Queen Quilting Tips

Thanks so much for the kind comments on my HST queen size quilt for the cabin.  Turns out ... I'm not the only one who was afraid to attempt to quilt of this size.  So I figured I would share a few tips?

• Clear the room ... It's really important to do a good job basting the quilt.  Because of the size of a queen, you will likely need to move a little furniture out of the way to make room for a good job basting.  
• Square it up ... if you're using straight-line quilting, you'll want to make sure that the back is lined up with the front.  I used the wood planks to line up the backing before laying the batting and top down. 
• Pin well ... I had 139 pins for a 440 square quilt ... not the best ratio, so be prepared to use a lot of pins.
  
• Make room ... I used the dining room table, make sure you've got plenty of space. This puppy is heavy and the more room you have to rest it ... the easier your job will be.
  
• Roll it up ... the easiest way to way to get it through the throat plate is to roll up the portion that you intend to quilt and then start to unroll as you proceed.
  

I found it reasonably straight forward to quilt.  The vertical and horizontal lines were the easiest.  I had to remind myself to slow down and focus on keeping the keeping the lines straight.  I found the diagonal quilting to be more difficult, it's a bit harder to roll up and you end up with more of the quilt under the arm.

If you would like additional tips on quilting a queen size quilt, I would suggest taking a look at some of the good information that other helpful quilters shared with me on Flickr. 

All the best

Lisa