I don't have room to spread out anything other than the smallest of quilts at home.. The third quilt I ever made couldn't have laid flat on the floor of our biggest room if I had emptied it.Before I got the longarm I borrowed space wherever I could to layer quilts. The office I worked at were really nice about letting me use meeting rooms out of hours.

I also used wool wadding whenever I could it's lighter and squashes better than most waddings. I found it a lot easier to fit into my domestic machine. I also looked into ways of supporting the weight of the quilt while I was working with ceiling mounted pullys. There are a few on the market for supporting the weight of the quilt, but you could make your own.

The biggest improvements for me were learning not to roll quilts and having a really big extension table for the machine.

I read on another thread that your machine isn't behaving for free motion. Depending on the problem servicing might help, then again it might just not like doing that. I've certainly met Designers that work great, although I think most were using a hopping foot.

Good luck. It's amazing what you can produce in a small space. I only see my work hung at shows and galleries. I sturggle to even pack mine in the house. Anything is possible if you really want it.

Ferret

I also have limited space but what I do is:

I have two, 4 drawer sterlite cabinets, and on top of that I have a "big board' and that is next to me when I am sewing. When I need to do a lot of cutting or pin a quilt I remove the big board, place a paper box ( the box that holds reams of computer paper but is now filled with fabric) on each of the cabinets and put the big board on top of the boxes. It is now the correct height. I then put my cutting mats on to protect the ironing surface and I pin away. I start pinning in the middle and then move it to reach other areas. I have done a king size quilts this. By the way, I made my own board out of plywood, 2 or more layers of warm and natural and teflon material. That way I got the size I wanted.

Carol

I give mine to my daughter-in-law to quilt who has a long-arm. (I know, I'm particularly blessed that way). Hope you can solve it...If you have a home-owner's association sometimes you can rent their space for a bit. Also, some long-armers will baste your quilts for you at a modest price.

No room at my house either. I call the LQS to make sure there's nothing going on and take my stuff there. I bring clamps and tape and something to drink. There's no charge and I get to hang out with quilters at my favorite store.

There's no floor or table area in my house large enough to layer up a queen size quilt for basting. I took the advice of a friend and hired our village hall for an afternoon. It was inexpensive and with my Mum's help we got three done.

You might want to check out books like Sharon Pederson's "Reversible Quilts"

http://www.amazon.com/Reversible-Quilts-Two-at-Time/dp/1564774104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277862732&sr=1-1

or Georgia Bonesteel's lap quilting books where the quilts are broken into smaller segments and then assembled.

http://www.georgiabonesteel.com/store.html

I am a fairly new quilter and am just starting to get into queen-size quilts. I'm finding it incredibly challenging to work on such a scale with the limited amount of space I have in my apartment. Does anyone have any suggestions/tips for working in a small space on a large quilt? I can't keep pushing my furniture out of the way to lay my quilt on the floor! And the weight of it all is literally bringing me down.