Hello everyone!
03-06-2010, 06:32 AM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Manchester, NH
Posts: 701
At age 72, I have discovered the fun of quilting! And the perplexity of it as well!
My first quilt is in progress and will be given to a darling baby boy as a crib quilt. Its' title is "After the Flood" and will be comprised of squares embroidered by machine, with a pair of animals in each square and the Ark, the rainbow, the dove and Noah and his wife in a panel in the middle of the quilt sewn on blue fabric with white clouds. Also dispersed (every other square) will be a nine block square in complimentary colors.
The embroidered animals are densly embroidered since they are shaded with many colors. Each 'picture' has many thousands of stitches involved, and of course stabilizer had to be used. This makes the embroidered area fairly stiff.
I am wondering if anyone else has used machine embroidery on their squares that required many stitches and if they ever used a disolveable stabilizer in the hoop to make the design softer?
I'm sure you will be hearing from me often since I do not intend to join a class since my health keeps me from carrying a sewing machine around to classes. All of my gained knowledge so far has been from the internet and from books.
I find this board soooooo interesting and read every single entry with delight.
My first quilt is in progress and will be given to a darling baby boy as a crib quilt. Its' title is "After the Flood" and will be comprised of squares embroidered by machine, with a pair of animals in each square and the Ark, the rainbow, the dove and Noah and his wife in a panel in the middle of the quilt sewn on blue fabric with white clouds. Also dispersed (every other square) will be a nine block square in complimentary colors.
The embroidered animals are densly embroidered since they are shaded with many colors. Each 'picture' has many thousands of stitches involved, and of course stabilizer had to be used. This makes the embroidered area fairly stiff.
I am wondering if anyone else has used machine embroidery on their squares that required many stitches and if they ever used a disolveable stabilizer in the hoop to make the design softer?
I'm sure you will be hearing from me often since I do not intend to join a class since my health keeps me from carrying a sewing machine around to classes. All of my gained knowledge so far has been from the internet and from books.
I find this board soooooo interesting and read every single entry with delight.
03-06-2010, 07:10 AM
#2
Super Member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: The middle of an IL cornfield
Posts: 7,014
Welcome to the board from Illinois. I'm sure some of the folks on here will have a good embroidery answer for you. I've seen some great baby quilts with colorful animals on them, so the same issue must have came up.
I know you will enjoy the board and learn so much you will need to live to be 150 to get all the quilts in your head finished!
I know you will enjoy the board and learn so much you will need to live to be 150 to get all the quilts in your head finished!
03-06-2010, 07:23 AM
#3
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Posts: 6,884
Hello, and welcome from Missouri.
I haven't used my embroidery machine to make a quilt like yours, but have friends who have, I will have to ask them about the soluable stabilizer. I had never really thought that far, I am not there yet!
I haven't used my embroidery machine to make a quilt like yours, but have friends who have, I will have to ask them about the soluable stabilizer. I had never really thought that far, I am not there yet!
03-06-2010, 12:00 PM
#4
Power Poster
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Out searching for some sunshine :-)
Posts: 58,856
03-06-2010, 01:04 PM
#5
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Manchester, NH
Posts: 701
Thanks for the welcome everyone! I'm not sure of the 'etiquette' of 'forum-izing', but I did want to say your welcoming comments make me feel good.
I'm not even sure how you found my message, since all I know how to do is click on the 'most popular' subjects whenever I get an email from Konstantin, and I haven't even found my message anywhere!
That's how un-hip I am!
I'm not even sure how you found my message, since all I know how to do is click on the 'most popular' subjects whenever I get an email from Konstantin, and I haven't even found my message anywhere!
That's how un-hip I am!
03-08-2010, 04:43 PM
#9
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: La Quinta, CA
Posts: 3,918
I do machine embroidery on some of my quilts but not nearly as dense as you do. Almost all mine is just outline simple designs, redwork/bluework. I use either tearaway or cutaway stabilizer and leave about an inch of it around the design. I quilt with a Tin Lizzie and shadow quilt around the embroidery catching the stabilizer in the quilting. So far this has worked for me.
Welcome to the board and I hope you will post pictures of your projects,I'd love to see them!
Welcome to the board and I hope you will post pictures of your projects,I'd love to see them!
03-09-2010, 07:00 AM
#10
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Manchester, NH
Posts: 701
Thanks for your imput Mary, I appreciate it. I have planned to shadow quilt around the embroidery also, and then just quilt using straight lines into squares around that. I will be embroidering the *last* of the designs today - a larger panel that will go in the middle of the quilt which will include Noah and wife, the Ark, the Dove and the Sun. The panel is appliqued with a dk green with sm. white flower outlines at the bottom (repres. Mt Ararat) and blue & white batik at the top for the sky. Noah and wife are in the forground on the green, the ark is sitting on top of the hill of green fabric, and the ark, dove and sun are in the blue batik sky. All of my time so far has been used in embroidering the animals etc, but today I will begin to cut out pieces for the 9 piece blocks . Then I'll be piecing and quilting for the first time in my life.
It has taken me a long time to get this far due to health reasons, but 'slow and steady wins the race' I guess.
I think I'll press the seams on the 9 squares open and then quilt straight diagonal lines to help strengthen those blocks. Being a 'seamstress' all these years, pressing the seams to one side makes me shudder!
Red work and Blue work are perfect for quilting! Must keep that in mind.
It has taken me a long time to get this far due to health reasons, but 'slow and steady wins the race' I guess.
I think I'll press the seams on the 9 squares open and then quilt straight diagonal lines to help strengthen those blocks. Being a 'seamstress' all these years, pressing the seams to one side makes me shudder!
Red work and Blue work are perfect for quilting! Must keep that in mind.
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