You can watch a YouTube video on this project to get a good overview of the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWKVNQTG-74 or see all my videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/LindeeGVideos
Using embroidery designs to quilt makes it easy for anyone to create intricate designs quickly and easily. An important difference with embroidery designs is how the machine is tensioned. In normal sewing and quilting, the needle and bobbin threads are evenly balanced. This is not the case with embroidery. Here the top thread is pulled to the back and the back is likely to look rather messy—especially if your machine has automatic trimmers that pull all the thread tails to the back. To minimize this, match your bobbin thread to the top thread and choose a busy fabric for the back that blends well with your thread color. You may also wish to adjust your tensions for a more even balance.
Most quilting motifs are continuous and will only have one pair of tie-offs. Redwork designs with many distinct elements will have more tie-offs.
It’s a Girl! design collection from Lindee G Embroidery includes 12 decorative, redwork style designs for baby girls. Each design is available in 2 sizes: one for smaller hoops (approximately 85mm square) and one for 5x7” hoops (approximately 125mm square). Due to the amount of detail in these designs, I don’t recommend shrinking the smaller size. The smaller sizes have shorter stitch lengths and in some cases, some small details have been eliminated.
Additionally, there are 2 utility blocks included to assist in making this project. These utility files will require at least the next size larger hoop and are essentially a double basting line with an appliqué stop in the middle. For the larger block, you’ll need an 8x8” hoop. These utility files sews 2 rounds of basting stitches: the first for placement and the second to hold the quilt sandwich in place for stitching. You can sew it with the same thread you use for the design. This basting block is not required to make the quilt. If you can’t sew the larger designs, simply cut your blocks large enough to be hooped. Or, use the baste-in-the-hoop function if your machine has one. I created the squares to help with accurate placement and to reduce the amount of fabric needed for each block.
These instructions are for larger hoop machines. If you have a smaller sewing field, adjust accordingly.
Tips for Smaller Machines
If you have a very small sewing field (less than 100 x 100mm or 4 x 4”), you’ll need to take a slightly different approach than the one described for the sample. Make your “quilt sandwich” large enough to hoop between the rings of your hoop as shown below.
For 5 x 7” hoops, you can sew the larger versions without the utility file or the smaller designs with the utility file. When sewing the larger designs in a 5 x 7” hoop, either hoop the fabric as shown in the previous figure or use a baste-in-the hoop feature to attach the block to the stabilizer as shown later.
Please read through all the instructions before beginning this project because construction techniques vary from standard piecing techniques.
Skill Level
Basic sewing skills are required; it’s not my intention to teach you how to sew! If you’ve never pieced a quilt, and you need more instructions, please refer to a basic quilting reference.
What You’ll Learn
- How to quilt in the hoop
- How to assemble pre-quilted blocks
- How to add a ruffle to the edge of a quilt
Fabric Requirements
You will need approximately 2 1/2 yards each of two fabrics. Color 1 in the sample is a tone on tone white print on a slightly peachy beige background; color 2 is a peachy colored batik. The back side of the sample is all peach except for the outer borders, binding, and ruffle.
- 12 - 8 x 8” squares for back (color 2)
- 12 - 8 x 8” squares for front (color 1)
- 12 - 8 x 8” squares of fusible fleece (be sure to choose one with a water soluble glue so your quilt will be soft)
- 3” wide strips for sashing (you will need sashing strips for BOTH sides of your quilt; sashing strips will be folded in half lengthwise
- 8 - 6 3/4” long (or height of your block) for front (color 2)
- 8 - 6 3/4” long (or height of your block) for back (color 2)
- 3 at width of your assembled rows for front (color 2)
- 3 at width of your assembled rows for back (color 2)
- Outer borders: 3” wide strips, 1 set for front and 1 for back. These are not folded. I used color 1 for the back and color 2 for the front.
- Ruffle: 5” wide, length depends on desired fullness of ruffle (color 1)
- Optional binding: bias strips 1 1/2” wide, 1 set for front (color 2) and one for the back (color 1) [See note under Finishing before cutting; these are not required if you use the easier method.
Supplies
- Batting—Choose one that is not too lofty; I used a fusible one for quilts.
- Wash-Away stabilizer
- TESA (KK2000 or similar temporary embroidery spray adhesive)
- Construction thread
- Embroidery thread
- Appropriate needles
- Rotary cutter and ruler
Preparation
- Cut and prepare your blocks. Make a “quilt sandwich” by layering the backing fabric (face down), a layer of batting, and a layer of top fabric (face up), and press together according to package instructions to fuse. If you aren’t using fusible batting, lightly mist backs of fabric with TESA and smooth over batting.
- Wind several bobbins with matching embroidery thread.
Embroidering
For each block, you will be sewing the appropriate utility block file followed by the embroidery design. You may wish to combine these in software or at the machine or just load each file as required.
- Hoop a piece of wash-away backing.
- Load the larger square utility file (lgs01126) and sew color 1, which will stitch a placement guide on the stabilizer.
- Lightly mist the back of your quilt sandwich with TESA and smooth into place over the basting guides. The block will extend beyond the basting lines approximately 1/2”.
- Sew the next color stop to attach the block to the stabilizer.
- Load the decorative design and sew. For this quilt, I used designs lgs01113 - lgs01124.
- When the design is finished, remove from hoop and trim off excess stabilizer.
- Continue embroidering all the blocks
Make a Label
It’s always a good idea to attach a label to your quilt. Labels can be simple or fancy. On this quilt, I just used a lettering program to stitch the quilt name, my name, and the date. This label is sewn into the binding and hand stitched along turned under edges. Sometimes I embroider the label right onto the backing of the quilt.
Trim Blocks
Using the basting line as a guide, trim and square up your blocks to the same size (mine were 6 3/4” square) with the rotary cutter and ruler. Your blocks must all be the same size.
When all your blocks are embroidered, arrange them in a pleasing way into four rows of 3 blocks.
Sashing
Sashing is applied to the right hand edge of the blocks in the left and center columns of your quilt. Please note the seam allowances are 1/2” rather than the standard 1/4”. I chose to fold the strips in half for two reasons:
- It’s quicker because you won’t have to fold and press under the raw edge.
- It provides a slightly thicker cover over the butted seams of the batting.
The downside is that it uses slightly more fabric, although not much on these rather narrow strips. Also, if you don’t attach the raw edges straight, you won’t be able to adjust on the second side.
- Trim the 3” wide sashing strips to the height of your blocks. Fold each strip in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press lightly.
- Apply one sashing strip to the front and a second to the back aligning raw edges. Sew together using a 1/2” seam. Press the sashing open on both side
- Apply sashing to the right edges of all blocks except the right-most one in the row.
Create Rows
To sew blocks together into rows, butt the raw edges together on adjacent blocks. Pin the sashing down and top stitch from the front using any stitch of your choice. I used a blind hem stitch (#1-35 on the Baby Lock Ellisimo). I widened the stitch to 4.0 and shortened the length to 1.4. I used the same thread as used for the embroidery. Topstitch the other side of the sashing to match.
Attach Rows
Using the same technique you used to apply sashing to the individual blocks, sew the rows together to form the center of your quilt.
Add the Borders
1. Cut strips of batting the height of the sides and 1/4” narrower than the width of your side borders. Butt the raw edges of the batting border to the raw edges of the batting on the quilt sides. Using a multi-step zig-zag (#1-13) set to the widest width (7mm), attach the two strips together.
2. Stitch side border strips (unfolded) to the sides, one on top and one on bottom, right sides together, using 1/2” seam allowance. Press open over the batting.
3. Add the top and bottom batting strips and borders in the same method
4. Square up and trim off excess batting
Finishing
At this point, you can simply topstitch the side borders to match the sashing and bind in a traditional manner, or you can round off the corners, add a ruffle, and then topstitch.
When I made this quilt, the ruffle idea occurred to me after I had finished and topstitched the entire quilt and was ready to put on the binding. I had never attached a ruffle to a quilt done this way so my brilliant idea was to attach binding strips to the ruffle and then attach the binding in a typical manner. This proved to be quite a challenge since you must ease the curves to keep the quilt flat. After two less-than-satisfactory attempts of attaching by machine, I applied the entire binding by hand while I watched TV or listened to audio books. Knowing that most of you would rather not take this approach, I consulted my expert quilting friend, Jeanette Smith, who in turn consulted her expert quilting friend. Jeanette found an easier option in her extensive library and that’s what I’ll explain here. Note that it won’t look exactly like the sample but it will save you a lot of time!
1. Round off the corners of your quilt using a plate or similar object as a template. I used the border seams as starting and ending points for the curve.
2. Piece 5 or more 5” wide strips of color 1 end to end, then fold and press in half lengthwise.
3. Gather along raw edges. I used a ruffle attachment. Experiment with the different adjustments on your ruffler as well as varying stitch lengths to create the desired fullness. Gather enough fabric to encircle your quilt.
Although I don’t use it often, I love my ruffler attachment. It makes quick work of creating long ruffles evenly. Rather than gathering, it creates small pleats, which you can control by setting a lever on the foot itself and by controlling stitch length. While it looks like quite a complicated attachment, it is easy to use.
4. Measure out the edge of the quilt to determine how long to make the ruffle. Trim ruffle to size and sew raw ends together using 1/4” seam. The gathering on the ruffle adds a bit of fudge factor since you can easily redistribute some fullness as you near the end of attaching it to the quilt.
How I Did It
After gathering, I attached the binding strips to the gathered edge of the ruffle using 3/8” seam allowance (color 2 on front, color 1 on back), pressed the strips towards the seam and trimmed the seam allowances to 1/2”. I then hand basted the ruffle seam allowance to the outer edge of the quilt, (final top stitching on side borders was done prior), turned under a quarter inch seam allowance on the binding on the front and back and hand-stitched each side individually. If you’re not a fan of hand work, try the following finishing method, which skips the binding strips altogether.
Easier Method
- Attach the ruffle to the edge of the quilt matching raw edges sewing the ruffle to the front of the quilt through the front and batting layers only using 1/4” seam. Press open.
- On the back of the quilt, turn the back edges of the borders over the raw seam tucking under 1/4” and hand stitch in place. Or, use one of the no-sew methods of fusing the edge, if desired.
- Top stitch the side borders to match the sashing.
You will need to wash the quilt to remove all the washaway stabilizer and the adhesive in the batting if you used fusible batting.
Be sure that all the TESA has dissipated before wetting your quilt. To force dissipate, press with a dry iron.
By the "Lindee G Embroidery" Team
