Anyone have advice on using small motifs for quilting?
 

Hello. I've never actually posted on a forum before but this question is driving me mad and l just can't find the right search terms to answer it so l thought I'd ask some folks with wisdom, instead of the internet!

My question is whether it it is viable to use small, unconnected embroidery motifs as quilting stitches, sort of like seed stitch in hand embroidery or stippling in fine art.

In my case I'm particularly keen to use star stitches in a quilt that uses Quilters Dream Bamboo batting. The batting can technically be stitched up to 8 inches apart, but l would like to use more small stitches closer together, but unconnected.

What l can't work out is if that would stabilise the batting enough, or if it needs to be locked on all sides now and then. I have stitched in the ditch on this one, but in some places that would still leave some distances of more than 8 inches in which there would only be the small individual embroidery stitches.

Thanks in advance if anyone has thoughts!

Before I had my long arm, I did stitch in the ditch around the blocks and sashing's, I then tied the quilt inside the blocks in about four places I believe. The quilt did hold up well over several years finally fading as it was near a window. I have also used a decorative stitch on smaller quilted items isolated from each other. I would just make a sample using some waste batting and fabric to see how it looks. Make sure you use a regular thread and not rayon embroidery thread as rayon doesn't hold up well sometimes.

It kind of sounds like you want to do something similar to tying a quilt, only using a sewing machine to tack the 3 layers together. As long as the tacks or stitches are a maximum of 8" apart from each other, you'll be fine. You don't need to stitch lines of quilting to keep the layers together.

Hope this helps! And welcome to the board!

I did that once on a small quilt-baby size but not for a baby. I treated it like a tied quilt ... sort of.
I machine embroidered 6 different small flowers all over the top. mine were about 3.5-5 inches apart, and just scattered about.
I didn't measure at all. I just put them where I thought they looked good.
I didn't do any other 'quilting' on it.
That was many years ago, and it still looks good. But it really hasn't been washed all that much. I originally intended to hand sew buttons all over it, then decided to embroider instead.
I'm using it as a trunk cover-much like a table topper.

edit: are you hand embroidering? or by machine? with or without a wash away stabilizer?
just curious.
Would love to see pics when you're done
:)

I remember once seeing a Kaffe Fassett quilt, I think it was diamonds, it was quilted with a decorative daisy stitch on the corners of the diamonds. It was lovely and very effective. I wish I could find a picture of it.

Some years ago I used a tiny snowflake embroidery pattern to hold a Christmas quilt together. I put the layered quilt into my biggest hoop and did as many as fit into it. Then I rehooped and did as many as fit over and over about 6 inches apart.

Thanks <3
 

These replies were just perfect, l knew some clever folk out there had the answers! I really appreciated hearing about real examples and how they've held up.

I have actually just finished the quilt (only my second ever, and the other was hand quilted). It's a combined DWR friendship star quilt of my own design, using fabrics from my stash and chosen by friends to celebrate a friend who is marrying and moving to the U.S. (I'm in the UK).

Predictably my friends didn't take my fabric guidelines to heart and one of them picked a lovely but very flimsy netting with spiderweb foil. I managed to incorporate a bit of it using interfacing to stabilise it, but l just couldn't work out how to quilt it without ruining the delicate look. Hence my question - thanks to you lot coming to my rescue l have now quilted little webby stars here and there in a colour that's almost invisible. Terrible photos attached, since curiosity was expressed! (It's just rough machine embroidery, no stabilisers)https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ez2...w?usp=drivesdk - the troublesome block
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f2L...w?usp=drivesdk - reverse
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f16...w?usp=drivesdk - flimsy at pinning stage
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f05...w?usp=drivesdk - quilted.
Thanks again!

I love that!
very clever!
Thanks for posting
:)

Lovely! Girl Scout colors! Love it!

Love the colors in your quilt. That really came out pretty.