Eye-Grabbing Machine Embroidery Quilt Designs

Posted by embroideryquilter on June 11th, 2013

After several years of back pain, I finally had an MRI done. While I hoped that it would show nothing, a small part of me wanted it to show something that we could fix. When the results were that nothing was wrong, I was pleased, but still perplexed. How can one fix something if nothing is wrong? For me, it means going to my evil physical therapist who hurts me and makes me feel a tiny bit better each visit. While it isn’t a fix, I am hoping and working towards the goal of less pain.

When it comes to handcrafts like making quilts, it is also sometimes hard to pinpoint what is wrong with a project. Tiny flaws are hard to spot for the casual observer, but we quilt-makers can find every single one of our own mistakes. Even if it doesn’t detract from the quilt, we agonize over them and swear never to make that mistake again. And yet we do; again and again.

Why? Because we fail to truly, find out all the things that contributed to the mistake!

It could have been the fabric itself not being a good weave, causing our cuts and seams to not be as straight as we want. It could be that our quilting supplies are older than they should be. Old thread can cause a whole host of problems. Maybe our stitching techniques need some work or our machine needs a tune-up. Many problems can pile up until they all contribute to the issue.

While many quilters, myself included, realize that a lot of issues can be solved by “quilting them out” – using the quilting stitches to hide flaws – this is not always the case. In fact, when adding the actual quilting stitches, even more problems can occur; and, once again, they can include supplies, machinery and human errors.

Introducing quilt embroidery into my routine of making quilts added a lot of new areas for problems, but it also helps me to avoid a lot of issues that I had before. First, the embroidery machine does the physical work, relieving me of mistakes I might make based on physical discomfort or eye strain. Second, the stitches of the machine embroidery quilt designs are so uniform that I don’t have to worry about the stitching itself looking bad. These are two major issues for me!

Embroidery quilting is also a wonderful way to create appliqué designs for those of us without the patience to do it on our own. When creating appliqué, I start out fine, but then get tired and begin making small mistakes which turn into larger mistakes when I get frustrated. Quilt embroidery has helped so much in this area!

I’m not saying that I never make mistakes or have issues when using embroidery quilt designs, but they do cut out a lot of the mistakes caused by my carelessness or lack of experience with the technique. It allows me to look at things more objectively to decide where I can improve the outlook through baby steps, just as my physical therapist does for my back.

Take it slow and enjoy the learning process!