated as to never want to make another quilt.

Ed

I have a hard time with bigger Quilts too.

kiffie2413

Just wanted to say thanks for posting pics of your machine quilting set up...it is really helpful! I have mine set up similar to yours, but I haven't quilted anything larger than lap size yet...mainly because I always hand quilted until the last couple of years...so, I am fairly new to fmq...I do plan to try to fmq a queen size quilt I almost have finished...from what I research, and all the people who show pics of the large quilts they have made, I am sure I will be able to get it quilted, just hope it looks good, too.. :-)

YC Quilter

Also, Harriet Hargrave has a great book, Heirloom Machine Quilting, that I've been using like a bible.