PFAFF Patchwork Program makes quick work of sewing quilt block units

The season of nesting is upon us and what better way to style your nest than to add a quilted accent pillow. In yesterday’s post, I listed the fabric requirements for making a fall-inspired accent pillow cover using the PFAFF performance icon. You could substitute with another color to coordinate with the space you plan to use the pillow cover in; I’m using mine with my fall quilt, so the orange is perfect!

Quilted fall accent pillow cover and the PFAFF performance icon.

Patchwork Program

For this project, I really wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to get creative using the PFAFF performance icon. Sometimes that means finding the fastest way to do a repetitive task – like sewing several seams of the same length. Chain stitching is already practiced by many quilters because it’s an efficient way to sew several identical units together. The Patchwork Program feature takes this efficiency one step further and lets you program the stitch length into the PFAFF performance icon. It turns the stitch length into a single stitch, which you can then have the machine sew with a press of a button. Seriously! Press the Start/Stop button located above the reverse button, just above where the needle is, to use this feature.

Patchwork Program instructions on multi-touch screen

I used the Patchwork Program to sew together the (18) 2½” squares.

First, arrange the squares into 3 rows of 6 squares. Then I followed the steps outlined in the User’s Guide to program the stitch length, sewing together the first two squares in the first row. The guide can be displayed on the multi-touch screen, and is also available as a PFAFF performance icon downloadable file.

Next, I used the program by pressing the Start/Stop button to sew the first two squares of the second row.

I repeated this process with the first two squares of the third row, then cut the first row of squares from the chain and continued the chain by sewing the third square to the first row. I kept going until all three rows had six squares in them.

Three rows of orange squares

The three pieced rows now need to be pressed; I pressed all of the seams in the top and bottom rows to the left and the seams in the middle row to the right.

Sew the three rows together and press the seams to the row below.

Sew the top and bottom 1½” x 12½” black border strips to the center patch, pressing the seams to the border strips.

Sew the side 1½” x 8½” black border strips to the sides of the patch, pressing the seams to the border strips.

Black inner borders sewn to the center patch.

The center of the accent pillow top is complete. The Patchwork Program on the PFAFF performance icon takes chain piecing to a whole new level!

This is part 2 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 1: Stitching up a seasonal cushion with the PFAFF performance icon

Go to part 3: Piecing perfection with the PFAFF performance icon

Related posts

Stitch in the ditch AND grid quilting with the PFAFF IDT System – PERFECT!

On-point quilting: Where to start with cutting and setting triangles

Create or edit your stitches with the PFAFF performance icon