Hi all. I recently purchased a Brother home embroidery machine. My intent was to personalize baby quilts with name and birthdate. Well last night I was working on one for my daughter's baby and realized that the best place to put the name and date would be in the middle of the quilt. But for the life of me I can't figure out how to snap the embroidery frame in place when it is in the middle of a fabric piece like that. Am I wanting to do the impossible or is there a way to do this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would do the embroidery first before the quilt is put together. Just a thought. You could do it now and applique to the center.

It can be done but keep in mind if for some reason you make a mistake or the machine messes up you will end up having to remove the block. Ask me how I know!! LOL

Ok, now you're making me admit that I'm cheating a little. LOL. I'm using baby quilt panels and hand quilting them. I used to put the name and date on by hand as well so it wasn't a problem but it just looks so much prettier done with the machine. I guess maybe if I did it before it was quilted I could try to fold the extra fabric under the frame in a way it wouldn't be in the way but I tried that with a finished quilt and there was just no way that was going to work. I have to admit to being a real novice at this machine embroidery thing. Just doing it for fun so haven't done much with it yet.

It is best to embroider before you put the quilt together. But if is too late, don't hoop your quilt in the frame. Hoop tear away stabilizer in your frame. Spray it with 505 or any temp. fabric adhesive. So the only thing "hooped" is the stabilizer. Then line up where you want the info to go on your quilt and hand press firmly on top of the stabilizer and you are good to go.

I loosen the bottom hoop as loose as you can place your hoop where you want it and press it in place sometimes it is hard. Then roll up the sides of the quilt and snap it in place. I have quilted quilts with my small Brother Embroidery machine

Now I get it. I was way overthinking this thing which is par for me. I always tend to make things harder than it has to be. Thank ya'll so much. I know I never would have figured that out on my own. Geez, old age is a bummer.

You can put washaway stabilizer in the hoop-spray with 505 and set your quilt on the stabilizer and pin at the top/bottom/sides of the hoop(close as possible) for security and off to the machine. The quilt is not really hooped. I use this method when I do heavier things and have had no problems.

The only thing I would caution you on at this point, how will this look on the back of the quilt? The name will be a mirror image and the back side of some of the embroideries is not very pretty. Maybe stitch it out on a separate piece, and then applique it on the front, or stitch it out just to check it out to see how it is going to look on the back of the quilt :D:D:D

If possible, I always embroider the item before it goes in a project. It does take practice and time as I have been doing embroidery 11 years.