Free Embroidery Designs

I have two beautiful 3 feet by 4 feet fabric panels that have a very pretty horse design on them I want to make my first quilt out of it. I thought I would take a matching colored solid fabric and use that for the edges and the back. I just would like to know what kind of batting to use and where the best place to purchase it is. Thanks! 🙂

Sorry to make it even more complicated, but loft isn’t the only consideration. You also need to decide if you want to use polyester batting, natural fiber batting (cotton and bamboo are the most readily available, but there are wool and silk as well), or a cotton/poly blend. Once you decide that, you may eliminate the loft question entirely.

I prefer cotton batting because I like a flat quilt, and I like that it is an all season batting. Natural fibers allow air to pass through (referred to by quilters as "breathing"), while polyester traps the the air under the quilt. This means polyester is a very warm batting, and is best used in a winter quilt. I also like the drape of cotton batting, although there are some higher end polyester battings that are made to mimic the look of cotton batting. They are very thin and drapey.

Another thing to consider is how you are going to fasten the layers together. There are two methods – sewing (either by hand or machine) and tying. You can sew straight lines through all of the layers (or get adventurous and do free motion quilting using a darning foot). For a quilt the size you’re talking about, straight line quilting would not be difficult. Tying is when you use a large needle and embroidery floss or pearl cotton (don’t do yarn – it’s just too difficult) and stitch down and up in the same location, then tie a square knot. (Look up the proper way to tie a square knot – most people do what’s called a granny knot, and it isn’t as secure). You can tie the knots on either the front or the back depending on where you want the tails to be visible. Cut the tails to about 1/2" – 1" after the knots are secure. Repeat this every few inches.

Your decision to tie or sew affects the batting you choose. Most importantly, check the batting instructions to find out how closely you need to quilt it. Some batting must be quilted every 2", while others are only every 10". If it has to be quilted every 2", that’s an awful lot of tying. Also check how easy it is to "needle" – that means how difficult it is to hand sew through. If you are going to tie your quilt and you want it to be very puffy, then you need a high loft batting. If you want it to be thinner, a lower loft is good, and natural fibers are also very good.

As for where to buy it, if you have a JoAnn Fabrics they can help you out. You can also find prepackaged batting online, including
JoAnn Fabrics
http://www.joann.com/joann/search/search_results.jsp;jsessionid=UZ1AU2TIVD5JCP4SY5KVAFR50LD3OUPU?CATID=cat1110&keywords=batting&_requestid=1733926

Hancock’s of Paducah
http://www.hancocks-paducah.com/ItemList–Batting–m-20

and even Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1246280047/ref=sr_nr_n_0?ie=UTF8&rs=1055398&keywords=batting&bbn=1063498&rnid=1063498&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Abatting%2Ci%3Agarden%2Cn%3A1055398%2Cn%3A!1063498%2Cn%3A12890711

Here’s an excellent page that explains batting in greater detail:
http://www.quiltersbee.com/qbfabtip.htm

I have a janome machine and want to create my own lace design. I really want to do my own. Does anyone use Embird or some other program? How hard is it to do?

I use the Digitizer10000 software that Janome sells. I know you can do some digitizing with Embird, but I don’t know how.
The steps I take in D10K are:
1. Scan the design (I draw out my designs first)
2. First layer is straight line embroidery, no satin stitch. This keeps the design in place. This is done in color 1.
3. Satin stitch the design over the straight lines. Do this in color 2.
4. Satin stitch again, with a stitch slight wider than before, starting and stopping in different places. Do this in color 3.
5. Finally, satin stitch one more time right over #4 (color3). Do this in color 4.
6. Stitch it out and fine tune as needed.
I use the different colors so I can tell which layer needs adjusting. I have made some where the stitches in the satin lines get closer (tighter) with each layer. For testing purposes, I keep the different colors and stitch out using netting between Solvy. I have found that if my design is weak and needs a lot of help that the netting keeps it all together – very important the first test stitch!
From there, I tweak the design as needed. Once I like how it stitches out, I change all the colors to one so the machine doesn’t stop between layers anymore. I save multiple copies as I work.
Laces can be time consuming to digitize. I have created two small lace pieces but I prefer to purchase the designs.
Good luck!

Again, that program is called Digitizer10000. Sold by Janome dealers. There is a new version, DigitizerPro that has some wonderful features, including the ability to digitize any TrueType font you have on your computer. Cool! And it can digitize photos, too. Still one color, but my local dealer said the programmers are working on color!