Creating a Quilt on the Embroidery Machine
 
 
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 The art of Quilting has been around for centuries. It is unknown as to the exact origins of quilting, the art of piecing, appliqué and quilting were used throughout the world in various methods.  The earliest form was perhaps the stuffed pallets which were used for beddings.  Winter necessitated the origin of a coverlet with rough long stitches holding several layers of fabric and cotton wool.  It was much later that the idea of embellishing the coverlet was developed, hence the appliqué quilts. Trapunto which is similar to the art of quilting was developed in Italy. Japanese brought forth the crazy quilts which were used not only as quilts but also as wall hangings and screens. The art was brought to the United States by Europeans and over the centuries has developed tremenduously.
One can create embroidered or applique blocks on the embroidery machine and sew them together as quilt blocks on the sewing machine. But the quilting must then be done on the sewing machine. Vintage Quilts I is the first in the series of recreating vintage Quilt blocks and quilting motifs which allow the user to finish the quilt by quiltint it on the embroidery machine. We will create a wall hanging similar to the one above. Three designs were used in finishing the quilt: VQ1a and VQ1b as the appliqued quilt blocks and VQ1free as the stippling design. VQ1free and VQ1a can be downloaded at the bottom of the project page. You can use VQ1a twice to give the effect of the quilt above.

Hoop tearaway stabilizer. I use the H&V tearaway washaway as it washes away once the item is laundered.

The first color in our design VQ1a is green so we will thread the green color and use it for the first stitchout which is a basting stitch. The basting stitch is our guide to not only joining the quilt blocks together but also enables us to stitch out designs without the aid of templates.

Once the basting stitch is stitched out, remove the hoop from the machine and lay on a flat surface. We will pin our base quilt fabric to the stabilizer making sure the pins are not in the way of the embroidery. The basting stitch aids in this as well.

After pinning, place the hoop back in the machine. The machine will now stitch out the applique position of the leaves.

Place your applique fabric on top of the leaves making sure that they are all covered. The machine will stitch them down.

Remove hoop from machine and lay on flat surface. Trim away the excess fabric from around the leaves. Place hoop back in machine.

Now the machine will finish the applique buttonhole stitch around the leaves as well as stitch out the stem.

Change thread to match your flower applique fabric. I used red. The machine will now stitch out the applique position of the flower.

Place your flower applique fabric on top of the area and the machine will stitch it down. Remove hoop from machine to lay on a flat surface. Trim excess fabric away.

Place hoop back in machine and thread yellow color. The machine will stitch out the placement stitches for the buds and the center of the flower. Place yellow applique fabric on top of the area and the machine will stitch it down.

Remove hoop from machine and trim away excess fabric. Place hoop back in machine to finish the design.

Using the basting stitches as guides, cut away the excess fabric from the block about 1/2" away from the basting stitch on all sides. Stitch out another block the same way.

Once the blocks are trimmed, cut out two plain blocks the same size as the appliqued blocks. Using the basting stitch as the guide, stitch the appliqued blocks to the plain blocks.

When all four blocks are stitched together, use the same fabrics as the applique to trim around the four blocks. I cut the strips about 2 1/4" wide.

Cut out the backing fabric about 1" larger on all sides than the top. Place it right sides down on a flat surface. Cut out a piece of batting the same size as the back and place it on top of the backing. Place the quilt top on top of the two layers and pin. You can also use adhesive spray to hold the three layers together.

Hoop water soluble stabilizer. We will now upload the quilting design on the machine. Using a thread that will blend with the fabrics (I used an offwhite embroidery thread)the machine will stitch out the basting stitch around the quilting design. We will stitch out this basting stitch directly onto the stabilizer.

Remove the hoop from the machine and place on a flat surface. We will now use the basting stitch on the wss as the guide to place the top left side on top of the hoop making sure that the design starts in the top left side of the quilt. Using a fabric glue stick we will attach the quilt to the wss.

Place the hoop in the machine making sure not to move the layers. The machine will now stitch out the quilting design through all layers.

Our first quilting design is completed and all the layers are now quilted in the top left side of the quilt.

Trim away the wss from the back side about an inch away from the basting stitch. The basting stitch is going to be our guide to do the next stipple quilting.

Hoop another wss. Stitch out the basting stitch onto the wss. Using the newly stitched out basting stitch as the guide, we will place the quilt onto of the hoop matching up the first stipple quilted basting stitch to match with it. Use the fabric glue stick or pins to adhere the quilt to the stabilizer making sure the pins are not in the way of the stitching.

Here is how the quilt top looks after the second stipple quilting. As our quilt measures 11 1/2" x 16", we will need to do three stipple designs across and four stipple designs down the lenght of the quilt.

Repeat the steps above. As the third stipple quilting design is a bit larger than the quilt, place a piece of water soluble stabilizer on top of the edge of the quilt and on top of the batting so the embroidery foot will not get caught in the batting.

This is what the back side of the quilt looks like with three stipple quilting designs completing the top of the quilt. Remember to always trim the wss about an inch away from the basting stitch. We will be washing the quilt after it is finished so the wss will be all gone.

Finish the stipple quilting on the whole quilt and trim away the excess backing and batting.

Cut a strip of fabric to be used as binding. I cut my strip about 2 1/2" wide. Place the strip right sides facing with the quilt at the bottom. Leaving about an inch of the raw edge of the strip, we will start sewing the strip to the quilt.

Using 1/2" as a guide for our seam we will stop about 1/2" away from the edge at the corner.

At the corner, stop the machine and double back stitch a few stitches. Fold the binding strip back so it is at a 45 degree angle at the corner.

 

Now fold down the binding strip onto itself. This will make a mitered corner of the binding and will give ease in turning the binding to the back side.

This is how the mitered corner will look like.

To finish the binding, fold the raw strip back onto itself and place the binding strip to stitch it down. Stitch about an inch past the start of the binding and cut away the excess strip.

Fold the binding to the back and either whip stitch by hand or use the sewing machine to stitch in the ditch. Wash your quilt thoroughly removing all the wss. You can now pull out the basting stitches that were done on the wss as well. Let your quilt dry completely.

Note: It is best to pre-wash all fabrics to remove any sizing and also to check for color fastness.

Water soluble Vilene was used. I purchase mine from Pointetopointe. Hollingsworth and Vose tearaway washaway stabilizer was purchased from Sewingmachine.com.

 


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