Embroidered Quilt Blocks

[cmhquilter]

My sister in law was given a quilt top made of embroidered quilt blocks with sashing in between the blocks. I have volunteered to quilt it for her. I usually FMQ my quilts but hate to quilt through the embroidered blocks. Any suggestions on how to quilt this?

[Sandy Navas]

Re: Embroidered Quilt Blocks

A lot will depend upon the size of the embroidery compared to the manufacturers recommendation as to how far you can quilt apart (some brands will say up to 6-8 inches between quilting lines). If that's an issue you may want to use an invisible thread over the embroidery. Personally I'd probably only stitch up to the embroidery.

[Bubby]

Re: Embroidered Quilt Blocks

When I make quilt blocks with machine embroidery I ask my quilter to stitch around the embroidery. There is normally room around the emb design to at least do some echo quilting. I agree with Sandy.

[cmhquilter]

Re: Embroidered Quilt Blocks

Thanks for the help. Thiink I will fmq around the blocks and like you said echo around the embroidery. The blocks were embroidered by her mother in law so I don't want to mess them up.

[Judy Gwinn-Thomas]

Re: Embroidered Quilt Blocks

Do you remove the stabilizer from the embroidery design prior to quilting?

[Sandy Navas]

Re: Embroidered Quilt Blocks

Do you remove the stabilizer from the embroidery design prior to quilting?

Welcome, Judy! I think the blocks referred to in this post were probably hand embroidered (not certain though). Regarding machine embroidery - it depends upon the type of stabilizer used. Personally I would use a light-weight cut-away and probably leave the whole piece in place within the quilt block. I have a string quilt I made using cut-away for my foundation and it has been laundered many times and has held up very well - and of course the stabilizer is still in place.

[Judy Gwinn-Thomas]

Re: Embroidered Quilt Blocks

Thanks for the reply Sandy. I plan to hand quilt and was thinking it would be hard to quilt using a cut-away. Hadn't thought about using the soft or mesh cut away. Great idea!

[DNeubauer]

Re: Embroidered Quilt Blocks

Friday I dropped off my quilt top at the long arm quilter and she was quilting a hand embroidered quilt top. She quilts right thru the embroidery. She has done many that way and says it doesn't distraught from the embroidery. I did a machine embroidered quilt several years ago and I used poly mesh as the stabilizer and left it in. I had someone else besides the gal I use now to quilt it and she stippled around the embroidery. Either way should work. Don't forget to post a photo when it is done.

[cmhquilter]

Re: Embroidered Quilt Blocks

I am probably crazy but am fmq using the prestamped quilting lines on the embroidery blocks and using a meandering stitch on fabric between the blocks? it looks nice but will take a while to Quilt!