I've always encouraged people to quilt their big quilts in their little machines because it CAN be done. But I find it significantly easier to stipple a big quilt than straight line quilt it. You can work your way through the quilt in a more manageable way. Do you agree? I'm only talking about BIG quilts here...
This one is huge. Huge. The goal was 95" x 100" but my 90" batting ended up not being quite wide enough so it will end up being about 92" x 100" (don't you love that a quilt will still fit your bed if you chop three inches off??).
I wanted to straight line quilt it. I wanted to do horizontal straight lines, every 3/4" to 1" over the whole thing. But my machine is limiting me. For the first time in my quilting life, I am consciously aware that my machine can't do what I want it to.
I simply can't straight line quilt a quilt this big for two reasons. 1) my machine will pull at the layers (even with the walking foot) and inevitably it won't look as clean as I want it to and 2) that's a whole lotta quilt to fit through the throat of my machine. I find it possible with stippling in that you can shove and push and maneuver the quilt as you please - but with straight line quilting it all has to feed through in one straight motion.
So - to any of you avid straight line quilters out there - are there secrets I don't know about? My thinking is that it's just probably way past time for me to upgrade on my machine, huh? Oh Janome Horizon - how I love you and covet you.