You can Quilt a Queen Size Top with Your Domestic Machine with a Few MUST HAVEs and a Low Budget.

People ask all the time whether you can quilt a king/queen size quilt on your domestic machine.  The answer is yes, but there are definitely some must haves that make it a lot easier!!!

I haven't quilted a king on my domestic machine, but I have quilted this queen using stitch-in-the-ditch and ruler work!!!

The biggest and most important thing is to have a machine with a wide harp/throat.  I think mine is 10".

The next biggest tip would be to make sure your sewing height is ergonomically correct (my husband made my table for me).  Not only does your table need to be at the right height, but you need lots of space around the machine at the same height to alleviate drag when quilting!!!





 Since I use my machine for both quilting and embroidery and remove the embroidery arm on and off all the time I couldn't build my machine into a table.  Therefore, I purchased a Sew Steady Wish Table and absolutely love it!!!  It's a must for me!!! I also like the fact that the Sew Steady Wish Table has a Circle Sewing Tool.  I plan on making a modern quilt with circles since it will be a snap with this tool - just haven't got around to it yet!!!  So far I use it to sew a circle on my fabric and then cut the circles out!!!

Another must if you do any Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) is the Sew Steady Quilting Slider Mat Grid  to help your quilt sandwich move around freely.  The slider helps so much especially with larger quilts!!!  You might also want to invest in a pair of quilting gloves!!! I know this sounds like a lot (Machine with large harp, walking foot, sew steady table, slider, quilting gloves, 505 basting spray or quilters curved safety pins, batting, etc), but honestly these items will pay for themselves and you will be coming out ahead even if you only quilt a couple of quilts.   Have you ever brought a quilt top to a longarmer?  If you have you know what I'm talking about.  Nothing against longarmers because I've seen some absolutely beautiful quilts, but if all you want to do is stitch-in-the-ditch or a little ruler or free motion work - you can quilt a top yourself for practically nothing!!!   I got to a point where I didn't want to make any more tops because I didn't have the means to afford to get the top quilted.  No more - I make lots of tops now and quilt them myself!!!  I'm currently working on the below scrappy queen quilt and it will be quilted by me and my domestic machine!!! 

I usually like to just spray baste with 505, but on my queen quilts I pin them.  My downstairs kitchen bar comes in handy for this and I always use the curved quilters safety pins because they are so much easier to close/open!!!

On this particular quilt I used Pellon Nature's Touch Natural Cotton Batting and I love the soft feel of it.  I usually use Warm and Natural so we'll see how I like this batting after its washed.  I'd love to hear what your favorite batting is. 

Finished product - stitch in ditch and heart ruler work which took me maybe 16 hours at the most to finish.  I didn't think that was too bad!!!

 To see more of my scrappy quilts follow this link.