I love wonderful designs that are used to quilt projects but don't feel skilled enough to create these patterns perfectly by free hand. In many instances I prefer to do the quilting of my projects with my embroidery machine. This process is really quite simple.
- Wind a bobbin with the same thread that will be used in the needle.
- Layer your quilt top, batting, & backing—I will use a light mist of KK2000 Adhesive Spray to hold the layers together.
- Mark the center of the area that you want the quilt design to go with a fabric marker.
- Place the quilt in your hoop, making sure that the desired center is lined up with the hoop center.
- If you are using a quilt design that is just lines, there is no need to add stabilizer since you have 3 layers of fabric & batting.
The results from using your embroidery machine for quilting produce such nice results.
Recently I was able to apply this technique on the new Brother PR1000 ten needle embroidery machine.
This machine has the ability to sew designs in it’s new jumbo (14” x 14”) hoop.
- How this hoop works is that a design is created for the large hoop in the software and then sent to the machine.
- The design is automatically split into 2 halves so the machine can sew it out.
- The first half of the design is stitched, then the machine will ask if you want the other half to be next.
- When answered with OK, the machine will ask for a positioning sticker to be placed on the fabric and it will use it’s camera to scan the fabric and locate the sticker.
- Once finished scanning, you will be prompted to rotate the hoop and then the machine will scan once again, find the sticker and automatically align the second half perfectly with the first.
I cannot think of a more difficult type of design to realign than one that is just straight stitches. It was very impressive to see how well the quilt pattern that I used seamlessly matched up. You really have to look for where the design is split. What a great way to quilt a generous sized block! It was quite fun and easy. No matter what size hoop your machine uses, I encourage you to try quilting with your embroidery machine!
Reva
