Ginakra

Hi all,

I am a beginning quilter, in fact, I haven't completed a top yet. I have chronic arm/hand pain so it is difficult to do. I just got into machine embroidery a couple of months ago and it is much less pain for me due to being not very much physical work, lol.

I am interested in what it's like to quilt and paper peice with an embroidery machine, good and bad.

Quilting: My question is, those of you that do this kind of thing, can/do you put a whole sandwiched queen size quilt on an embroidery machine and do a, say 6x6, design without breaking the machine? It seems like it would move around alot. What about borders? Is this just as easy or easier to do in the embroidery machine as on a regular sewing machine? What do you find good and bad about quilting with an embroidery machine?

Piece In The Hoop: For piecing in the hoop, are you limited to just the blocks that come in the book, are there others somewhere? Is it easier/less work like it looks, or not? Do you like it, etc. I wold think the pressing down of the fabric is not done between stitching, or you'd have to remove the hoop from the machine, right? I haven't purchased the book yet, and I can't find a tutorial on it to find out how it's really done.

Would love to hear all your stories on this. I am basing a decision to buy a very expensive machine based on these things and need all the replies I can get! :)

Thank you,
Gina

dreamer2009

One good thing for you to do is to go to a machine center that sells different models and get a feel as to how it fits your needs from a physical point of view. Play with some of them :)

Ginakra

I'd love to, but the dealers are pretty far away :( I don't have a quilt top to try out on the machine, lol. Personal stories would be enough for me :) I have a little used 270d, but I don't think I could roll up a napkin under this thing, lol!!! Plus nowhere near the features. I love machine embroidery and it would be the first use, but I'd love to know about how others quilt on them.

Thanks for the reply, dreamer :)!

dreamer2009

Really wish I could help.
I have a Singer Quantum 5000
still sitting on the floor of the closet
I got a brain injury and don't know
how to use it.
I may dig it out next year and give it a try.
Hooks up to the internet and everything.

smtp5

I have done Piece in the Hoop---and made a quilt and a wall hanging... they are Larissa Bland's--Beatitude's and Grandmothers' Blocks! I bought the small iron, and sometimes, i didn't take it off the hoop! I really like her work! She has a website--pieceinthehoop.com

FQ Stash Queen

That sounds interesting. Have to check it out. Just got my Mom's Janome 10001 when she upgraded to 11000 and it is at my friend's house. Hoping she'll have it all broke in and ready to show me when I get home after the Holidays. It's only been there since Christmas. I go visit it a few times a year when I have to go back to GA from wherever we are on the road, but really haven't had a chance to play with it much. Seems a lot of us quilters have health problems, doesn't it? Mine is arthritis and lack of range of motion from a broken wrist as well as lower back problems. Just seems to never end. Best of luck to the both of you and thanks for the link.

Lacelady

I have an embroidery unit on my Bernina, and bought the book because I was curious as to how it was done. I ordered the adhesive stabilser reccommended, but it never arrived, so I stalled at that point.

I don't think I would consider doing blocks like this after the quilt was made, because of the movements the hoop would need to make. I think it would be hard to arrange the quilt so that there was no drag on the machine while it was making the block.

I only ever contemplated make the blocks seperately, then sewing them into a top, but perhaps I was way off with that idea. I will have to go back and re-read the book again.

smtp5

Quilting: My question is, those of you that do this kind of thing, can/do you put a whole sandwiched queen size quilt on an embroidery machine and do a, say 6x6, design without breaking the machine? It seems like it would move around alot. What about borders? Is this just as easy or easier to do in the embroidery machine as on a regular sewing machine? What do you find good and bad about quilting with an embroidery machine?

Oh, on the quilting--i was told to hoop the stabilizer and spray adhesive- lay the quilt on top and stitch it out. It works great like that!

Candace

Do a search using the search feature above "Quilting with embroidery machine" and you'll see many threads on this.

amma

Some sit there machine either on the floor or a large table, and spread the quilt out so that it doesn't get caught up in the embroidery unit when quilting it.
You still have to manually hold up the part of the quilt that is inside of the machines throat. Other wise it can get jammed in under the embroidery unit :wink:
Personally, on anything larger than a baby quilt, this would kill my arms,hands, shoulder, neck, back.... even though the quilting embroideries stitch out quickly.

I have done applique in the hoop, which is basically the same as piecing in the hoop. As long as you can comfortably hoop your projects with the medical issues you have, you may enjoy quilting this way.

You need to factor in the price of the thread, stabilizers, embroidery programs into the cost of your quilts :wink:
You will go through a LOT of stabilizer with the piecing and the quilting... I would suggest buying as much on the bolt or roll as possible when you can find it on sale :D:D:D

Another factor to consider, heavily embroidered blocks are not going to yield a very soft feeling or very drapeable quilt.

I might suggest redwork designs, or others that are way less dense stitching :D

A suggestion might be to embroider out our blocks, and maybe do your quilting on the machine as a QAYG? You would only have smaller sections of your quilt to quilt in your machine :wink:
There are some QAYG that can be machine stitched together in strips, or quadrants :D:D:D