Skyangel

Pick embroidery designs that complements the focus fabrics or theme of the quilt (don't be afraid to change colors to match your quilt fabrics) and embroider on some plain or solid color squares. Then trim down to the size of your blocks and use in place of other blocks in the quilt.

A friend recently had me embroider a set of corner blocks (8" finished) for a 25th anniversary quilt she was commissioned to make. One block was the recipient's name and her husband's with their wedding date. Another was their two kids' names and birthdates. Then, there was one with their two high schools (I looked up the mascots for each and did the initials and the mascot), and finally the logo for the university they both went to with a football. These were done on the small print that was a background fabric in the quilt. I used a heavyweight tear-away stabilizer stuck to the quilt fabric with temporary spray adhesive and hooped together to reduce puckering. My friend removed the stabilizer and used them as regular blocks.

I have one in the planning stages to use some Laurel Burch fabric I've been hoarding. It is some of the prints that have dogs. I have a set of embroidery design of her dogs that I am going to embroider on black and use as blocks with the fabrics. I am going to use a free quilt pattern that came out with one of her jungle fabrics line and adapt it to use the embroidered dog blocks.

Have fun with it.