Quilting Using Machine Embroidery

Posted on July 6, 2015 by edges

I have wanted to try this technique for a long time now. And I’m going to teach a class on it in the fall.

If you have a sewing machine that is capable of embroidery, you can do it too.

Many people love the look of a quilt that has long-arm quilting. It gives a very polished, professional look to a finished quilt. Most of my quilts I use free-motion and do them at home. As you know this is awkward with larger quilts, twin size and up. But using your embroidery module to quilt is really worth trying, especially if you are someone who is comfortable with embroidery (hooping and hooping over and over…and if you’re not familiar, what a great way to get good at it).

For this particular technique, I followed along with this book from Amelie Scott, “Edge to Edge Quilting on Your Embroidery Machine.”

She provides special quilting embroidery designs that have an easy start and end point. All the work is in the positioning and the time invested in the stitch-outs and hooping.

As you can see on my quilt, you will still be hefting around a a lot of fabric. And by far, the trickiest part is calculating the number of hoopings and working out the positioning. But that’s just a little bit of math and little bit of decision-making.

You use 2 different files…an “A” and a “B” file. You alternate them in rows so that the design looks randomly spaced. This really does work and the finished quilting technique is lovely. While I can free-motion some great spirals or stippling or loops or hearts, I know I would never be able to get the perfect consistent quality of these daisies.

This 60 x 60 in. quilt took 32 hoopings, and my time invested was somewhere around 7-8 hours at the machine. I love the way the quilting looks — whimsical, yet professional.

Would I want to do this for every quilt? Of course not. I like to be able to customize some of my quilts. Is this great for gift-giving and finishing some of those UFO’s? A resounding yes! And a terrific way to get more use out of your embroidery module. Your local quilt shop should be able to get you the book.

What are you waiting for? Let’s get those quilt tops quilted!

Shipshewana Dreamin’ – Part 3

Posted on June 30, 2015 by edges

Don’t worry, this is my last post about Shipshewana. I’m not a travel brochure. But it was a peaceful getaway not far at all from home and so I just wanted to share.

I had the opportunity to meet an Amish woman who sells hand-quilted Amish quilts from her basement — some of them she works on herself, some of them she contracts out from others, and some she sells on consignment.

(An aside: the stark contrast between an Amish basement and my own is embarrassing. Hers was empty, with a few things on shelves, not a dust bunny or piece of anything unnecessary in sight. Mine is filled with boxes from outdated electronics, old toys, old furniture, old books, old pictures. What a cluttered, junk-filled life we live. )

Here are a few of the quilts she showed me. This is just a sampling as she had many more. Make sure you scroll to the bottom, because at the end is an absolute masterpiece.

While she gave me permission to take the pictures and put them on a blog, she did not want her name given. “What if someone sees a quilt and cannot live without it?” I asked, in my total blundering non-Amish way.

She smiled and gave me a card.

So if you cannot live without one, leave a comment and I will privately give you her info. The prices are very reasonable for the amount of work.

While I did purchase a piece from her smaller-sized collection, everyday I think about driving back out to get the whole cloth quilt. And who knows? Maybe she already sold it.

But we can all still appreciate it.

This is one she did herself. She pieces by machine and quilts by hand.

SHe chose the colors for this, but asked others to do the piecing and quilting. She said she's not good at curves.

She chose the colors for this, but asked other Amish women to do the piecing and quilting. She said she doesn’t like curves.

Hand appliqued and hand quilted. A beauty.

Hand appliqued and hand quilted. A true beauty.

This one is a masterpiece. She told me an Amish woman in Pennsylvania gave it to her to sell on consignment. It is a whole-cloth quilt, and the hand quilting is so perfect it almost made me cry.

THe whole quilt was for queen size but with overhang, so very large. the entire edging was in scallops with these lovely feathers.

The edging was in large scallops with these lovely feathers.

Shipshewana Dreamin’ – Part 2

Posted on June 27, 2015 by edges

My first stop of the the day was Yoder’s Department Store which opens at 8 am. Honestly, they have a TON of fabric, and every book, (including modern quilting books) imaginable. I love this place.

I had vowed to myself during this whole trip that I would only purchase items unique to the area. I love Moda fabric, but I can get that at home. So I began hunting for “local” goods.

First thing I ran into was this display of reproduction toweling. I could purchase by the yard and got myself a vintage-looking design. They had some very cute tablecloths in carriers that looked like handbags and I’d really like to use the toweling to make a handbag…add a little ricrac and I’m good to go! Also in the display was a special edition “Yoder’s 70th Anniversary” hand towel. While waiting in line to check out, another woman told me she was going to use hers to create a quilt around it. What a great idea!

Of course, I purchased a little bit of anything that had some local charm.

Do you collect Row by Row? Get your Shipshewana version at Yoder’s.

Next stop is the Davis Mercantile where you can find many stores, but I just had to see the famous Lolly’s Quilt Shop.

Lolly’s is another wonderful place with everything you could want or need — current fabric lines, reproductions, batiks galore, and plenty of solids, books, patterns. Found a wall of Kaffe Fassett florals, with an opposite wall of all his colorful stripes. Really the largest selection of Kaffe I’ve ever seen.

Lolly’s has a “sister” store downstairs at the mercantile, called Cuddle Corner.

Don’t miss it.

I was amazed at the wonderful things being done with minky!

Fresh textures, colors and patterns…all in minky! If you have a baby in your life, you need to stop here. You won’t believe how soft and cuddly this stuff is. If you’re like me, you’ll want one for your own home for winter snuggling.

Special tip from the gal at the counter: a stretch needle works best with minky. We have this discussion at work from time to time…what needle for minky? This gal says stretch is best and I believe her, but I will try for myself as soon as I sew up my quilt.

Around every corner in Shipshewana, you’ll find merchants that are selling hand-quilted quilts. Having done a bit of this, I fully understand the time, effort and work that goes into these kinds of handmade masterpieces.

In the next post, I’ll share a few Amish handmade quilts I was shown when an Amish woman showed me the quilts she sells for herself and for other Amish women from her home.

Hint: absolutely breathtaking.

Shipshewana Dreamin’ – Part 1

Posted on June 25, 2015 by edges

I recently made a road trip to Shipshewana IN…someplace I had wanted to visit for a long time. I was not disappointed.

My trip overlapped the annual Shipshewana Quilt Festival by one day, but to be honest, I avoided the festival. I spend a lot of time with quilters at work. I’ve been to expos and festivals. What I really wanted to do was experience what was truly unique to Shipshewana. (Don’t worry, of course I visited the quilt shops…more to come on that!)

It’s Amish country as you may very well know. I was careful not to take any pictures of them, but they do not mind a pic from a distance or shots of their homes or buggies. ( I asked.) I took several carriage rides and asked many questions. They use cell phones for business and rely on solar panels and wind turbines for electricity although many of them also have propane or natural gas at home.

Spending time in this pastoral setting really reinforced to me the hazards of modern living: speeding cars with impatient and intolerant drivers, over-reliance on technology, and the toll the lack of fresh air and exercise takes on our modern bodies. All Amish, at least those in Indiana, ride bikes or take the carriages. Horses look healthy and are a way of life for them. So many Amish live and work in the town, I really expected them to hide from tourists. But frankly, they are friendly, willing to talk about their lifestyle and very open and gracious…but private where any person or family would be private.

The way they decide whether or not to tolerate a technology is whether it will reinforce or tear down the community. Cars will always be out, because it is a way for anyone to escape community rather than build it. Same with TV’s and computers and phones. But they live in a real world where they have to make a living so cell phones for business or compressors to help milk the cows are tolerated.

I took a tour of an Amish house, sat and ate a home cooked meal with a family, saw them milk cows, toured the farm and was genuinely warmly welcomed. I visited the Menno-Hof, a guided tour museum of the history of the Anabaptists.

This farmhouse actually looks a lot like my grandparents’ farmhouse in Wisconsin.

Look at this garden! Every farm had a beautifully tended garden like this…not a weed in sight. Ever.

The town of Shipshewana is charming by any standards, with local restaurants and shops. I’ll give a rundown of some of the quilt shops in the next post.

In this photo, the carriages were parked at a house funeral for a well-known elderly gentleman. What a lovely site. And life goes on.

Quilt Market Mash-Up

Posted on May 14, 2015 by edges

Quilt Market 2015 is in full swing in Minneapolis this year. If you’re not familiar with Quilt Market, it’s the place where all the fabric designers and fabric makers and product developers present their new products to potential buyers (shop owners).

It is a twice-yearly event, spring and fall. I am hoping to attend the one in the fall, but we’ll see as things get closer!

For this year, I am content to live vicariously through social media.

If you want to follow along with all the chatter and visuals and news, here are a few ideas for getting the scoop.

On twitter, instagram and facebook, follow the hashtags:

#quiltmarket #fqsquiltmarket #showmethemoda #modagoestomarket

Fat Quarter Shop’s blog site will be live tweeting, updating, creating youtube videos and much more.

Art Gallery Fabrics is streaming live at certain times during the show. Find out more here.

Want a visual overview? Head over to #quiltmarket’s Instagram stream.

That’s enough social media to hold me for awhile — especially since I’ll be working into the weekend. Have fun and enjoy all the new and exciting stuff out there!

Machine Quilting with Embroidery

Posted on May 1, 2015 by edges

I love doing my own quilting. But it’s not the easiest thing in the world, is it.

I’m actually OK at it, as long as the quilt is less than twin size. Bigger than that, and well, let’s just say I am still in the process of hand-quilting a queen size quilt I started quilting over a year ago. Still, I find it difficult to bring myself to hand over my quilt to someone else. Maybe one day I will change my mind. But for now, if I make a quilt, I want to be the one to quilt it.

So I have been experimenting with using my embroidery module to quilt. The largest hoop I can fit on my machine only goes to 8 inches wide, so that limits the size block I can quilt.

Nevertheless, my first experiment is with a simple block and a couple of simple quilt designs.

I know the hoop looks like it will go wider, but I am using a hoop that’s larger than my machine will go. (For all you Bernina fans, I have a 780 machine and a jumbo hoop instead of the maxi hoop.)

Using King Tut variegated thread from Superior, I got a beautiful stitch that really added dimension to the quilt.

When doing this kind of quilting, the trick is to use a machine that has “perfect placement”. This simply means that even after you have the block hooped, the machine gives you the option of moving the design in tiny increments to get your placement just right.

I still need to add the binding, and this was not a huge piece. But I look forward to trying this with larger and larger quilts.

I also have another technique in mind that I will be trying soon, so I’m hoping to show you more options using your embroidery. Lots and lots of quilting embroidery designs are available. Let’s make the most of our embroidery and get those quilt tops quilted!

Maybe You Stitch on the Edge Too!

Posted on April 22, 2015 by edges

An edgestitch is exactly what it sounds like. A stitch on the edge.

Most sewing machines have a specific foot for this purpose and Bernina’s foot #10D is, of course, one of my favorites.

On the way to sewing this baby quilt I decided to add a ruffle. So I cut 2 1/2 in. strips as you would for bias binding. Only I needed twice as much to form the ruffle. Because I wanted the ruffle to last through many washings, I decided to add a stitch right on the edge of the fold prior to ruffling.

I moved the needle 2 points over to the left, to stay just inside the fold.

Next I started to ruffle. You can see I am adjusting the ruffler to get just the right amount of “bite” so that the ruffle isn’t too curvy, but also not too flat. You can see the edgestitch along the left, on the fold. In general, when creating a ruffle, you need your length of the ruffle fabric to be twice the length of the fabric it will cover.

Then I attached the ruffle. (I don’t have a picture of that.)

Next, I attached the binding over the raw edge of the ruffle and the raw edge of the quilt. It naturally wanted to turn itself with the ruffle on the outside, so I went ahead and did another edgestitch along the top front of the quilt. The binding lays flat underneath.

The whole thing was only possible because I have rounded corners on the quilt…no miters. And I used a bias ruffle and a bias binding. Isn’t that a gorgeous edgestitch? Nothing like having the right tool for the job.

Now all I have left to do is to hand-stitch the binding on the back. The binding is longer than usual because of the way the ruffle is attached.

Now all we have to do is wait for the baby.

Quilt Market Prep

Posted on April 13, 2015 by edges

It’s that time of year again. Quilt Market is coming up and the fabric designers and manufacturers are revving up their marketing engines. Come May 15-17, they will be at full throttle and social media will be abuzz with new product, new designs, new fabric and quilty fun.

But I’ve always loved a good preview.

And fabric manufacturers are getting good at it.

One of my favorites is Art Gallery Fabrics. Young, hip, fresh, at least by my standards. I love what new designers (read: young people) are doing in the industry. Art Gallery has released a Look Book of their new Spring 2015 fabric.

Take a look and let me know your favorites. Mine so far is Sketchbook and Happy Home, but I have to admit, I love them all and would be hard-pressed to choose.

Moda, the pop queen of fabric manufacturers, is also starting to tease some of their new lines. On their blog, we get a glimpse of the new Bonnie and Camille, as well as Minnick and Simpson, Zen Chic and Fig Tree Quilts.

Stay tuned, as I will try to distill some of the quilt market info as it becomes available. In the meantime, quilt on, friends!

New quilt in progress for my grand niece, pattern is free from Me and My Sister Designs. Fabric is Airmail, by Eric and Julie Comstock.

Do You EQ?

Posted on February 19, 2015 by edges

If you haven’t heard of this yet, EQ (Electric Quilt) is software used for designing quilts.

And it’s very reasonably priced.

I had the opportunity, recently, to learn EQ7 and get to know EQ expert, writer and educator Barb Vlack. Within minutes, she had us designing quilts. Barb will be teaching Electric Quilt at International Quilt Festival in Houston. If you are interested, I highly recommend her class.

As you can imagine, the program gives you rotary cutting instructions, fabric yardage and templates to complete your design. Their website Electric Quilt offers training, books, downloadable fabrics and tons of other support materials. The blog, doyoueq.com offers a quilt club, challenges, and a stunning, stunning quilt gallery of customer’s designs, laid side by side with the quilts they then produced from the designs.

Did I say stunning?

After only a few minutes of playing in the software, I designed this quilt.

With another click it became this.

Now it may take a little longer to actually sew it.

Or I can choose to just enjoy it and sew it later. Or never sew it.

But it’s still fun to discover the possibilities — my unique possibilities. You can create your own appliques, and with a plug-in, you can even create your own embroidery. The ideas are endless. The program comes pre-loaded with something like 4500 blocks and designs, so if you never create a block yourself, it will still keep you busy for the rest of your life. And you can also display fabric instead of just colors. These images I’m showing? They would make great greeting cards — more ideas.

I could see myself getting lost for days in this software.

But what a terrific way to challenge ourselves, learn new techniques and explore design.

Do you EQ?

Maybe you should.

Just another Blizzard/Snowstorm/Super Bowl Sunday

Posted on February 1, 2015 by edges

Yesterday after work, at about 5:30 PM, I stopped at the local Meijer.

You would have thought that none of us had ever eaten before or would ever eat again. The shelves were cleared of chips and salsa, although I found some on an end cap. The stockers were angry and the check out clerks were exhausted. The gal at the counter told me the store had been packed all day.

I couldn’t find any potatoes. They were gone. Yes, all the potatoes were gone.

The Canadian bacon I usually purchase had been replaced by rows and rows of real bacon and Velveeta. And ribs. Sour cream shelves were empty. And I couldn’t even find my son’s yogurt.

The combination of Super Bowl Sunday and a pending snowstorm….excuse me…. BLIZZARD…were seriously almost causing the end of civilization.

Today, the snow IS falling, thank goodness. The plows in the neighborhood have been few and far between. I heard one last night at 3 am, then again once during the day today, and that’s pretty much it.

Of course, I have been sewing.

I used a new pattern and assembled a couple of cute table runners for Valentine’s Day. My goal is to get them to the point where I could spend the Super Bowl doing hand work by putting on the binding.

The pattern is called Rock Candy from Jaybird Quilts and the accompanying ruler is called a Sidekick. This is truly a simple pattern to do using the ruler, and a fun shape for a table.

I did manage to get the binding on, and now I’m ready to sit and watch the game.

The fabric is adorable, called Kiss Kiss from moda.

So get out your chips and dip, salsa and sour cream, your chocolates and cheeses and crackers and cookies. Turn on your big screen, enjoy the screaming crowds and the silly, raunchy, depressing, goofy, and tear-jerking commercials and half-time show.

As for me, at 8 pm I switch to Downton Abbey. Pass me the stress-reducing herbal tea.

Edgestitch

Sewing is life. Life is art.

Category Archives: quilting