I have a Bernina and have used the embroidery quilt designs to quilt my smaller table toppers, wall hangings etc and it works great. I have never tried doing it with a large quilt, but I would think it would work.

I used John Deer's Quilter's Collection to embroider/quilt my quilt - you can see more pictures and a more detailed explanation in the thread 'My Christmas Dear Jane Quilt' - use the 'Search' feature to find it. I hoop but don't need to use stabilizer - the quilt sandwich is heavy enough.
Joanne
Edit: I used the same color in the bobbin as I used in the needle.

Wow, this is a fantastic looking quilt. Well done Joanne

What machine did you use. Love it

I WAS SO IMPRESSED WITH THIS IDEA THAT I JUST WENT TO WWW.OREGONPATCHWORKS.COM AND ORDERED SOME QUILT DESIGNS. I LOVE THIS FOR TABLE RUNNERS, WALL-HANGINGS AND MORE. THANKS FOR THE GOOD INFO. THE QUILT IS BEAUTIFUL. I'LL BE SEWING MINE WITH A VIKING DESIGNER 1.

Lots of people use embroidery for this purpose, and there are plenty of machine quilting programs you can buy for your domestic machine.

Hay Davida, I do use the embroidery machine for quilting. I even did a Christmas quilt with snowflakes embroidered on for the quilting. you do not need a big hoop only one that will support the embroidery pattern. Lot of work but it turned out very nice.

Those are some really good quilting ideas. Thanks.

I also have done this method. I made a split rail and in each square embroidered an outline of a cat for my niece. I really liked it. Used a Brother 150

HEY JOANNE, DID YOU USE A 4 X 4 HOOP DESIGN AND DID IT SHRINK THE QUILT ALOT??? YOU SURE DID A VERY NICE JOB!! AWESOME...
PUGLOVER1