Deigning a Quilt for Machine mroider

Patchwork quilts can be an amazing way to display machine embroidery. You can get expressive with shapes,colors, and textures, making a unique work of art that you or your favorite people will treasure for years tocome. And let's face it, everyone could use a cozy personalized blanket or a gorgeous wall display.

You might find a quilt pattern that you want to use as a starting point (our Nature's Curiosities pattern wascreated with embroidery in mind) -- but to bring your vision to life, you might find yourself wanting to create yourown from scratch. Designing your own quilt pattern might seem like a daunting task, but it's actually prettysimple -- just take it one step at time, and you can sew something really amazing.

Never made a quilt before? No problem! We're firm believers that anyone can quilt -- total beginners andhardcore hobbyists alike. We'll walk you through planning, constructing, and finishing your very own one-of-a-

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kind patchwork masterpiece, using the quilt shown here as an example. Read through this whole tutorialbefore you get started, and get ready to stitch the most amazing quilt you've ever seen!

What you'll need for planning:

Your imagination and creativity!Pencil and paper for sketching (you mightalso like to have some graph paper handy --search for "free graph paper" and you canfind all the printable graph paper optionsyour heart desires)Colored pencils or markers

And to make your quilt:

Rotary cutter, cutting mat, clear ruler to useas a straight edgeCurved quilting safety pinsEnough fabric and batting to make yourquilt. We'll figure out the amount as we'replanning.Some awesome embroidery designsCutaway stabilizerTemporary spray adhesiveEmbroidery threadThread for sewing and quilting -- you'll uselots!

First things first: start dreaming! Pick out someembroidery designs you'd like to showcase on yourquilt, and start thinking about the fabrics you mightwant to use. While you won't know your exactyardage requirements until you figure out yourpattern, there are a couple of things to keep in mindat this point:

Lighter, more open designs such as running stitchor applique will get along great with quilters cotton(and you might also be able to get away with asheer mesh cutaway stabilizer). For designs thathave more stitch-filled areas, you'll want to use amedium weight cutaway stabilizer, possibly pairedwith a slightly more substantial fabric for theembroidered parts (such as flannel or twill).

It's a good idea to test your combination of designs,fabric, and stabilizer before you commit to yourwhole project, so you can make sure you're gettingnice results.

In my example quilt, I'm going to use four designs

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from the Bohemian Woods collection.

Once you've selected your designs, get yourgeneral color scheme or mood in mind, as well asa size -- are you making a bed quilt, a throw, a wallhanging?

Then start sketching possible layouts and ideas foryour quilt. Experiment with a few; you never knowwhat will catch your imagination!

Below are a few basic directions you mightconsider. They're just a start -- feel free to mix andmatch, or create something entirely new. Many ofthese examples were made by an UrbanThreadster just like you!

This kind of quilt is a classic with embroiderers,and for good reason -- it lets your embroiderydesigns take center stage, as Drapes of Wrathdemonstrates with this cute Misfit Nursery Rhymesquilt. A solid color fabric makes a more subduedbackground, but subtle patterned fabrics for yourembroidered blocks can add some nice texture too.

Another popular type of quilt alternatesembroidered blocks with blocks that aren'tembroidered, as in Jacqueline's charming TooCute Circus quilt. This is a great way to have thebest of all possible worlds -- nifty patchwork blocksor bold patterned fabrics, plus embroidery!

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You can keep your blocks sleek and simple -- ordress them up with patchwork, as in Ragannfan1'samazing Dark Fairytales quilt. If you're a beginner,right angles are your friend. Look around at otherquilts for inspiration!

Crazy quilts, a Victorian trend that's still populartoday, feature scraps of fabric stitched haphazardlytogether -- often in rich colors and decadentmaterials like silk and velvet. They lend themselvesperfectly to embellishment -- in addition toembroidery, try adding ribbons, buttons, and otherfanciness!

You don't really need as much of a pattern for these-- just start with your embroidered fabric, keepadding more pieces at irregular angles until you'vefilled a square, repeat, then stitch all your squarestogether, as Tracy did in this Wonderland quilt.Each square is unique -- that's part of the charm!

Even if you're using a more "traditional" quiltdesign, you can stitch outside the box! That's whatwe did with this Nature's Curiosities quilt -- patchedtogether part of the quilt top, then hooped it up withstabilizer and embroidered.

The more patchwork you do before you hoop andembroider your quilt top, the more you're risking ifsomething goes awry -- so it's a good idea to dothis before the whole quilt top is assembled, if youcan.

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Some awesome quilts dispense with blocksaltogether, turning the whole quilt into one bigcanvas!

In this celestial quilt, a curve of purple squarescreates a galactic backdrop to a circle ofconstellations. The backdrop is all made up ofsquares, but it's so much more than the sum of itsparts.

Try a meadow and sky with woodland creatures, oran underwater seascape full of embroidered fish ...anything you like!

Don't forget about your border! You can use asimple strip of fabric, dress it up with patchwork orother embellishments, as Karen did in this brilliantFairytale Shadows quilt. You might even add someembroidery here, too.

Also, remember that the edge of your border willneed a binding -- that tiny strip of fabric that wrapsaround the very edge of your quilt sandwich, hidingthe raw edges of your quilt top, batting, andbacking.

Another thing you'll want to think about whiledesigning: after you've assembled your quilt topand layered it with batting and backing, how will youquilt through your layers? There are several optionshere.

You can stick the quilt under your sewing machine,and let your stitching wander in random freemotionswirls, as Maddy did in this adorable Misfit NurseryRhymes quilt...

...or "stitch in the ditch" along the seams betweenyour patchwork pieces...

any combination of the above!

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You also can use single run quilting embroiderydesigns to quilt through all the layers of your quilt.Check out this tutorial to learn more about usingthis unique kind of embroidery design.

Alternatively, you can hire someone with a longarmquilting machine to quilt your quilt, as Kathleen didwith these heavenly Greek Gods. Longarm quiltingmachines are a bit like embroidery machines, butthey're the size of a room and repeat a design overand over, rather than working within a hoop. Thiscould be harder to combine with more filledembroidery designs, but with these running stitchdesigns it looks amazing!

Again, how you quilt through your layers is all up toyou ... but it's a good idea to give some thought tothis in the design process.

Once you've got your quilt plan all sketched out,grab some colored pencils and color it in. So muchof your quilt's finished look depends on the specificfabrics you're using, but this can help you get aclearer idea of where you're headed. Keep thishandy -- you'll want to refer to it as you're working.

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Now that you have a vision, it's time to get down todetails and plan your pattern! Here's mine, as anexample. I sketched these on graph paper, but hadthem re-drawn on the computer so you can seethem more clearly.

Exactly how you write your pattern will depend onwhat kind of quilt you're making. If you're taking amore freeform approach (like with a crazy quilt), youcan make up more of as you go along. If your quiltwill be more structured, you'll want to plan yourpattern more precisely.

Start by grabbing a piece of paper and drawing anice clean diagram of the pieces of your quilt top,approximately to scale. The idea here is to get avisual representation of the shapes in your quilt.Make it big enough that you can mark it up withmeasurements later.

OK! Now it's time to figure out the size and shape ofthe pieces. On your to-scale diagram, mark the sizeof each type of piece, as it will show on yourfinished quilt. (There are a lot of identically sizedpieces here; I've marked each only once. You getthe idea.)

The next step is to figure out the size of the fabricyou'll actually need to cut. You'll want to add 1/4" toeach side for seam allowance, to figure out the sizeof the fabric pieces you should cut. So for example,if your quilt top contains a 3"x3" square, you'll wantto cut a piece of fabric that's 3 1/2" x 3 1/2".

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Here's my diagram marked up with cutting sizes.

The one thing we haven't talked about yet isbinding. You're going to need a long strip of fabricfor this. To figure out the length, measure theperimeter of your quilt, then add at least a foot extrato accommodate corners and seams. The widthdepends on your preference. If you want about 1/4"of binding to show around the edge of your quilt,strips of about 2 1/4" should work out nicely. If youwant it to be wider, add width accordingly.

You won't be able to cut all this in one long strip, soyou'll want to enough shorter strips that you canpiece them together to create the length you need.Throw in a little extra length to account for all thoseseams.

My quilt is 31" square, so it has a perimeter of 124".I'll bump that up to 140" of binding.

Once all that's done, make yourself a list of piecesyou'll need to cut, with specific dimensions foreach. Here's my list.

If you're doing the math, you'll notice that 7 strips(cut from a fat quarter) would have taken care of my140" of binding. But I cut an extra to allow for allthose seams needed to patch them together. Bettertoo much binding than too little.

If you have strips framing the edges of your quilt, it'snot a bad idea to cut those a bit longer than their"official" length too. The finished measurement ofyour quilt can have a way of turning out a littledifferently than you expect. It's cool.

Still with me? Great! Now it's time to start actuallymaking this thing.

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Unless you're going to be embroidering overmultiple patchwork pieces at the same time, you'llwant to embroider your fabric BEFORE you cut yourpieces. This will help you get the best-lookingembroidery results.

Spray a piece of cutaway stabilizer with temporaryspray adhesive, smooth it on the back of yourfabric, hoop it up, and embroider. Repeat asneeded.

Often it can look best to leave the stabilizer on theback of the whole piece of fabric, rather than cuttingit close to the design. Keep this in mind as you'restitching out designs, to make sure you'll haveenough fabric and stabilizer around the edges.

Once your designs are stitched, it's time to startcutting!

Grab your cutting mat and rotary cutter, and startcutting fabric shapes according to the list you madeearlier. Keep the measurements precise!

When you're cutting your embroidered fabric, you'llwant to make sure the design is located where youwant it. Marking out your piece with fabric markerscan help in this case. Again, it can look nicest toleave the stabilizer on the back of the whole piece.

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In an undisturbed space, lay out all your pieces tomake sure you like how it's all coming together. Ifyou want to rearrange or swap in different fabrics,go right ahead!

Here's my quilt at this point. It's missing the whitestrips that frame the whole thing, because thereweren't really any color variations to consider withthose.

Finally, it's time to start stitching!

Flip two neighboring pieces right-sides-together,then stitch them together using a scant 1/4" seamallowance. Try not to vary from this if you can help it,since tiny changes in the patchwork seamallowance can add up to big changes in a wholequilt.

After you've stitched a seam, you'll want to press itnice and flat. To keep from building up too muchbulk as seams intersect, it can be a good idea toopen up the seam allowance and press one sideeach way. If one of your fabrics is very light-coloredand the other is dark, you might press everythingtoward the darker fabric so that it won't be visiblefrom the front.

Keep on assembling, one seam at a time. If yourquilt has any sort of blocks going on, you'll probablywant to do one block at a time, then assemblethose blocks into rows, and so on.

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Eventually you'll have a completed quilt top.Congratulations!

Now let's finish this thing up...

Your quilt will be a sandwich: your quilt top in thetop, batting in the middle, and a solid piece of fabricon the back. Before you assemble that tastysandwich, there are a couple of things you mightwant to do...

Cut a piece of fabric for the back of your quilt. It's agood idea to do this after you've finished your quilttop, to make sure the sizes match up. Leave yourbatting and backing a bit bigger than your quilt top -- any excess will get trimmed off later.

If you like, you can add a quilt label to the back ofyour quilt, with your name, the date, a message tothe recipient, or anything else you want (like thislabel on the back of a quilt by Quilted ThimbleCottage). You can use embroidery, a fabric marker,or anything else you like!

If you're adding this before you quilt through yourlayers, you'll want to think about how your label willinteract with your quilting. You could also hand-stitch it on afterward, if you prefer. Both options canlook great!

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Also, if you're planning to hang your quilt on thewall, you'll want to build in some way to do that.There are a variety of possibilities, so we'drecommend doing some googling to see what youprefer for your project.

Here's one nifty approach that works great forsmaller quilts -- just add a pocket to the corners,and pop in a dowel. To hang larger quilts, you'llprobably want to add a channel across the entiretop of the quilt instead.

If you're adding corner pockets, fold some fabric inhalf, cut two triangles as shown (the fold is thediagonal edge), and set them aside for now. They'llbe added later. But it's important that we knowwhere we're headed.

OK! Once the back is prepared, it's sandwichmakin' time. Find a nice flat surface and smoothout your backing, right side down. Smooth yourbatting on top of that, followed by your quilt top.Make sure everything is lined up just the way youwant it.

Then, use curved safety pins throughout to pin allthree layers together. The curve allows your quilt tolay flat, and the pins will keep the layers fromshifting around as you move on to the next step...

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At long last, we get to the quilting of the quilt! That'swhat gives your creation its puffy magic.

The thing to watch out for here is keeping yourlayers from shifting around as you're stitching.Those nifty curved safety pins will help, but it's alsoimportant to use a presser foot that won't pushthings out of alignment.

I'm going to be meandering across the quilt withrandom squiggly stitches, so I'm using thisfreemotion foot and dropping the feed dogs so Ican move the quilt any which way I want.

If you're going to be quilting in straight linesinstead, a "walking foot" can make things wayeasier by feeding all your layers through themachine at the same rate. You'll see our version ofthis later in the tutorial, when we do the binding.

If you're new to using these feet, it's a good idea toconsult your machine's manual to make sure youunderstand how to use this foot for quilting -- anddo a practice run a scrap "sandwich" of fabric withbatting in the middle, to make sure everything isrunning smoothly before you stitch the real thing.

As we discussed in the planning phrase, there area variety of ways you can quilt your quilt. Stitchalong the seams between patchwork pieces,and/or just let your stitching wander and curve.

If possible, try starting from the center of your quiltand working outward. This also helps to preventshifting and bunching.

This may take awhile. Throw on a movie or apodcast, and have fun!

Once you're all done quilting, it's time to finish upthe edges!

Trim any excess batting and backing, so that it'saligned with the edges of your quilt top. It's best todo this after you're finished quilting through thelayers, so that you'll have a nice, neat edge andcorners, even if the fabric has stretched a bit duringthe quilting process. Your rotary cutter and mat canhelp get this nice and straight.

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The last step is to add a binding around the edgeof your quilt. In this case, we'll be adding cornerpockets for hanging as well.

Grab those binding strips you cut earlier. Place twoof them at a 90 degree angle, right sides together,as shown. Pin them in place, and stitch themtogether from corner to corner.

Repeat until all your seams are sewn end-to-end.

Now head to your ironing board. Trim about 1/4"away from each seam...

...and press the seam open. You'll get thesmoothest binding if you press half each way, asshown.

Then trim off the excess sticky-outy bits.

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Almost done! Fold your binding exactly in halflengthwise, wrong sides together, and press.

You'll also want to press the end diagonally, asshown. You only need to do this to one end. Trimabout 1/4" from the angled fold.

Now it's time to bind the edges of your quilt!

If you're adding corner pockets for hanging, grabthe fabric you cut earlier, and pin it in place.

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OK! Time to start stitching the binding onto the quilt.

For this step, I'm using a dual feed foot, which isbasically a fancy version of a walking foot. The ideahere is that the presser foot and feed dogs willBOTH push the fabric through equally from the topand the bottom, so that the layers will stay nicelyaligned.

Grab the angled end of your binding and open it up.Pin the first few inches of the binding onto the edgeof the quilt, as shown. You may find that you don'tneed a lot of pins for the binding in general, but afew here can help get everything started nicely.

You'll want to start your binding the middle of one ofthe sides, far away from the corners. There'll beplenty of other exciting stuff happening in thecorners.

Before you start sewing, remember what seamallowance you chose to use for your binding -- 1/4"is common and appropriate if you cut your stripsabout 2" to 2 1/4". If you cut them bigger, you mightwant to increase your seam allowance a bit here,so that they'll wrap around the edge evenly. Biggerstrips can also make it easier to finish your bindingusing your sewing machine (we'll talk about thatmore later).

Stitch the first little bit, so that the seam goes aninch or two past where the top folded edge wouldmeet it. Then take your quilt off the machine. Itshould look like this.

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Now fold your binding back together and resumeyour seam, about a half inch from the angled edge,as shown.

Keep on stitching until you get close to the corner --1/4" away, or whatever your seam allowance is.Backstitch and take it off your machine.

OK, here's how you make that corner nice and neat.Fold your binding up in the opposite direction ofyour quilt, as shown, so that the fold creates a 45degree angle with the edges of the quilt.

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Then fold it back down as shown, aligning this foldwith the edge of your quilt.

Now stick it back under your machine, and stick inyour needle as close to where you left off aspossible -- which should be right on that 45 degreefold line. Start stitching down the next side of thequilt.

Ta da ... a mitered corner!

Keep on going like this, mitering your corners asyou get to them.

When you get back around to where your bindingstarts, cut off the end at an angle, so that it will fitnicely into that little overlappy area we left...

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...tuck it into the beginning of the binding...

...and keep stitching to finish the thing off.

Now all that's left is to stitch your binding to theback of your quilt. Again, you have options here: youcan do this by hand or by machine.

Here's how I would finish the binding by hand. Foldthe binding around to the back, then slipstitch it inplace, catching a tiny bit of fabric alternately fromeach side. This is the neatest way to finish yourbinding, but it takes longer. Another great time for amovie.

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However, I'm actually going to finish my binding bymachine. Fold your binding around to the back, andpin it in place, starting in the middle of one of thesides (again, the corners will get special treatment,which we'll talk about later). It should look like thisfrom the back...

---and this from the front. The back should have awider margin of fabric than the front, so that yourmachine will catch the binding in its seam.

Pop that edge under your machine and startstitching! You can "stitch in the ditch" here, or dowhat I did and sew just a bit to the binding side ofthe existing seam.

When you get to a corner, backstitch and tie off yourseam neatly. You should have something that lookslike this.

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Fold over the next edge to make a nice neat corner.You'll probably want to use a couple pins to keepeverything in place. Then resume stitching fromthat corner, on the front side.

Keep on going until your binding is finished!

If you added pockets for hanging a smaller quilt, cuta dowel to size and slide it in.

Congratulations -- you've just finished a quilt of yourvery own design! Display it, give it, or snuggle it withpride.

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Your quilt is an awesome expression of yourunique style and vision -- and it's infused with loveand care in every stitch. And now that you'velearned so much in the process, you'll be full ofideas for your next amazing quilty creations!

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