I have used the motifs for a fake trapunto effect on blocks, love how that turns out 8) Still not brave enough to try it on a quilt top :?

I took these photos of a quilt one of my patients had. It was done exactly that way, with decorative embroidery for the quilting. Had all sorts of designs as well as sayings such as "You are my sunshine" and "I love you". Because the back was a tiny print, it went together well. I liked it so much I took a bunch of photos. I don't know if you'll be able to see the detail, but here goes:

I didn't do lots and lots but i did some stippling on a quilt that i did for my mom, I got the designs off of emblibrary.com They have a fair selection of designs that you can use that are specifically designed to quilt with, they come in different sizes and depending on the program you can change the size to fit the square. It was pretty easy.

It seems to me that what is being asked here, is not if it would work to do embroidery (such as flowers or animals) in place of quilting, but to use the machine embroidery stitches as opposed to straight line stitching. Most machines these days will do some fancy stitches, and these would give it an appearance similar to the "crazy quilts" made in earlier days.

I think this would give the quilt a very unique appearance.

Perhaps try it on something else as an experiment before you do the whole quilt. Sounds like a good idea. Let us know how it turns out.

June

the white sashiko on this quilt was done with the embroidery machine.

if you want close ups of the sashiko let me know

I use the embroidery stitches on my regular machine to do my machine quilting in the ditch. They not only cover more area but they help hide points that don't match etc.

I do have embroidery patterns for my "embroidery" machine that do simple line motifs that are meant to appear as handquilting. For the most part they are designed not to have the tie over stitches that would look odd on the back.

I have machine embroidered/quilted quite a few quilts with good results. The thing to remember is to use a bobbin thread that is complimentary to the back and of course is machine embroidery thread. Also, hooping is very important. You want ot be sure that the backing is tight and straight. Good luck!

I have quilted quite a few quilts with my embroidery machine and love the results. One thing I have found useful is to put the machine in the middle of a large table so the quilt does not pull on the work. I quilt as you go by sewing the quilt into 3-4 sections and then quilt it. When I sew the sections together there is a little quilting to do but not much. Don't forget you can rotate the direction. I have done several by doing random quilting and it works great and don't have to be concerned about centering. One of the prettiest one I have done was butterflies placed random on a floral top. The one down side is there is a lot of hooping but is still faster than hand quiltinq and the work is beautiful. Really great on baby quilts and table runners. Give it a try. I think you will be happy with the resuls.

I have quilted the designs with my embroidery machine, Just remember to have to same colour thread in the bobbin. You have to roll up your quilt quite tight to go through the bed. I also hold the quilt so the weight will not distort your designs. It takes a bit of work but it is lovely when you are finished. Just don't walk away while it is quilting - I have learned this lesson from experience.
Serena

I machine embroider one quilt. It was a full sized quilt and I put a leaf/acorn design in the large blocks. I found that because it was so bulky the design got out of the lines in most blocks.....but not in the same place. I'm sure it was because of the hooping. If anyone besides a person who does machine embroidery looked at the quilt they may not notice unless they really studied it but it was stressful for me and I wouldn't attempt it again. Good luck if you try it. If I were to try it again I would use several layers of the stiffy tear away stabilizer underneath each block. Hope this helps.