What are some easy methods of doing machine quilting on my quilts?

Answer 1

As far as techniques, you can stitch horizontal, vertical and/or diagonal lines through the entire quilt, spacing them as required by the batting you chose. You can do allover free motion quilting in a large meander - basically just curved lines that have no set path but do not cross other lines. You can stitch in the ditch - outlining the blocks and/or some of the pieces within the blocks by sewing in the seams. You can do the same sort of thing as stitch in the ditch, but quilt just outside the seams, outlining the blocks or patches.

If you mean how do you go about quilting, it depends on the size of your quilt and the size of your machine. If you're doing a relatively small quilt (lap or baby quilt, for example) you can fit it under the arm of most decent sewing machines. Some people prefer to roll it and work on the unrolled section, then unroll and move to the next section. Paula Reid is a well known quilter who uses her "fluff & stuff" method (see link below) to machine quilt full size bed quilts on a standard sewing machine. She has a DVD out that shows how. Other quilters find that it is best to use a quilting frame (ranging in price from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars) for larger projects.

Answer 2

Friends tell me that the weight of the quilt is the problem with a common sewing machine-- you don't want the weight pull on the needle. The other thing she mentioned was handling all the fabric-- she put her machine on the end of a fairly large table with the table holding up the quilt and a card table to her left.
I have only done "cheater" quilts on my machine-- what she said rang true. If you can get someone to help handle the fabric-- that might be a good idea. When I finally get my first "real" quilt pieced-- I may quilt it by hand on special pieces and by machine when I can stitch in the ditch. Having machine quilting done is very expensive I think.
good luck