Supply List
Embroidery on Patchwork
Joanne Winn, Instructor
Lesson One opens on April 5; Lesson Two, April 12; and Lesson Three, April 19. Once a lesson opens, it remains available until this classroom closes on May 10.
You must have successfully downloaded and stitched a file prior to the class. If your machine is more than two generations old, it may be difficult for you to download these files as they are larger than old files.
Fabrics
Background: 1 yard of fabric for the background, also includes the backing. Hand dyes, batiks or fabrics that look like a solid fabric are a good choice. This should be lighter in value than your fabrics for the Embroidered Squares.
Embroidered Square Fabrics: This is the fun part. Go through your stash of fabrics and scraps, pull out mediums to medium darks in a variety of colors. Batiks, tone on tone or anything that will let the embroidery stitches show off will work. You do not need large pieces of fabric; fabrics from your scrap basket work great for this technique. Fat quarters or quilter’s quarters will be fine if you have to purchase fabric.
Outer border and binding: 1/2 yard. You can buy your fabric for the borders and binding at the same time that you purchase your other fabrics, but I recommend waiting. I really like to audition fabrics for borders and bindings after I have the top for the project complete. Quite often, something you thought would be perfect does work once the center is completed. You also have the choice of making an embroidered border or making a multi-fabric binding, or both. These techniques will be covered in Lesson Three.
Inner border: 1/4 yard of fabric that coordinates with the fabric for the outer border.
Other Supplies
- Machine needles: Most embroidery machines use Embroidery 75/11 needles. Use whatever size and brand gives you the best quality embroidery
- Threads: A variety of colors in 40 and/or 50 wt. thread in cotton or polyester. They can be mixed or you can use all one thread fiber for your project. Thicker decorative threads can also be used, but are not required for this class.
- Embellishments: Decorative threads, ribbons, lace and motifs can be used in this project, but are not required to complete the project
- Batting: a piece of cotton batting approximately 16" x 40"
- Neutral color cotton thread
- Rotary cutter, mat
- Rulers:
- 6" square or larger
- 3 1/2" x 12"
- 3 1/2" x 24"
- Basic sewing supplies, seam ripper, pins
- Small sharp scissors
- Iron and ironing board or mat
The remaining supplies are project-specific and are divided into Method One and Method Two.
Method One by Embroidery Sewing Machine
Tablerunner One made with embroidery module on home machine
- sewing machine with an embroidery module sewing machine with an embroidery module that has at least a140 mm x 225 mm hoop or a stitching field of 5.5" x 5.5"
- embroidery scissors
- appliqué scissors
- wash out pen or pencil for marking your grid on the right side of your fabric. Test before you use it on your project.
- thin type of tear-away stabilizer like Simply Stable which will be hooped
- any brand of tear-away stabilizer that works well with your embroidery machine. This will be ironed or basted to the wrong side of your background fabric.
Tip: Floriani’s Heat N Sta Fusible Tearaway works very well for this project. It is an iron-on stabilizer that completely stabilizes the background fabric.
Embroidery designs will be provided in art3, art4, exp, hus, pcs, pes. and xxx formats. If your machine requires a different format than the ones listed here, I will make sure that you get the appropriate format for your machine.
These designs will include:
- three square block designs
- four embroidered square side triangles
- four embroidered square end corner triangles
Method Two by Home Sewing Machine
Tablerunner Two made with decorative stitches on home machine
- sewing machine with decorative stitches or interesting utility stitches
- tear-away stabilizer, tracing paper or deli paper
- template plastic
Tip: Copy paper and freezer paper do not work well for this type of machine work. There is too much of the paper left behind the stitches. Muslin is too thick.
Reversing the design elements
Outline
Lesson One
- Choosing fabrics
- Fabric preparation
- Thread choices for embroidery quilts
- Method One by Embroidery Machine
- Tools of the trade
- Types of Stabilizers to use for Embroidery on Quilts
- Marking a grid
- Precutting fabrics for Embroidery Designs
- Hoop sizes
- Download and test Embroidery Designs
- Embroider designs without hooping your fabric
- Bonus Instruction: Disaster Control
- Changing the format of a design
- Resizing a design to fit your hoop
- Viewing the actual stitching sequence
- Method Two by Home Sewing Machine
- Stabilizers for stitching Embroidery Quilts on a home sewing machine
- Cutting fabric pieces
- Making the most from your fancy and utility machine stitches
- Stitching Embroidered Squares
Lesson Two
- Method One by Home Embroidery Machine
- Download and stitch side and end triangle designs
- Stabilizer removal
- Squaring up your quilt top
- Editing stitches in a design
- Method Two by Home Sewing Machine
- Download pdf file for templates
- Making templates
- Choosing appropriate fabrics for the side and end triangles
- Fussy cutting preprinted fabrics for side and end triangles
- Tablerunner construction
Lesson Three
- Auditioning border fabrics
- Border construction, including an embroidered border
- Quilting
- Binding, including a multi fabric binding
If your area does not have a supplier for embroidery threads, you can purchase threads from www.superiorthreads.com and the site is filled with useful information about threads and how to use them.