Aug
Who says blue work must be blue or red work must be red?
While this piece was made simply for display, a different arrangement of the blocks would make a cute baby quilt. I wanted a sample to show of the designs without taking up a lot of space in a vendor booth.
While this piece was made simply for display, a different arrangement of the blocks would make a cute baby quilt. I wanted a sample to show of the designs without taking up a lot of space in a vendor booth.
The collection features 10 designs, a number that doesn’t lend itself to an even distribution for a such a sample. I used the tenth bear as a label and combined it with pre-digitized keyboard letters.
Outline designs of this type sew quickly and there are no color changes. This collection was sized to take advantage of 100 x 100mm sewing field, which is a fairly common denominator among most machines.
It you’re an experienced quilter, you can easily make this quilt in one day.
EMBROIDERY TIPS
I used quilt-weight cottons from my stash but I think something soft and cozy like Minky would work well. I used a trapunto technique for adding a little dimension to the bears. This is easy and works well when working with this type of design. Here’s how:
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
- Quilt batting (I used a thin cotton batting)
- Lightweight, no show mesh cutaway (Polymesh, Soft and Sheer, etc.)
- TESA (temporary embroidery spray adhesive).
- Precut quilt blocks. Tip: Cut your blocks at least 1/2″ larger than the cut block size. (Larger if your hooping accuracy is not yet perfected.)
- If your machine cannot baste in the hoop, prepare your designs ahead of time by adding basting in software. (I did this with Convert It, Mac.)
PROCESS
- Hoop the backing.
- Sew the basting stitches.
- Cut a piece of batting, lightly mist the back with TESA and position the batting within the basting lines.
- Lightly mist the back of the quilt square with TESA and smooth over the batting and stabilizer making sure the square is straight and centered. With straight pins, secure the square to the stabilizer outside of the basting lines.
- Sew the design.
- Trim the stabilizer and batting next to the design.
ANOTHER USE FOR THIS TECHNIQUE
I particularly like running these style designs on sweatshirts. Sweatshirts are thick and spongy and compress nicely, giving a trapunto effect without the addition of batting.
However, you can amp up the dimension by adding batting. In this case, I hoop the sweatshirt with the batting and a sturdy cutaway to keep the loft towards the front.
There are also special trapunto battings available from commercial suppliers that are stiffer and work great for this technique. Sew the candy cane bear in white on a red sweatshirt—a great quick gift or holiday bazaar project.
MY AFFILIATE LINKS DISCLOSURE
Hi everyone. Just to let you know that some of the links on this site are affiliate links. What that means is that if you click one of them and buy something… I get a commission. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and I only recommend things that I’ve tried and tested, so please, please, please… use my links.
Fine Print: Lindee G Embroidery is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Lindee G Embroidery is also an affiliate for Embroidery.com, Nancy’s Notions, Embrilliance, and Craftsy. If you purchase something through one of those links I may receive a small commission, which helps to offset the cost of running this site. 🙂
WHERE TO GET THESE DESIGNS
- Winter Friends Teddies – 10 designs.For a limited time. save 25% off the collection price.
- Embrilliance software is often available in our shop as a physical product that will be shipped (U.S. only) or as digital download from Embrilliance
- Not sure? Download a demo version to try out any ot the apps or get the free version, previously known as Alpha Tricks Express, now known as Embrilliance Express to open access to the thousands of keyboard fonts available as BX installer files
- Adine Script – BX font used to create the quilt label on the back
