I tend to emb. mine as individual blocks and then join them. This works great with the rag quilts I like to do for baby mats. I do not join the backing when emb. I use a piece of stablizer under the batting and fabric. I do applique and regular embroidery this way. I use the iron on batting, life gets a little easer with this. and I do hoop all my pieces.

The embroidery machine works great for quilting small quilts, table runners, placemats, etc. I haven't tried it on a large quilt because it would be difficult to get to the middle of the quilt and you have to hold the quilt up to keep the weight from pulling the quilt out of the embroidery hoop. It can be done, but I don't want to have to hold a large quilt up for that long. LAQers are still your best friend for large quilts. The king size quilt that I am working on is definitely going to the LAQer.

Yup every chance I can cause my fmq is pathetic lol! With that said since its basted etc I toss it on the hoop and clip it to the hoop. It's hard with large ones and the quilt must be supported or there's drag on the arm. Mostly it's quilting or rework designs. I will to regular embroider on a block prior to sandwich and then in that case it's hooped like normal. Also I don't care for the look of the tag so I embroider it on the back area again prior to sandwich. Hope this makes sense.

I have a husqvarna emb machine and have done many quilts using the embroidery designs to quilt. I just hoop each block or space I want to quilt and it works out just great.

I have used a method called "blue tape hooping method" found on a forum a few years ago. Basically you use wide painter's tape (that blue not so tacky stuff) and place it around the bottom edges of your inside (or top) hoop, so that the sticky side is up. Gives you about an inch or so of sticky to hold the quilt down. Then center your quilt area and press into the tape. Be sure to support the whole quilt! Do your design, pull the quilt up, move to next area to be embroidered and press down onto the same tape! You can usually do 6 or 8 designs before retaping. This moves along quite quickly, is easy to do and gives great results. Stabilizer isn't needed because the quilt is stable. (Quilt, not quilt top! You would need stablizer for just the top with no batting or backing.) I have done table runners and baby quilts and they are fast and easy using the tape method. The tape does not leave a residue on the quilt, there is no stabilizer to wash out, and the tape is cheap and easy to replace on the hoops when needed. It does stick to the hoops, so you have to remove before storing for a long time (ask how I know this) or you will have to scrape it off later. No problem when it is fresh, though.

Whoa! You ladies have opened a window for me! It never occurred to me to embroidery on my quilts as a way of quilting. Please post pictures! Does anyone know of a tutorial for this? I have the hoop and embroidery machine. Maybe I should be using it in a different way. You really can quilt a sandwich in an embroidery machine? Tell me more, please.

I've done a little with my Viking embroidery unit in combination with a little FMQ, but really had it in my head that I wanted to learn FMQ so have kept at it, and things do get better with practice - and patience. I really love doing FMQ now, but naturally the throat of a domestic is pretty limiting So I just bought an affordable Sunshine 16 - WOW! It's great to work with and I believe it would be much easier to learn FMQ due to the space and how easily the quilt sandwich slides! The blue painters tape tip sounds like it would be worth trying so I may attempt that too - ALSO following along with Leah Day and a Craftsy Class - Sew many options!

Pictures pictures please

You can also do what they call "floating" your quilt on your hoop where you put the stablizer on the hoop and spray it with 505 or one like it and the place your quilt on top of the hoop. This method is also done with some fabrics that don't lend well to being hooped. Check emblibrary.com under kenny's corner or projects and he has things on this. Hatched in Aftrica and emblibrary.com and sewswell.com, plus many others have great quilting designs for many different sizes hoops. Viking even has two quilters hoops, so yes quilting your quilts with the embroidery machine can be done. Good l uck to you all. Leah Day's site is great. I'm just learning FMQ as well on my Viking Ruby.

I finished a lap size quilt on my embroidery machine. I would not recommend it for a larger quilt. The limited hoop area is the main reason, plus the weight of the quilt had to be supported in such a way as to prevent drag on the mechanism.