I'm a new quilter (or more correctly a new piecer) with a regular domestic sewing machine that you can drop the feeddogs on.

This morning I dropped my latest quilt off to the long arm quilter and I know she'll do a great job for me. But the price will be $118. I can't keep on paying that kind of money for quilting!

Would appreciate any tips you can give me on how to make the big leap to doing my own quilting - I'm thinking of maybe combining machine and hand quilting as a starting point. I stitched in the ditch on my very first (cot) quilt but have been too scared so far to quilt anything bigger myself. I'm mostly worried about how handle a large volume of fabric.

Where should I start? Any books, tutorials, videos you can point me to? Do I need a hoop?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the board. I suggest you look at some of the you tube videos,they have some great lessons on there. Make sure you are comfortable with the pinning or basting of your quilt first. If you don't have this step covered you will have a hard time of the quilting. If you would like you can pm me and I can get you started and help you through each step.

Brenda

Just get started on some scrap/samples, and stitch stitch stitch! You will pick up the skill.

If you can, extend your sewing table to the left of your machine. Either with another table, or perhaps an ironing board. This will take a lot of the weight of a larger quilt and let you move it around under the needle easier.

I also found that rolling a quilt didn't work for me. My machine is against a wall, and a roll really needs space behind your sewing table so that it can drape over the edge. Now I 'puddle' the quilt under the needle, keeping a flat area by holding it with my two hands spread either side of the needle, before moving onto the next area. There are gloves you can wear with gripping dots on them to help with this, or you could try finger cots. There are also hoops/halo to help spread the fabric flat.

I practiced my FMQ on smaller quilts that I made for Project Linus. I benefitted, so did the kids.

You can sandwich a FQ or so of a large floral fabric and practice outlining the individual flowers and leaves then echo quilt around these again. This quickly gets you comfortable with moving the fabric around to follow a pattern and getting some control over your speed and where you are travelling.

Gloves or finger cots are very helpful in gripping the fabric, but don't clutch the fabric just place your hands on it to guide it.

Work a small, manageable area at a time and don't try to cover too large an area in one go.

I'm sure you will receive plenty of advice and support from everyone here so go ahead and have some fun with this.

start small, make placemats or even pot holders and practice and as your stitches become more even and you can make some designs start getting larger and larger until you 'ease' into a bed sized quilt. it all takes practice but if you start small it will not take that long to be doing large quilts. there are some amazing quilters out there that manuver huge quilts on a regular sewing machines and do fabulous designs. just remember practice makes perfect.

Do you have a local quilt shop near you that has a machine quilting class? If you do that is my first recommendation. Secondly, get a book on machine quilting, and yes watch any videos or tutorials on the computer that you can.
When you take a class, not only will you learn the basics, but teachers have so many wonderful tips to make it easier, and enjoyable!! I refuse to pay a long arm quilter, (nothing personal long arm quilters!), only because I feel its no longer my quilt! I like to put every stitch in it!

I've never sent any of my quilts out to be quilted. I can't see putting that much money into a quilt as I made so many. You can stitch in the ditch, outline, & use paper templates pinned to the quilt to do leaves, etc. And then you can still still say that "you" made the quilt.

Personally I'd hand baste the quilt with the board method (there's a link on here somewhere), buy a pair of gripper gloves at the grocery or hardware store and have at it. Start with a wall hanging or a lap quilt first, practice and don't be too critical of your own abilities. You can't expect to be as good as someone that does it all the time. Just keep at it and you'll get better. Get you a darning foot for your machine, that will help a LOT.

Just make a sandwich and practice, practice, practice, you will learn fast! Try different designs this way.