suncentaur

Hi, I ordered a brother pe770 embroidery machine. I thought I could make some of the many quilting designs available these days online with it. But I am confused how quilting in the hoop works. They say that brother pe770 is very picky about thread and that it uses 90 weight bobbin thread in the bobbin. I'm just wondering if that is strong enough to use in a quilt sandwich. In a regular sewing machine I match my bobbin thread with my top thread so it looks nice on the quilt back and so there are no issues with one thread cutting or breaking another over time. So I am just wondering how this works or if I should order another perhaps higher end machine for quilting in the hoop? I was excited when I ordered the pe770 until people started saying how important it was that 90 weight bobbin thread be used in it.

I suppose I could just use the machine for embroidering quilt blocks and then quilt around them with a regular machine afterwards but the whole quilt in the hoop thing sounded really great. Do more expensive embroidery machines allow for more freedom with bobbin thread choice? The pe770 is very affordable for the size hoop you get (5x7) and you can also get a 5x12 repositionable hoop as well for it.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks, Sun

Cari-in-Oly

The PE770 is one of the least picky about threads IMO, but it does use 90wt bobbin thread normally. You could always adjust the bobbin case to use a thicker bobbin thread if needed. My BFF has the Designio 820 which is the same machine in a different color and she uses Madeira Burmilion 60wt bobbin thread in her machine without having to make any adjustments.
As for using it to quilt in the hoop, even with a 5x7 hoop you're limited to small quilting designs. Fine for a small wall hanging or a baby quilt but you'll be re hooping a million times for a big quilt. If I were going to quilt in the hoop I'd want something like the Janome MC500e that has the 8x11 hoop made for quilting.

Cari

PaperPrincess

I had a 770, and agree that it would be happy with just about any thread. Not picky at all. You usually use that fine weight bobbin thread when you are actually doing an embroidery design, which is pretty dense. You will probably want to get prewound NEBs (National Embroidery Bobbins) are probably the most common. With less dense designs, you can use a bit heavier weight thread in the bobbin.
I also agree with Cari in that using a machine with that small area for quilting a large quilt is going to be difficult (although there are folks who do it all the time). I was only successful in doing borders where most of the quilt was outside the harp. I also did a couple of QAYG, where you quilt the blocks individually then join.

We have a specific thread for ME, you can check there too:
https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...un-t32969.html

klarina

I don't know about the PE700 specifically but I have made several quilts quilted in the hoop with a 6x10 Brother and an 8x12 Baby Lock.
I almost never quilt the whole thing in the hoop. I quilt by rows or by blocks and then join them with the QAYG method. I use the regular embroidery thread to quilt my sandwiches and never had a problem. My quilts go into the washing machine and come out OK.
This quilt, for example, was quilted block by block and then the border was made by rows. They come out fast and they are lots of fun to make.
I hope this helps.

Rhonda K

I wind the regular polyester embroidery thread onto a bobbin and use that whenever I want thread to match. It works fine in the bobbin for FSL projects too. Pre-wounds are always easier and they come in colors too. Don't be afraid to at least try a different thread.

http://www.allbrands.com/products/42...iABEgLFRPD_BwE

For embroidery quilts, I use no show mesh in the hoop. Then lay the batting down, tack down. Lay background fabric down and tack down. Stitch embroidery design, trim block to 1/2 inch seam line. Stitch blocks together. Then add backing and stitch in ditch.

The above method doesn't show the bobbin thread knots on back of embroidery block. Hope that helps!

If you want to do edge to edge quilting, that is a different method. You will have grid marks and re-hoop to go across the quilt.

There is another method using a cross stitched line and thumb tacks to line up design in a specific spot. It's more involved and harder to explain.

quiltnmore

I bought my first embroidery machine to do quilt designs in the hoop. Even though it was already sandwiched I found it really time consuming and too dense for what I like. It is so quick to just stipple wandering around.
Just my experience at quilting in the hoop.

TAMARATJO

I do a lot of quilting in the hoop. I have a Husqvarna Viking Topaz 20. It is a bit difficult to get the designs squared up in the block when hooping the quilt sandwich. I am thinking of buying a magnetic hoop so I don't have to close the hoop on the quilt. The large hoop is expensive though, $170 plus $ for extra magnets. Anyone have an experience with magnetic hoops? I use Aurifil 50 wt. cotton thread. I haven't had the best success with QAYG. The front of the quilt looks great, but I have trouble getting the back of the quilt seams to look good.

Learning2Quilt

I have the Pfaff Creative 4.5 and after a rocky start have come to love it. Unfortunately have not had a lot of time to use it to its full extent. Bought the basic software for it and have not had time to play around with it. I have also bought some quilting designs to do in the hoop but again have not tried them out yet. I took a Craftsy class on modifying sweat shirts into jackets with embroidery and really enjoyed that. I also like doing in the hoop designs and have made numerous items such as bookmarks for simple gifts and embroidered crazy patch blocks from Molly Mine. I have a number of ith designs I have yet to try. I wish there were more hours in the day to allow for play with this machine. I will be watching this thread for ideas.

janjanq

I have a Babylock Ellegante. I had a simple throw quilt already completed (including binding) and minimally stitched in the ditch . I didn't really like the quilt much and it had plain 8 inch single fabric blocks so I thought it would be a good quilt to experiment with. I had some embroidery designs for quilting blocks and tried several of them. Loved the results. Used embroidery thread on the top and regular thread (matching the backing) in the bobbin. Not all of the blocks came out perfect due to the fact that the quilt had already been bound. Some designs I used matching tread and some contrasting threads, some on solid fabrics and some on prints. The quilt itself is not a masterpiece but it was fun to practice on it.

linmid

I have a Janome 1200 and have quilted in the hoop several throws, but like TAMARATJO I don't like the hooping business. Had not thought about the magnetic hoop. Has anyone tried one?