McGargantuette

Can I embellish the back of my already-quilted sandwich?

I’ve just finished quilting my daughter’s quilt, using straight stitching lines that are about 3/ 4” apart on the quilt itself. There’s also a 4” border that I quilted in gentle curves with the walking foot. Used Aurifil 50 wt thread for all quilting and piecing. The back is “lightly” pieced.

I did not pre-wash the fabric or batting.

At this late stage, I’ve decided that I’d really like to embellish the back of the quilt a little by embroidering a few meaningful words here and there, as well as daughter’s name, my name, and the year. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?!?

So now I’m wondering how much trouble I’m asking for if I decide to hand embroider the text on just the back only. I’ve never done that before. Heck, I’ve hardly even done much embroidering in my life! I’d prefer to use a simple, thin, script – clean looking, not fussy.

If I try to embroider it now, after quilting is complete, will it be impossible/very difficult to work around/through my ¾” apart quilted lines (wouldn’t you know it, the text would look best if it ran against, rather than with, the lines of quilting)? If I proceed with this plan, should I pass the embroidery thread through the backing fabric and the batting together, or just through the backing fabric? Should I wash the quilt before I embroider it, so that the fabric shrinks? Or do you wash it after embroidering, so that it all shrinks together? (I’m thinking of using pearl cotton …)

Thanks for any guidance you have to offer (and feel free to tell me not to do this if it’s a bad idea!)

Judy

popover

I usually embroider information on the back as a label, before washing

Fabric Galore

I usually make a quilt label with a design to compliment the quilt on my embroidery machine and then I embroider any information such as names, dates, occasion, etc. on the label and hand stitch it to the back of the quilt.

McGargantuette

Popover and Fabric Galore, thank you.
i considered embroidering a label, but I'd really rather embroider directly onto the quilt back -- it would be a design element and my girl would like it that way. But I have no idea whether I can make it work without running the risk of shrunken and misshaped embroidery. I've looked for information on the internet, without any luck.

lots2do

I think you can probably do it. I'd use Sulky cotton 12 weight since it comes in a spool and not in separate strands. I'd try to sink my beginning and ending knots through the batting if you can manage that. I'd make a little sample square prepared the same way as your quilt to practice on before you try the 'real' quilt'. If you finish it with binding, you can wash it the way you would the quilt and see how the enpmbroidery stands up to washing. Then you can switch to an embroidered label if you don't like the results.
Please let us know how this works out for you! And p.m. me if you have any questions.
I have often been a member of the better late than never club so you are in good company, as far as I am concerned.

QuiltnLady1

It would definitely need to be hand quilted. In addition to what lots2do said, I don't know if you can put it in a hoop but be careful that you don't pull the stitches tight.

McGargantuette

Thanks very much. Your suggestion of a trial mini-sample with binding seems very smart, lots2do. I'll do that. I have some pearl cotton, size 8 -- could I use that? And I'll also try to heed your advice to keep my stitches on the looser side, QuiltnLady1, but that will probably be my downfall. I tend to stitch and knit tightly. How loose is "loose enough," I wonder ... I do have a quilting hoop, but have never used it before now.

yngldy

Got this in email this morning and thought of you. They had made their label on the binding. You could do this to your binding and not have to worry about quilting stitches running a certain way, etc.
http://weallsew.com/quilt-binding-words/

Pennyhal

If you want them here and there, I'd just stitch through the top layer of the backing. You could do just one word and see how that looks to you. If you don't like it, it'll be easy to remove.

Mitch

I recently sent a quilt to a professional to be quilted and there was a mistake made and a band across the quilt about 1 1/2” was left blank. It was a Celtic themed quilt so I embroidered the Irish blessing in the space on the back of the quilt. I only stitched through the backing and probably a tiny bit of the batting. It worked out perfectly well and looks like it was meant to be an interesting part of the design.