Embroidery machine quilt backs
 

I am exploring the possibilities of quilting ITH, but am skeptical of the quilt backs. What are your techniques? It looks like you hoop the back, batting, and front, then use the embroidery machine to appliqué and quilt... which leaves an ugly backing. And then it seems the blocks are joined with sashing, which I am not overly fond of. Are there any methods that result in a nice looking quilt back?

There are several videos on You Tube for quilting in the hoop. Anita Goodesign has a couple of good ones too.

you could just quilt the top and batting then add your backing when you join the blocks and stitch in the ditch.

I finish my quilt tops, pin baste then embroider with designs. The trick is to change the tension. When embroidering the top thread is drawn to the back. In sewing the threads meet in the middle of the fabric. After you are set up for embroidery change te tension setting to meet in the middle. It could be that on other machines that is more difficult but on my Bernina it is a very easy thing to do.

I have no idea what you are trying to say.
Please clarify. "Meet in the middle???? Which tension?
thanks
sandy

I've also wondered how you do this. If you are talking about embroidery designs made specifically for quilting, I will try adjusting the upper tension as suggested above. However, if you want to do an embroidery design and then incorporate it into a quilt top, I am definitely looking for the correct way to do this. I recently posted a baby quilt I did with embroidered designs. I doubled the background fabric (thought it would look better) and used tear away stabilizer. After the design was embroidered, I sewed the square to the quilt top and then proceeded with the batting and backing and basting. I was doing SID but felt like I needed to stitch inside by the design. FMQ would have been perfect but I am not confident doing it. I am quite sure there are better ways to go about incorporating embroidery designs into quilts and will watch this with great interest.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t248102.html

http://www.superiorthreads.com/media...es/diagram.gif

Is the 3rd scenario (increasing the upper tension) what you mean? Am I correct that you mean to use this after sandwiching and basting when you are using a quilting design for embroidery? Good suggestion. Thanks.

Sorry, meant embroidery design for quilting.

I've read & seen embroidery done on quilts. They did NOT thread the machine for embroidery. Instead it was threaded for sewing. This way the thread does not pull to the back, but looks like regular sewing. You use the same thread in the bobbin as you do the top. Hoop all 3 layers & do not use stabilizer, as the quilt fabric/batting/backing is enough.

I recently tested this on my Bernina 830LE, using quilting designs from Diane Gaudynski/OESD. Came out great.

thanks so much. Will have to try.