In quilting, using a twin needle IS double the fun [tutorial]

Welcome back! Yesterday, I showed you how to make 2 sets of mittens for our Winter Mitten wall quilt using just a few of the many decorative stitches on the Brother Innov-is NQ700 machine.

All the stitches are shown on the inside of the top cover of the Brother NQ700 and also in the included manual for easy reference.

Today, we’ll be using the double spool holder and a twin needle to create even more decorative stitches. To install the double spool holder, you must remove the top cover. Full installation instructions come with the double spool holder.

Double spool holder and installation instructions

Double spool holder installed and ready to use

On the menu screen of the Brother NQ700 machine, you can see the option to turn the twin needle on. Not all stitches work with a twin needle, so if this option is turned on, the machine lets you know if your chosen stitch will work.

Twin needle option is turned on

This is the screen you see if your stitch can’t be used with a twin needle. This is a great feature and will definitely stop you from having broken needles or damaging the machine!

Not all stitches work with a double needle

Twin needles come in a variety of sizes. I used a 6.0/100 size. Again, it’s a good idea to do some test stitches before starting on your project. I planned to stitch on some jumbo rick rack, so that’s where I did my sample stitches. Use a slow speed when doing this type of stitching to give you more control.

Twin needle is threaded

Here are my finished rick rack strips with twin needle stitching.

Decorative stitching with a twin needle on wide rick rack

And here’s my next pair of mittens ready to sew onto the background square.

Another pair of mittens finished!

When I had 4 pairs of mittens finished, it was time to sew them to the 14″ background squares. These squares will be trimmed to 12½” after the mittens are stitched on, but I like to have a little extra fabric all around, just in case something gets a little off center. If you wish, you can trace around a 12½” plastic square to give yourself a guideline for placing the mittens. Arrange 1 pair of mittens on each background square as desired and press in place.

Stitch around each shape. I used blanket stitch #33 and adjusted the width and length to 3.0. Itʼs so easy to adjust the stiches on the Brother NQ700 machine – just press the + or – key on the keypad.

Blanket stitch #33 is used to applique the mittens to the background

Sew the mittens to the background using Blanket stitch #33.

I hope you join me again tomorrow on QUILTsocial as I use the Brother NQ700 machine to make a strip-pieced border using up the leftover fabric from the mittens.

This is part 4 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 3: Making the most of decorative stitches for making applique mittens

Go to part 5: What to do with leftover fabric: It’s all in the border

Print this page or save as a PDF