Hi Mary, I'm confused by this. I'm assuming you hooped the quilt but say you didn't use stabilizer. Then the reference to washaway stabilizer confused me. Could you please clarify how you did this?

Thanks, Cathy

I have found it easiest to quilt the blocks separately and then assemble them using a quilt as you go technique. Supporting the weight of a big quilt so it doesn't bog down the machine is a pain. You have to hoop something, so doing a block at a time, I hooped the backing, then smoothed the batting over it, then did the same with the top fabric. I just pinned the sandwich in place and used the baste feature on my machine. I did not use stablizer

I Love doing quilting on the emb machine. This design is from Perfect Little Stitches and sews out perfectly. I did the whole quilt moving from block to block.

http://perfectlittlestitches.com/products.asp?cat=21

I love to quilt with my embroidery machine. So far I have always hooped the whole sandwich (which can be tricky) but may try the ideas posted here.

Good thread. Looking forward to lots of responses. :)

If you are quilting using the embroidery part of machine then what kind of thread do you use? I didn't think that embroidry thread was strong enough to hold the quilt together?

You use just regular, quilting thread.

I've used my embroidery machine for quilting and I like it. No reason to use stabilizer. It's a good option. Not giving up on the FMQing though.

I've done quite a few quilts using my embroidery machine -- and there are lots of magnificent quilting patterns for that purpose. It works just fine with a sandwich.

There are plenty of quilting patterns that have been designed for this purpose. The main problem is hooping it whilst it sews out. There are a few methods plus improved hoops which allow you to do this. The method that I find easiest is to baste the piece to be quilted on top of a piece of hooped, dissolveable vylene . Then it washes out after quilting.