The Largest Quilt She's Ever Made - Part 8 Quilting

The other night I got started quilting, and I quickly realized something felt off. My new machine sits about 3 3/4" above my table. For the past year I have been quilting on my little Viking Emerald, and it's lovely table with the drop down platform making my machine flush with the table surface. Of course that table doesn't fit my Sapphire, because she's got a big butt (therefore, I have dubbed her Big Blue).

So I quickly ran out and splurged on a Sew Steady table extension. Got home, went back to quilting. Got frustrated when I realized there was a TON of drag between the quilt and the plastic surface. **argh frustration** A friend recommended a Sew Slip, but I was already feeling guilty about the Sew Steady table, I couldn't do a Sew Slip + S&H on top of it - and how long would it take for it to arrive? No, I couldn't waste too much time. I needed something now!

Thanks to Google I found a few forum discussions about the Sew Slip and learned that there is a lovely kitchen product that works just the same for much less $$. I found this cookie sheet liner on Amazon for about $6, paid for the overnight Prime shipping, and had it in less than 24 hours. And it works!! Of course it's a pretty ugly brown, and it doesn't have a rubbery back (it is SUPER thin!), I just taped it on and went to work. My tape didn't even budge. 

 So I was back in business. Tedious business. There are so many different shades on the quilt and it is so long, that there seemed to be no perfect way to mark it. I chose tape, which turned out pretty well, but because of the size and bunching up I had to do to maneuver the quilt, I could only put on one strip at a time. See, tedious.

 I got through about half of the quilt (on the diagonal) sewing a line every 6". At this point I was thinking I'd do the 6" lines, then turn the quilt and do a cross hatch...and then probably go and add in a new line so I'd have a 3" spaced cross hatch over the whole thing.

 But when I reached that halfway point I couldn't stomach the thought of continuing on one tape line at a time for 3/4 more of the quilting. It made me want to pull my hair out!
So I got out the metal guide and attached it to my walking foot and did the second half of the quilt at 3" intervals just following using the guide. MUCH faster. Well as fast as one can quilt such a huge length of quilt.

 I worked late into the night, and was back to work this morning. After I had finished the second half at 3" intervals, I went and added the 3" line between my 6" lines (wow this story is getting tedious. Are you still following me?), and once I had completed that the quilting just felt done to me. Of course it was crumpled up on my table and lap so who knows how it looked. Would it be enough quilting? Would it look incomplete?

Maybe to some people it will look incomplete, but it really feels done to me. I think a crosshatch would be overwhelming. If you could see the whole huge thing in person, and could get a sense of the scale of the quilting with all of those squares you would see what I mean.
So there is a little peek for now. Now I get to slave away at the binding for a few days.