[bright music]
- Hi, I'm Denise Abel.
Thank you for joining us
for The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show virtual edition.
And thank you for joining me today
for the "Quick Quilting in the Hoop" session.
I'm excited to share with you how to combine
machine embroidery and paper piecing techniques
to make fall leaves mini wall quilts.
I'll be adding a leaf appliqué embroidery design
to quilt blocks and also sharing automated machine quilting.
I'm making the fall leaves mini wall quilt today
with our Nancy Zieman Productions
Quick Quilting in the Hoop:
Fall Leaves Embroidery collection,
Riley Blake Shades fabrics,
Clover's Mini Iron,
Fusible No-Show Mesh Cut Away Stabilizer,
and Schmetz embroidery needles and quilting needles.
To start our Quick Quilting in the Hoop:
Fall Leaves embroidery design, we need to select what size
we want to use with our embroidery machine.
Included in the collection are options for five inch,
six inch, and eight inch embroidery designs.
Today, we're going to be working with the five by seven,
and we'll also be using the embroidery design
that has the fall leaves embroidery appliqué.
So we are using a five by seven inch hoop
to go with that embroidery design.
And what I'd like to do to make sure that
the stabilizer stays taut in the embroidery hoop,
is take half inch Sewer's Fix It tape
and apply it to the outside of the inner hoop
so that the embroidery design does not distort
or make the embroidery stabilizer shift.
So we go all the way outside of the inner hoop,
and then we go to hooping our stabilizer.
So the Fusible No-Show Mesh Stabilizer
has a beautiful function for fusing.
If you take a look at the stabilizer,
one side has sheen to it, that's the fusible side,
and you want that facing up in your hoop.
And so that the stabilizer stays nice and controlled,
I like to put a jumbo Wonder Clip,
and you might be wondering why I just don't cut
the stabilizer away.
What's nice about keeping the stabilizer on the roll,
you conserve a lot of stabilizer because you're not wasting.
So I like to keep the stabilizer on the roll
with it hooped, and just enough play, or to keep it loose
by the machine, just to allow it moving
when the embroidery happens.
When we go to the machine,
we're going to be putting the stabilizer on,
and we're going to stitch right on top
of the stabilizer itself.
The fabric comes as the embroidery design stitches.
So we're just starting out with the stabilizer.
You'll see me also having the surface
for the fusible side up because we're fusing,
but anytime that we're fusing
and we have the hoop on the machine,
we're going to want to tuck a little bit of a surface
under there for pressing, for heat resistance.
So this is a potholder, and we've attached
a little bit of fabric here so that it reminds us
to remove the potholder from underneath
before we start stitching.
So let's go to the boards here.
So now we're going to have
the hooped stabilizer on the machine.
And the first thing that we're going to be doing is
stitching a roadmap or a color-in-the-lines type of map
on the stabilizer.
So it's just the stabilizer at this point.
And you can take a look and see that there are numbers
in each section, it's kind of like paint-by-number,
but just with fabric.
So our first stabilizer section
is going to be the section number one.
Then we're going to position our fabric
right on top of the number one section.
At this point we would take a mini iron
with our potholder underneath,
and we're going to press this section in place.
[sewing machine whirring]
After that's pressed in place,
the machine is going to then stitch
around the outer perimeter of the square.
And that is now the first part of the fabric for our block.
The next section is going to be placing our fabric triangle
in place over the section that is adjoining numbers one,
which is the green, and two.
So we know that we want to position the piece of fabric
in this location.
So with our five inch embroidered hoop design,
we are going to cut our fabric strips,
crosswise strips of the fabric.
And we're going to then cut that into five inch squares.
So we have a five inch square.
We're going to cut on the diagonal one time
and then cut again on the diagonal a second time,
creating the perfect size triangles
for our five inch block design.
So we position this in place,
we then start the embroidery machine
and it stitches a third time,
this time stitching down the triangle.
We're going to then flip the fabric, excuse me,
flip the fabric over.
And we are then going to press with our mini iron
right in the hoop with our padded surface underneath.
And that is going to be then added to our quilt block.
The next thing the machine will do
is stitch that square or triangle, pardon me, down.
Now we have two pieces of fabric fused to our block.
The next section,
we're going to then take our piece of triangle fabric
and we're going to position it
between section one and section three.
We then are going to start the machine
and it's going to stitch that triangle in place.
We don't have to worry about being fussy too much
with the triangles or the square,
because you are positioning the fabric triangles
right along the line that the machine has stitched.
So as long as you're following the sequence,
you'll get the fabrics right in place.
So now that the machine has stitched that,
we're going to flip and we're going to fuse.
So stitch and flip.
After that triangle has been fused in place,
we start the machine again and it stitches it down.
And we repeat this process over and over
until we get our inner area triangles fused in place.
So stitch and flip and press.
We're now going to go to the outer edge of our quilt block.
So this is section six and we're placing it
right on the fabric, right on the line
that previously stitched the other blocks down,
the other triangles down,
and we're going to stitch and flip once again.
That will fill in our first corner.
When we start the machine,
it's going to stitch it in place once again.
Next section, stitch and flip and press.
Stitching it once again.
Stitch, flip, and press.
And then we're getting down to the final steps here,
stitch, flip, and press.
Stitch, flip, and press.
Now, we've got the entire block filled in with our fabric.
We're going to then tape our edges down
because we're going to be stitching a perimeter.
And you can see here that I've used black thread
to do that stitching.
And all of the stitching lines are going to be
covered within the seams.
So you don't have to worry about any of the stitches showing.
So we stitched the outer edge of the block,
and now we're going to go
to the appliqué part of the design.
And the machine automatically goes to the appliqué
because I selected the quilt block
along with the appliqué, right merged together.
So no editing required.
You just keep going with the machine.
So with this outline,
the first thing that the design did, with the appliqué
I should say, is the stem,
because the top of the stem will be covered
with the appliqué fabric.
And then the machine will stitch the outline
that we want to then cover with fabric
because that's going to be our fabric appliqué.
And you can see here that I've covered the stable or the,
excuse me, the stitched-out leaf design.
And I like to keep my appliqué fabric on a strip
so that I get the most use out of my fabric,
just like I did my stabilizer.
I just keep it on a little roll.
So then we're going to start cutting away,
like you see here.
And we've also done the inner stitching of the leaf.
The machine did the stitching for that.
And then it did the final outline of the appliqué
for the leaf.
And then here's a sample of the cut out quilt block.
Now, how did we get that cut out?
We took our quilt block and took our ruler,
and with our rotary cutter and mat,
we cut on the eighth of an inch line, we align our ruler
with the eighth inch line of the ruler
alongside of that black stitching line.
So we cut away this edge, then I flipped the block,
and we cut this section away.
Always aligning the one eighth inch
of the black stitching line for the ruler.
So that gives us our cut out blocks.
And to piece our blocks,
we then put them right sides together,
and we just do a simple straight stitching
to combine our blocks.
Then you can see I have three of the blocks stitched out,
trimmed, and sewn together, and this is the backside.
And you can see the seam allowances.
You can see that the stitches are hidden right
in that seam allowance,
and to get this nice flat seam allowance,
what I do is I press with an iron
with a little bit of steam,
and then I place the tailor's clapper
or quilter's clapper on the seam line,
and that steam from the fabric absorbs into the block
of the wood and then makes a really crisp, nice flat edge.
When doing multiple blocks for a project,
I also like to hoop the stabilizer
really snug and close to the previous block.
Again, saving on stabilizer.
Once we have the blocks cut out,
then we are piecing with a quarter inch seam allowance,
and I like to use the quilting foot
that is for quarter-inch seams.
You align the foot with the fabric
and stitch a straight line, and everybody can do that.
So it'll give us nice, crisp stitching lines.
Now you see, I've stitched three of the blocks together
for the mini quilt wall hanging,
and you can see my fourth of an inch seam allowance
has been pressed open, and you see all the stitching?
It's hidden like I said it would be.
So we don't have to worry about that showing
in our quilt block project.
So you did the quarter inch seam allowance,
turned it to the opposite side, you've pressed.
And what I like to do is press the seam allowances open,
which distributes the bulk of the seam.
And I take an iron with a little bit of steam,
and then I take the tailor's clapper,
which I like to call the quilter's clapper,
and position over the iron seam allowance.
And what the block is going to do, this is pure wood,
and it's going to take that steam and heat and absorb
right into the block so that your fabric is left
with a nice crisp, flat seam allowance.
You would then finish your quilt
with your favorite quilting techniques,
like stitch in the ditch,
which I did on the fall leaves mini quilt.
So use your favorite techniques for layering,
for quilting, and for binding.
Now I'd like to show you some quilting options
for your project.
For the fall leaves mini quilt,
I did stitch in the ditch with our foot.
You can see that there's a little guide
in the very center of that foot.
That is allowing me to guide that foot and the needle
right behind it in the center, down our seam allowances
left by the piecing of the quilt blocks.
And that allows me to have a perfect stitch in the ditch
or stitching in the well of our seamed blocks.
So on the fall leaves mini wall quilt,
there's no machine quilting, but I did do easy peasy,
right in the line of the seam allowances
with stitching in the ditch.
I also did the same with the larger quilt.
And if we take a look again,
I just simply guided my foot right along the seam
that's left from piecing right down the middle,
and I used translucent or clear thread to do so.
Now, before I can quilt, I certainly want to do my layers.
So we have my backing, my batting, and then my quilt top.
And then I've stitched in the ditch
just right around each square, starting in the middle.
We wanna stitch in the middle and work outward,
so there's no bumpiness in our quilt making.
So you can see on the back here, we have squares.
And I also stitched around the outer edge
using a one eighth inch seam allowance.
So I have this quilted project ready to do
machine embroidery quilting in the sections
where the appliqués are not.
So in with the embroidery collection
are templates that you can print out,
no editing needed, no software needed.
These are included as printable files
right in with the files of the collection.
So what I'd like to do is take and trim my template down
to just around the size of the quilting.
And this is a 100% replication of the embroidery design.
And then I select where I want to do the machine quilting.
So this is an overlapping leaves embroidery design,
and I'm going to align the center of the design
along with the seams of the quilt.
So I position that right in place.
And of course, I'm at home, I'm going to take a little bit
more time to get that right in position.
And I've taken Sewer's Fix It Tape,
and I've taped to the quilt.
Now what's nice about the Sewer's Fix It Tape,
it's not overly tacky,
so it's not going to leave any fusible on your fabric.
It's going to come off really nicely.
So now that I have the template in place,
you then align the centers of the hoop
with the centers of the template,
and when I get this hooped with my outer hoop underneath,
my inner hoop on top, and I press it down and hoop it.
So once it's hooped,
I can then take the template away
and start the machine and do my quilting.
And we'll see on the larger quilted project,
the overlapping leaves stitched right in the position
where I placed the template.
And then you would proceed to go on using the same template,
the stickiness of the tape works over and over.
And position once again, the hoop at the center lines,
position the under hoop or the outer hoop underneath hoop,
take the template away, and again, start the machine
and the overlapping leaves design stitches
right on the quilt where the template was.
[upbeat music]
Thank you for joining me today.
I hope you'll enjoy "Quick Quilting in the Hoop"
in your next quilt.
You'll find our new Quick Quilting in the Hoop:
Fall Leaves collection,
along with exclusive project bundle boxes
and our exclusive Quilt Show specials at shopNZP.com.
[upbeat music]
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