How to quilt machine embroidered quilt
 

Hello quilters,

I had a quilter bring me a machine embroidered quilt to be quilted... how do you quilt this ...all over - edge to edge or individual block ...??? It is a beautiful quilt so I want to be sure I am staying with traditional method for this style of quilt. Thanks in advance!

If the quilt is already machine embroidered I think it would depend on the size of the quilt blocks and how heavily embroidered each block was. I use batting that allows me to quilt 6" apart so if the blocks are 8" or less I would just quilt around the design and then stitch in the ditch to lock the blocks into place.

We have a lot of talented quilters here, you might get more responses if you can post photos of the quilt. Did the customer have any feedback for you? It sounds beautiful.

The machine embroidered blocks are 6 inches... however there is a very wide border... I do like the stitch in the ditch idea for the center... I would post a photo - but it is a surprise for another quilter... Don't want to get into trouble...LOL!! Thanks ...will keep an eye out for suggestions. You quilters are always so helpful.

I usually take a stitch in the ditch the whole quilt from side to side and then the top to bottom with a walking foot. That gives the stability to the blocks you need to deal with the blocks individually. I just finished a baby quilt with hand embroidered blocks this way. Then I free motion stitched around each design close to it's edge and filled in the background with a small filler design. It raises the design of the image up to make it the prominent part of the quilt and makes it very stable for many washings. I then put a design into the middle of the sashing strips. Press to "block" everything to square, cut away the batting and backing, apply the binding, Done!

I have taken machine embroidery quilts to the LA for quilting. I usually add another layer of batting to the quilt to add dimension. The LQS does a nice meander around the design in the blocks and sashing strips.

I made king size machine embroidered quilt with 6" blocks and each embroidered design was about 4". Because the designs were pretty dense I quilted in pretty tightly around the outside of each design. It came out perfect! I would do it the same way again. Much will depend on the embroidered designs.

The quilts I've quilted with embroidered blocks I also was skeptical how to proceed but found by using the same thread color as the background, mine was white, I did a crosshatched pattern and you could barely see it over the embroidery design. Of course I'm sure it will depend on how large the embroidery design is too but using a thinner thread like 100wt or invisible thread could be another possibility.

Thank you for the suggestions... I am thinking it will be best to stitch in the ditch then tackle the borders with some kind of design...blocks are flowers and leaves etc... so I am thinking a paisley or feather quilting design in the borders. I so appreciate the input.... Will let you know how it goes.