I have just finished machine-quilting the Crumb Chaos sofa quilt for DD. It's about 66" square, and I wasn't looking forward to layering it up ready to quilt. For the first time I used Sharon Schamer's method of using two pieces of wood! This has to be the best way of layering a quilt, as I could do it all without crawling on the floor at all - it's all done on my dining room table, with me sitting at my ease on a chair. Basically you wind the backing and top onto two pieces of wood, and then unroll them, a little at a time, with the wadding inbetween. Then you either tack, pin or staple the layers together, whatever method you prefer. It's so easy to get everything flat, and since you're only doing 8" or 10" at a time, you can control all three quilt components.
Here's a photo of a Linus quilt being layered by the same method, but have a look at Sharon's tutorial. I can guarantee you'll find it very easy to get fantastic results.
The instructions suggest you sew it in lots of different directions to add interest, but when I tried it, I only got completely confused and couldn't work out where I'd quilted and where I hadn't, so I just did rough rows. My teardrops ended up a bit pointy, but I thought they looked good.
You can't really see the shapes on the backing, but you can see it's pretty flat. DD was delighted with the quilt, and immediately snuggled under it. She especially liked the quilting, and said, 'The quilting's fantastic! Did you choose that vagina shape specially for me?" I hadn't spotted it before, but I suppose there's a slight resemblance, although mine doesn't have the attractive scallops round it - or at least, it didn't the last time I looked! Excuse me, I'm just going to find a mirror!
