Machine-embroidered quilt blocks make up Working Girls Quilt

On my QUILTsocial blog posts in September and October I invited you to join me on my journey as I learned to use the embroidery features on THE Dream Machine 2 by Brother.

THE Dream Machine 2 with embroidery hoop attached

This week I’ll be giving you instructions for a quilt using some of the embroidery samples I made over the last few weeks.

Last month I showed you how I scanned some vintage embroidery patterns and imported them into THE Dream Machine 2 so I could use them for machine embroidery. I embroidered 7 of these designs and then trimmed them so they were 6½” x 8½”. Then I gathered up lots of coordinating brown fabrics and I was ready to get started on my quilt.

And here’s my quilt top all ready to be quilted!

Machine embroidered blocks surrounded by scrappy strips

If you’d like to make your own quilt, here’s what you’ll need.

materials

• 7 embroidered blocks 6½” x 8½”
• 10 fat quarters in coordinating colors or use your scraps
• ½ yd light-colored fabric for borders around blocks and inner border
• ⅝ yd for a ½” finished-size binding

Cutting instructions for borders around the blocks

From light-colored border fabric cut 1 – 8½” x WOF (width of fabric).
From this strip cut 14 – 1″ by 8½” strips and 14 – 1″ x 7½” strips.

I always cut strips so the longest measurement is on the lengthwise grain of the fabric whenever possible. This helps to prevent the strips from stretching as you’re sewing them.

Cutting diagram for borders around the embroidered blocks

Sewing borders around the blocks

Sew a 1″ x 8½” strip to each side of the embroidered blocks. Press seams toward 1″ strips.

Sew a 1″ x 7½” strip to the top and bottom of each block. Press seams toward 1″ strips.

1″ strips ready to sew around the embroidered block

Be sure to use the ¼” foot that comes with THE Dream Machine 2 by Brother. The little lip on the side of the foot lines up with the edge of the fabric to give you a perfect ¼” seam.

¼” foot on THE Dream Machine 2

You’ll also appreciate the automatic needle threading and the wonderful, bright lights on THE Dream Machine 2. The LED lighting system mimics natural daylight and is adjustable with 5 different settings. Just press the help menu and you’ll see the adjustment for the lights along with other useful settings features.

Help screen #4 where you can adjust the brightness of the light on the sewing area

Come back tomorrow and I’ll show you how to get started making the borders around the embroidered blocks that were created from scanned images on THE Dream Machine 2 by Brother.

This is part 1 of 5 in this series.

Go to part 2: Making Log Cabin-style borders for machine embroidered quilt blocks

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