Wall quilt tutorial: decorative stitches and curved piecing, let’s do it!

Last month, I introduced you to the new Brother Luminaire sewing and embroidery machine and showed you how to use decorative stitching, along with the projector feature, to make a table runner and some placemats. You can find all the instructions in my post,  StitchVision on The Luminaire for visible decorative stitch placement.

This week I’ll be doing some fusible applique to create a leaf design wall quilt using a few more of the many decorative stitches available on this machine.

I used some scraps of Banyan Batiks by Northcott that I had left over from previous QUILTsocial posts for my leaves. I like batiks because I’ll be doing raw-edge applique and the edges don’t fray. I used 5 different blacks for the background (using up scraps again!) but you could use all the same fabric if you wish.

Here’s what you need to get started

• 5 strips cut 1½” – 3″ wide and 8″ – 10″ long (you’ll be cutting more strips later)
• ¾ yd [0.7m] for sashing, border and binding
• ⅔ yd [0.6m] black for backgrounds or a variety of black scraps
• 1 piece of template plastic, 8½” x 11″
• 3 pieces of light-weight fusible web, 8½” x 11″

cutting instructions

• Lay 5 or 6 strips of varying widths on the cutting table.

• Using a rotary cutter, cut a gentle, curvy line on one side of the 2nd strip.

Now comes the fun part! Sew the strips together using decorative stitches.

With the Brother Luminaire sewing and embroidery machine you have hundreds of stitches from which to choose. It’s hard to pick just a few favorites! Here’s a great video about decorative stitches on the Brother Luminaire machine that you might like to look at before you actually start sewing.

It’s a good idea to do a few practice rows of stitching before working on your strips. I tried out a few stitches, adjusting both width and length, to see what I liked. It’s also a good idea to mark down the settings you used when you find a stitch that you really like. I like using the “start/stop” button on the front of the machine instead of the foot pedal, along with a slow stitching speed, for better control while sewing. I used a variegated thread to give more interest to the finished pieces.

Nobody likes to run out of bobbin thread partway through a seam, and it’s even worse if it runs out while doing decorative stitching! Fortunately, there’s a warning screen that comes up on the Brother Luminaire with a little sad faced emoji. In fact, the machine stops sewing when this screen comes up. If you just have a few more stitches to sew, you can do that and then the warning sign comes up again. No excuses now for sewing a whole seam with no thread in the bobbin!

Be sure and come back tomorrow and you’ll learn how to use your favorite decorative stitches to sew your strips together.