LGJARN52

Recently "patricej" mentioned she quilts with her embroidery machine, I've never thought of that concept before. Few questions are: how is the machine programable, or are there built in patterns? Is there a company to order patterns from? Do you have to use a hoop ? If so does that allow you to only quilt a few inches at a time and then have to reposition the hoop? To me that would be a pain. What brand of embroidery machine do you have or what brand would you recommend.
Since I no longer have my Janome 1600P on a Grace frame and have sold the frame my mojo for quilting has left the country or something. Need something to get my quilting going again.

lmanna

Most machines will likely have some quilting designs included, You can purchase additional designs from places like Kimberbell, Designs by Juju, etc. Some places that sell long arm designs even offer machine embroidery formats of their designs. My embroidery machine allows me to do some designing in it - I imagine most others do as well? You can also use embroidery software to design your own patterns. Embroidery software ranges anywhere from free (Inkscape) to expensive.

Yes, you have to use a hoop. You can only quilt in the maximum size hoop available for your machine. You need to rehoop, stabilize, reposition, etc. every time you need to advance the quilt. I've quilted using mine for a few quilt blocks but would never have the patience to do it for a quilt.

I have a "combo" sewing + embroidery machine. Mine is a pfaff creative icon 2. It's quite pricey but I got a very good deal on it due to purchasing a class model + trade-in of my previous machine. I'm new to machine embroidery so I'm not sure if it's a "great" embroidery machine but it is more than good enough for my purposes. I don't ever plan on starting an embroidery business - if I did, I would definitely get a multi-needle emboridery machiine. I do wish I had purchased a separate embroidery machine so that I could sew something else while my machine was embroidering. But I find other ways of multi-tasking. Honestly since my embroidery machine is a single needle I find that I am constantly changing thread colors so I kind of need to pay attention to the embroidery machine - another reason why I would prefer a multi-needle embroidery machine.

Hope this helps.

lmanna

And on the flip side - I have used my embroidery machine to piece quilt blocks in the hoop. I recently had to make 40 signature blocks for a friend's wedding. I designed the block using embroidery software and was able to have my embroidery machine stitch out 4 blocks at a time. It worked out surprisingly well and all blocks were perfect. To be perfectly honest though, if my hoop wasn't big enough to hold 4 blocks at a time it would not have been worth the extra effort of hooping, stabilizting, etc.

Snooze2978

You can also buy quilt blocks/patterns and make the quilt that way. I picked up a wedding ring quilt pattern and stitched out all the blocks. You add the batting while your embroidering the block or not. I did and won't do it again that way as I want to be able to put all 3 layers together and add a bit more quilting to attach the 3 layers. The ring on the block did not have any quilting on it so that's where I'll add plus at each intersection where the blocks come together. Hopefully that will be enough quilting to keep it together. I have the top together but my basting stitches are showing in areas so a friend said she'd remove them for me. Hope long that might take, I have no clue but it was nice of her to offer and I grabbed it.

Onebyone

Three in my quilt group of friends have the Brother Luminaire. They tried edge to edge quilting in the hoop, the hoop is big enough to step in, and it looked great. One loved it but two said never again. Too time consuming and very fiddly. I have an embroidery machine that has the small hoop and have put motifs in the cornerstones. That was tedious enough.

patricej

i currently have a brother dream machine 2. it has a few motifs built in but they are too small. i buy single-run quilting motif/patterns from a few sources. you don't have to spend a ton of money to get nice designs.

it does take practice, but so does using a long-arm. i use a magnetic hoop that keeps the quilt flat in the hoop so it doesn't get stretched out of shape. (dime brand)

the biggest challenge for me is keeping the weight of the quilt off the machine bed and embroidery unit. if it drags or gets pulled out of alignment it can be disastrous. (i have even embroidered the foot to the quilt. that is NOT fun to fix.)

my free motion skills are so bad you can smell them in three states. i don't have room or money for a longarm. paying to have them quilted also doesn't fit my budget. getting the embroidery capable machine was the most economical way for me to have quilting options that fit my skill level.

Rhonda K

Yes, in the hoop. Started on the Dream machine and now on the Luminaire machine. It's the technique I use for finishing my projects and quilts. Lots of EMB designs available or I can design a block in my machine. I quilt the backing fabric separately ITH for wall hangings, table runners, etc. It is a nicer finish than SITD.

I love and use the magnetic hoops (9x14 or 10x16). Quilting a design one size smaller than hoop allows me to move the design in the hoop field. Easy to align for the next block of quilting. If I miss it, just reposition the hoops.

Onebyone

I think many quilters are learning alternatives to sending out to a long armer. My friend has a long arm business and she told me the amount of quilt tops she gets now are half of what she use to get every month. She needs her business to finish paying for her long arm. She bought a new one two years ago and it's not paid off. She said many are cutting back due the cost of everything. And she had to raise her price for thread and batting because her wholesaler raised his price. Paying over a $140 for a throw size E2E is getting to be an extravagance for many.