Many times I embroider after the quilt is finished- use it as part of the quilting! However, you have to be really careful & stay with the machine, because snags can happen & the a whole section of the quilt has to be fixed. Happened to me once - never again!

Cynthia I also have an embroidery Designer 1 Viking machine.
I love your border embroidery on your mystery quilt. How did you do it.

I embroider on everything. My primary embroidery machine is a Brother Innovis 4000D. I've found the trick is to be sure the piece you are embroidering on is bigger than you need. The design will "shrink" the material so you want to be sure you have enough excess material to cut your square/rectangle/whatever down to the size you want.

I recommend this site. They have tons of tutorials and a showcase of projects and weekly sales that can't be beat!

http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/default.aspx

I am starting a log cabin with a large center square, which will feature embroidery. :-D

You are correct about the rayon for quilting, it is better to use polyester thread for items that will be washed a lot. I made a sheet set for son and DIL and used polyester, the sheen level is almost the same, and it will withstand more wear and tear.

I have a Brother Innovis 1250 D (the D stands for Disney) and there are a number of those designs built into the machine, the machine will sew, zig zag, quilt and most of all embroider. I paid under $1500 for this machine, and there are also smaller ones that go for under $500.

I got a Husqvarna Viking Ruby in October and just finished my first quilt done with quilt block designs hooped on the embroidery arm. I put the top together, pinned it all, began at the middle quilt square and quilted 99 blocks and 26 more border/corner motif designs. Total of 125 individually hooped and quilted designs. Was a lot of fun and turned out well. I used 4 different designs and got them from some HV quilt designs.
I have posted some close ups of the quilting. I didn't stitch around the blocks, as I wanted the back of the quilt to have the pretty designs without "blocks" of stitches around them.
The quilt was for a friend getting married...she is from the Texas Hill Country and the quilt fabrics (except for the white-on-white) were from the Moda Hill Country Spring collection.

It was great fun and I will do more like this.
I did just get a design cd from my HV dealer called "Flower Pot Quilts" that has some lovely flower quilting embroidered designs.

I am very new to quilting (this is only my second quilt ever) and can't reaally compete with some of the previous posts' intricacies in design, but it is much fun, anyway. :-)

I am thinking of trading my Saphire 870 in for a Topaz 20. Is it possible to make feather patterns with it?

These are quilting patterns in a set that I purchased from Secrets of Embroidery. It's called Quilt Border Stitch Designs by Birdhouse Cottage Crafts. I drew the center line in washable pen and measured carefully for each paisley so there was an even distribution of designs on each border. Each one was done individually. I did the corner designs and then decided to use fabric paint for color. I could have embroidered the color if I'd thought of it in time.
This whole process was fun and a great way to learn more about using my embroidery machine. I kept my older Bernina to do my piecing and sewing and use the new one mostly for embroidery. With all my machines including my longarm, my sewing room is pretty crowded. I iron in the hallway. And my q. stash is in every nook and crannie all over the house.
I love crafts and am always trying new techniques. Embroidery is just soooo much fun.
Cynthia

[/quote].Worked really well when I used old mattress pads for the batting and spray adhesive to temporarily hold in place ... very few pins required.[/quote]

Patricia - I'm confused - a brand new embroider'er. If I were to make a table runner and used a plain block in the center - could I spray the batting, put the top on the batting, hoop it and embroider in that block?

Thanks for any help!

I love everyones' work and hope I can come close to something as nice.

Pat