Any quilters?

[goblinvalley]

I am just about to embark on my largest project to date - a 6ft quilt

Now, ideally i would have a machine and huge frame and it will be a doodle. However, lack of room and tight dh means that this is not to be !

I am planning on hand quilting and was wondering what kind of hoop is the best. Am i best to go for a normal hoop or a freestanding one? I like the look of the freestanding ones, but am a bit worried that the weight of the quilt will cause problems.

Any thoughts/suggestions will be most grately received,

em

Wow, I'm impressed. I'm a quilter, but I've never hand quilted a big project.

Do you have a machine at all? I've quilted quite big things, including a king-size quilt, on an ordinary sewing machine. I rolled it up and used bicycle clips to secure the roll so that only the section that was to be quilted was exposed. There are a few really good machine quilting books out there if you need inspiration.

Having said that, I have been thinking about maybe doing a hand-quilted project, although I would probably mostly machine quilt and just do the twiddly bits by hand. The frame that I've been eyeing up is an oblong, plastic one. I'll see if I can find it and do a link.

Hey thanks,

I think i really am a bit nuts to be honest. Its just i've done quilts for my son and parents and decided that this time i was making one for me

The first was a double that i stitched on my machine. Due to a lack of experience i used a really bulky batting and it took two of us to manhandle the quilt under the machine - no mean feat considering that it was pinned

My son's quilt i tied thanks to the previous experience and works well for his type of quilt - it was embroidered so it didn't matter so much.

However my dh loves the 'proper' look of quilting and so this one is to be quilted. If i can get the right batting - thin, but not so thin that you can't see some puffiness - then i might give the machine another go. It's just the bulk that is giving me palpitations.

It seemed like such a great idea in the beginning, but as i am starting to piece the top together i am realising that it is HUGE

This is the one that I was thinking of, but they don't seem to sell it in the UK, which is a pity.

Yes, the manhandling is a bit of a pain, but it's really not so bad with less puffy batting. On really big things it's definitely easier if you have a straight line quilting pattern, but even then I couldn't do it for very long periods as my arms and shoulders got quite tired.

My plan for my potential hand quilted project is to do enough straight line machine quilting to make it usable, and then whip it off the bed and into a frame when I fancy a bit of hand-quilting and do some fancy quilting in between the straight lines. Otherwise it would probably take me the rest of my life to get it all done.

Alternatively I could fly in a bunch of Amish ladies who could do it all for me in a weekend.

I know it's not the same but there are companies that could do the quilting for you.

Perhaps they could do some basic lines and then you could handquilt some embelihments.

I had a stand up quilting hoop but just couldnt get on with it - I ebayed it a few months ago in the end. I tend to quilt without any hoop at all - its nice as you can curl up under the quilt as you sew. Am impressed re the size you are going for - I normally do lap quilts although I have a top I hand pieced that is almost a double but I just cant get round to the quilting. I thought of going to a long arm machine quilter but as the top is hand done i want to do the rest by hsnd...its almost 6 years old though so there's no rush Glad to see there are quilters lurking out there on MN Good luck

Lol at your 6 years quarkee. But I see thet and raise you to 15years

I impressed myself when I finished that one, but I dont think I will ever make another double quilt!