newbee3

I am trying to put this quilt together I have all the blocks sewn so assembly is what I am trying to do. I have watched Donna Jordan she has a huge table and I just can't grasp how to do it without enough room
I have a small sewing room and have a removable thing I put the blocks on before I sew them. Well I just don't have the room. Hope you can suggest something I have tried my bed well ran out of room there too. The pattern is hard to see the rows I know you have to turn it to view the rows. But I am at a loss what to do. Should I just start sewing the pieces together and hope for the best. I hope you can get what I am trying to say.

Mkotch

My local quilt shop has a classroom, and the owner allows quilters to come in and use to tables to lay out patterns when we need to do something complicated. Or perhaps your local public library has a meeting room and tables you could use for a few hours?

WMUTeach

Other places that have large spaces that could be borrowed for a while would be church fellowship halls, senior centers, community centers or the like. Come ready to work, lay it out and take a picture. If you are allowed sew the rows but it not, rely on your photo.

I have been known to push back the furniture in the living room to create a larger space to lay out blocks too. I bet many of us would love to have the large table that Donna Jordan has but that is her business work room and not her home sewing room. So, we improvise.

ckcowl

You could lay them out one row at a time, since the rows go diagonally lay out the first row ( usually the center- but could start at an upper corner- then either go ahead and sew that row- placing it back in place to use as a guideline or just label each block ( like Row one- block 1, 2,3, etc.
i usually put on point quilts together starting in center, work my way to the top left corner then work my way to the bottom right corner . Row by row but, I have also started a couple times at the top left corner and worked down all the way. I’ve just found starting in the center easier for me. But I do use Post-it flags and identify each blocks placement in case I get interrupted and have to go back it’s easier to know where I am in the plan

cjsews

I have a couple flannel backed tablecloths that I put on the wall with Command strips. I only have one useable wall for this and just remove hanging pictures when I need to.

Iceblossom

I also have a small house without any sizeable floor or wall space. My queen sized bed is the largest layout space I have -- that makes it rather challenging to work on queen sized quilts. When I turn it into a work surface, I cover the bed with brown kraft paper, that can give me a couple extra inches but I still don't have the floor space for much more.

Some things I have to design in sections. If your top is rectangular, the short side will often fit the long side of the bed. Or I do what I call the "bed" of the quilt first and only then look at the borders.

I label my blocks when I set them out. From my habit, I mark them with a paper square in the top left corner (outside of sewing issues) so I know what direction they go. From my habit, I label them Alpha across and Numbers down. With a diagonal setting it is slightly more complicated. The scan below is the layout of my current project -- hope it helps.

I found this pre-sized grid that fit my currently project pretty well -- you can also do a custom layout.
https://www.incompetech.com/graphpap...ull%20Grid.pdf

FoggyButFocused

Do you have room to do half the quilt? You could set up one side, sew it, then set up the other side.

I am also toying with the idea of a flannel backed tablecloth and a a clothes line. Before I got my design wall, I used the bed as well. However, when a quilt is on point, it is still hard to make sure the blocks are in the right order.

Good luck! You can do it!

Peckish

I would do as others have suggested - find a community room, library, or maybe even a friend where you can lay everything out.
Count how many blocks you have and write those numbers out on a sheet of paper - 1, 2, 3 etc. then cut the numbers out and pin them to the blocks in order. I don't bother with columns and rows, that's too confusing. If there are 40 blocks, I write 40 numbers out. Once you have the numbers pinned to the blocks, take a picture (or several pictures) of it. Then when you get back home with your blocks, the numbers will tell you where the blocks go and you will have the pictures to refer back to.

newbee3

thanks for all your ideas I think I will just start one row at a time. I also think if I could enlarge the layout that comes with the pattern would be helpful but could not figure out how to do it.

Iceblossom

I do a lot of quilting related stuff at my local office store, Staples in my case. Check first but many stores have self-service areas. With a PDF on a zip drive, or by internet access I can print in color, or do an old school enlargement on the copiers.

At my store, the employees will help "self serve" people if they can. You should understand the basics of file transfer or how to get to a site on the internet, and have whatever connections you may need -- usually something with a USB type drive.