Edge-to-Edge Quilting with the Husqvarna VIKING Magnetic Hoop | Perfection!

There’s so much to share this week about Husqvarna VIKING Large Magnetic Hoop! The more I do, the more the ideas just pour into my head! While I’m always excited to work on the Husqvarna VIKING Designer Epic 3, and especially the new Nordic Frost Edition, I can’t wait to give the Large Magnetic Hoop a whirl.

As promised, I also want to discuss the various tools for placing our designs on quilts, garments, or other projects you might be working on. Keep in mind that if you’re stitching something onto fabric that will be trimmed later, precision isn’t needed. But if you want those motifs exactly positioned, you need help!

There are many tools available to help with design placement. You can use any combination of them to get your design exactly where you want it!

• Paper templates
• Acrylic or plastic templates for the hoop
• Design Placement tool (found in the Creativate app on your smart device)
• Scan the Hoop (found on the Designer Epic 3)
• EXACT positioning (also known as Design Positioning on older machines)
• Projection System (found on Designer Epic 3)

The first one I want to discuss is the use of paper templates. GASP – why would I want to use paper templates with all this new technology? Combining paper and plastic templates was one of the few ways we could hoop our projects, and you had to be super precise with your hooping. This can be a struggle now, as we are pushing the boundaries of the things we want to embroider.

I still use paper templates to judge scale, proportion, and sizing.

Here’s a great example – I wanted to add my initials to this sweater. But what would be an appropriate size? The wrong size can make or break your finished item. I print a template in the size I think will work. Not only can I use it to get the size right, but I can trim around the shape and pin it directly to the garment to get the exact location. Yes – there are guides out there to help with that, but I’m a visual person, and I want to see it on the garment before I start stitching. The paper templates also have vertical and horizontal grids (you must select them – more on that in a moment), and you can use them to help with the hooping.

I’ve also created lines of lettering in what I call a virtual hoop (basically making a design area that isn’t the size of one of the available hoops), and then, using the Split Project Wizard in the Creativate Embroidery Software, broken the design into sections that will fit into my embroidery hoop.

Here are two examples.

Those sayings were stitched right on the quilt top, and to get the spacing correct, I needed to know where to position the first hoop. I would NOT be without my paper templates. I’ve used them in other instances as well. You can check out this blog post where I used the paper templates with the projection system.

Here’s a video to show how you can easily print a paper template of any design. Simply download the Creative Embroidery Software. You can print templates from the Basic version, which is FREE. Check out this link to download the software, which works on Windows and MAC. Of course, if you have a membership, the ability to print templates is included.

Today, I’ll focus on quilting an edge-to-edge design on a table runner using the Large Magnetic Hoop.

I have done edge-to-edge quilting in a traditional hoop, and it can be challenging to get the quilt into the hoop, and then placing the design correctly can take time. Let’s see if the Large Magnetic Hoop can help.

I didn’t have time to create an edge-to-edge design, so I’m using a purchased one. I chose the 14” x 9” design, which was the perfect fit for the Large Magnetic Hoop. I taped the three sheets of the paper template together. I positioned the full-scale paper template under the acrylic template that comes with the magnetic hoop, aligning the vertical and horizontal registration lines.

Notice how the beginning and the end of the edge-to-edge design are situated right in the slot on the horizontal center.

I won’t go into all the details of doing an edge-to-edge design with the embroidery machine. I mainly want to focus on using this hoop. Thankfully, my table runner was the perfect size, and I only needed to do one row across. This is the best type of project to start with. If you start with something too big and aren’t happy with the technique, it’ll become a UFO.

In the past, when I’ve done edge-to-edge designs, I haven’t used a template of any kind. I must admit that, while I got it done, I sometimes struggled with placement and had to rehoop many times. But let’s see if the magnetic hoop can make a difference.

With the paper template under the acrylic template, I used a dry-erase marker to highlight the design’s outer edges by drawing lines. I also circled the end and beginning points as a reminder. Now I’m done with the paper template and will rely solely on the acrylic template. Remember that the template comes with the Large Magnetic Hoop and is therefore sized appropriately.

I placed the magnetic hoop frame under the table runner, then set the acrylic template at the end of the runner. I used the template’s horizontal centerline to align it with the runner’s center. If that doesn’t work for you, you can always draw registration marks. I also used the diagonal lines to ensure they were parallel to the diagonal lines in my runner. I didn’t really have to move it much to get it aligned how I wanted.

My ending point was the tip of the table runner. For those with an eagle eye, I started at the right side of the table runner, not the left, but wait until you see what happened!

Once the template was where I wanted it, I ensured the frame was underneath in the proper location.

It’s now time to add the magnets. Keep the template inside the hoop – it can’t move as it fits exactly inside the frame. I added the magnets in the order I shared the other day. The beauty of this is that the table runner did NOT move!!! I love this new hoop, and I can’t wait until you see the results!

Then I removed the template, and I’m ready to start stitching. Even using the Basic version of the Creative Embroidery Software, I was able to send the embroidery file to the Designer Epic 3 over the Creativate Ecosystem. I can’t say enough about that. I would forever be looking for a USB if I didn’t have that technology.

I moved to embroidery stitch-out and was ready to start stitching. If you have excess backing or batting, remember to check that it is NOT caught under your hoop.

As part of my setup for what I call a two-sided item, something where both the front and back will be seen, I make two adjustments to the embroidery settings.

On the Welcome to Embroidery Screen, I deselected the DeLuxe Stitch System. It’s a great feature, but not for quilting. The default tension is 2.8, and I upped it to 4.0. Depending on the thread and thickness of your project, you may need to adjust them. How will you know? By testing, of course!

If you already have a Designer Epic 3 and wonder why my screen looks different, remember that I have my Custom Canvas/Workspace engaged and I use the pull-apart menus all the time!

I selected START and let the design stitch out. Now, because this part of the table runner is angled, when the machine was about to stitch a large section with no table runner, I advanced the stitching. It takes a few seconds, but I’m OK with that.

Now it was time for the real test: how easy is it to line up the second design?

It was at this point that I realized that I was working backward. The end of my second design would line up with the start of the previous design, rather than the start of my second design lining up with the end of the previous design. So, I wouldn’t know if it lined up until the end of the stitching. But no worries, I have excellent placement tools to make it happen.

My reference point was the start of the first section of stitches (on the right-hand side), and I used the template lines and the marks I made to ensure the table runner was positioned correctly. Keeping the template in place, I added the magnets.

Now for the big test. I used my EXACT Positioning on the Designer Epic 3 and selected the final stitch of this design as a reference point. I almost had a heart attack. It was nearly 100% accurate! WHAT?? That never happens with the old method I used. I was shocked, and you can bet I did the happy dance – several times before I calmed down. Then it was a simple matter of using EXACT Positioning to move the design ever so slightly so that the END point of this stitch pattern matched the START point of the previous stitch pattern. As I mentioned, I accidentally worked backward.

I know it’s hard to see in this photo, but the needle is about 2 mm off from the point where it should be!! That’s pretty accurate! This accuracy also means you don’t have to shrink the design slightly to gain more wiggle room in the hoop! I left the size as it was!

Here’s a picture after I was done, showing one of the matching points. OH MY – I can live with that!

Here’s another tip: manually bring up your bobbin thread at the beginning, so it doesn’t nest at the back.

And now I was ready to stitch. And you’ll not believe that the endpoint of this hooping matched up with the start point of the previous one! I know I tested it, but would it really work?

It did, as you saw in the previous photos! That’s how EXACT you can get with using multiple tools. Not only was it exact, but it was FAST. I’m using the old technology (paper) with the new technology (EXACT position) to get exactly what I want.

This is the front showing the first matching point, and I got much better at it by the time I was done. I did not have my glasses on at the time, so that didn’t help.

Now it never works out that you have an equal number of hoopings. I had to do five, and this was the last one. Even though my fabric didn’t fill the hoop, I decided to try it and see if it worked, and it did! Those magnets are strong enough that my table turner didn’t budge. Again, I skipped through the stitches on the parts where I didn’t need them.

And here’s the table runner. I had to do five hoopings, and I did NOT have to rehoop once. Do you know how exciting that is? I was doing a big happy dance. My design was also large, and there wasn’t much wiggle room in the hoop, so you must be very precise if you need to move the designs by much. Well, the tiny bit I had to move the design, there was plenty of room in the hoop. I’ll NEVER (such a strong word) use a traditional hoop for quilting again!

Here’s a close-up of the stitching. It’s always a challenge to decide which color thread to use. I chose black for the top and bobbin.

Here’s a look at the back. Oh my, it looks fantastic, and the tension is right on. Using black thread on orange is not forgiving, and I have a couple of spots to tidy up later, like when I forgot to pull up the bobbin thread! And there’s one spot near the middle on the right, where my bobbin ran out. I should have checked the bobbin before I started another hooping. In the future, things like this can be disguised by using a matching thread color and a busier backing fabric.

The table runner was very manageable, even though I did it backward. But let’s say you’re quilting a larger quilt. I probably wouldn’t do anything larger than a lap size (about 60” by 72”) because I don’t want the weight of that quilt on the embroidery arm, and it could take a while.

WAIT – I now have a solution to both of those concerns, so a bigger quilt might just be in order. First, with the Large Magnetic Hoop, it took no time to hoop the next stitching area. If you use these decorative table rods, you can use clamps and bungee cords to prevent your quilt from falling off the table and to help lift part of the weight. I bought them at IKEA and use them to hang my backdrop when taking photos!

Do you want to know the best news? I have a second table runner exactly like the one I just quilted. I know what I’ll be finishing off this week!

And that wraps up another fascinating day with the Husqvarna VIKING Designer Epic 3 | Nordic Frost Edition, and the Large Magnetic Hoop. I have another great project to share with you tomorrow, so be sure to come back to see how it was created using more placement tools and a wee bit of creativity!

Have a super day!

Ciao!!

This is part 3 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 2: Introducing the Husqvarna VIKING Large Magnetic Hoop!