The experiment -

 

 

Worked - YAY!! - 

 

I'm documenting it here for my own personal reference - 

 

In case I decide to do it again - 

 

I won't have to "reinvent the wheel" - 

 

And in case any of you are interested - 

===

As you already know -

 

I prepared a backing large enough for two quilts - 

 

My Upstairs/Downstairs - Christmas Red and Christmas Green - 

 

And then wondered what would happen - 

 

When I got to the end of the second quilt - 

 

And ALL of the bulk was under the throat of the machine -

 

And I saw that I was in trouble - 

 

In Wednesday's post - 

 

When I finished quilting the first one - 

 

And it looked like I had reached the limit - 

 

As far as throat space was concerned - 

 

The needle was at the edge of the last row - 

 

And the "take-up" roll was right up against the back of the machine - 

 

So I wouldn't be able to quilt complete blocks on the second quilt - 

 

As the "take-up" roll slowly reduced my "workspace" - 

 

So I tried an experiment - 

 

I wanted to take the first quilt off the frame - 

 

Before I quilted the second quilt - 

 

But I didn't want to have to unroll all of the backing from the front rail -

 

In order to baste another zipper to the top edge - 

 

Since I needed to do that at another machine -

 

And the backing couldn't be on the frame when I did it -

 

I could have pinned a zipper on - but that would have been a pain (for me) -

 

And I would have done that - as a last resort - 

 

If my experiment didn't work - 

 

But it did! - YAY!! - 

 

===

 

First -

I rolled the first quilt up on the back rail - 

And laid out a zipper to make sure that I had the "correct" half of the zipper -

 

Then I trimmed the batting off just past the edge of the first quilt -

To "reveal" the backing underneath - 

Using a cutting mat between the batting and the backing - 

As extra insurance that I wouldn't accidentally cut the backing fabric - 

 

Going around to the back of the frame - 

Because I'm left-handed and cut from left to right - 

 

Then I used my channel lock to baste a zipper to the backing - 

BEFORE I cut off the first quilt - 

 

The channel lock kept the zipper straight - 

And I basted the zipper from the center out to the edge on each side -

 

 

And as long as I didn't cut the backing BEFORE the zipper was on it -

I wouldn't have a backing rolled on the front rail with no zipper -

 

So AFTER the zipper was basted on - 

I cut the backing between the new zipper and the first quilt -

 

 

In this photo - 

The cut backing with the new zipper is hanging from the top rail -

And the first quilt is rolled up on the bottom rail - 

 

Here's the rolled up first quilt - from the other side of the frame - 

 

Next step - unroll the first quilt from the top rail - 

And fan-fold it on the table inserts - 

 

Until I get to the zipper attaching it to the leader cloth -

 

Unzip the zipper - 

 

Remove the first quilt from the frame - 

 

Fold it up and set it aside - 

So that I can unbaste the zipper before I trim the quilt and bind it - 

 

Zip the backing for the second quilt to the leader cloth -

Using the newly basted on zipper - 

 

Check that the center markings line up - 

They are not perfect - but they are close enough for me - 

 

Now it looks like it should - 

Ready for the second quilt -

 

And I can pretend that I planned it that way all along - LOL - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -