2 in 1 – embroidering and quilting at once with THE Dream Machine 2

Yesterday on QUILTsocial we used the bobbin work embroideries made with THE Dream Machine 2 on Tuesday and Wednesday to sew crazy quilt setting triangles for our table runner. We’ve got the table runner layered with batting and backing, so today we get it all quilted and bound.

The first thing we’re going to do is some stitch in the ditch quilting using the dual feed foot of THE Dream Machine 2. This will make the quilt sandwich super secure and will prevent any shifting of the layers when we do more quilting stitches later on.

I stitched in the ditch along all of the seams between the blocks and setting triangles.

Now let’s do some decorative stitches along the seams in the crazy quilt setting triangles. Threads can be laid on top of the quilt top before you start, in order to get a preview of how they’ll blend into the fabrics once stitched.

The decorative stitches that can not be stitched using THE Dream Machine 2‘s dual feed foot are greyed out on the stitch selection screen. Guess I will have to take the dual feed foot off if I want to add any decorative stitches!

There are so many decorative stitches to select from when using THE Dream Machine 2. There’s actually 726 built-in utility and decorative stitches! The hardest part is picking which one to use first.

To make sure that all of your decorative stitches are secure, the “Reinforcement Stitch” button on THE Dream Machine 2 can be used at the beginning and end of stitching a line of decorative stitching. Just press this button, the machine stitches a few stitches in place, then you can press the “go” button or just use the foot controller to start stitching. When you’re done with that stitch, just press it again.

Here’s a close-up of decorative stitch 8-35 sewn on the crazy quilt setting triangle.

Here’s a close-up of the back which shows how the embroidery stitches have also quilted the table runner at the same time as embellishing it!

In order to clear the stitch that was just used, press the “delete” button and then select the next stitch.

Always pay attention to the size of the selected decorative stitch on the display screen of THE Dream Machine 2. As you can see, this stitch is shown at 100% and will stitch out 1″ in width. This is way to big for this project, but that design would be SUPER cute on a summer apron or tablecloth!

The “Mirror Image” key

You can use the “Mirror Image” key on the decorative stitch selection screen of THE Dream Machine 2, to flip the design from left to right (or vice versa) to make it fit your space better.

Here’s the mirror image of THE Dream Machine 2‘s decorative stitch 7-075 stitched out on the table runner.

This fun starburst design is Stitch 6-118 on THE Dream Machine 2.

Before starting to stitch, THE Dream Machine 2 positions the needle so that it drops down at the position indicated at the top of the example on the stitch selection screen. For this design, this spot is the farthest left position in the decorative stitch. This feature can be used for aligning your stitching in the correct position before you start stitching.

Here’s THE Dream Machine 2’s starburst decorative stitch 6-118, stitched out on the table runner.

I stitched along almost half of the seams in the crazy quilt setting triangles, using about 20 different stitch designs in total. I switched the color of thread a few times as well to make it more interesting.

Now I’ll do some free motion quilting on the table runner. THE Dream Machine 2‘s free motion quilting foot “O” will be used to meander quilt around the embroidery designs in the three large blocks.

Prior to doing any free motion work, press the “Free Motion Mode” key on THE Dream Machine 2 to raise the presser foot an appropriate amount and lower the feed dogs. When done with free motion work, make sure to press this key again to re-engage the feed dogs.

Here’s the meandering design I quilted around the embroidery designs in the blocks.

And here’s this week’s finished project. Our table runner was embroidered, pieced and machine quilted using THE Dream Machine 2 from Brother.

Now that the project is finished, it’s time for me to say good bye to this awesome machine!

Next month a new embroidery machine will arrive on my doorstep! The Brother DreamWeaver XE VM6200D Sewing, Quilting & Embroidery Machine is the next machine I will be blogging about for QUILTsocial. After using and loving both THE Dream Machine 2 and my NQ900, I have no doubt that DreamWeaver will be awesome as well – can’t wait until it arrives!! Have a great month, see you soon!