Quilting in the hoop

Avec ses petits doigts

Dec 1

After piecing a quilt, the next step is to quilt it. That means attaching together your quilt top, some batting and your backing fabric. There are different methods you could use to do that. Some quilters like to hand quilt, some like free motion when others prefer using their walking foot. One other method if you have access to an embroidery machine, is to quilt in the hoop. That means using an embroidery design to stitch the three layers together.

Obviously, bigger your hoop is, faster the whole process will be, but in theory, you could use any embroidery machines even if it only has a smaller hoop. You will just need to rehoop more often.

I recently finished piecing the Ombre Tree Line quilt from V and Co and used the Janome Continental M17 to quilt it in the hoop.

First you need to choose an embroidery design. Most Janome machines have some quilting designs already included but there are so many options available online by embroidery companies. You need to chose a design that is preferably a continuous line of stiches. You don't want a lot of stop and go creating a lot of knots in the backing.

I chose a simple loopy quilting design that mesured 10 in by 10 in. The design fitted perfectly into the ASQ27d hoop. This hoop is perfect for quilting as it uses magnets to hold the fabric in place. Since you don't use stabilizer for quilting in the hoop, you can't just float your fabric. You also can't hoop it the traditional way as your quilt sandwich is just too thick.

The ASQ27d hoop comes with the Continental M17 but is part of the Acufil Quilting kit for some other models.

I loaded the design into the machine like you will do for any other embroidery files (you can use an USB stick, or the embroidery link app on your Ipad). I used the special bobbin holder for embroidery, a blue tip needle and embroidery thread on top and in my bobbin. The template that comes with the hoop allowed me to visualize exactly where the design will stitch. I started at one corner making sure to stitch within the extra batting/backing on the sides.

Once the first design was finished, i just moved the hoop to the side, using the template to align the new design to the one already done.

I kept going, moving the hoop after each time. When the first row was done, I started the second row to keep quilting throughout the whole quilt.

I didn't want big knots at the back of my quilt when the machine was starting a new design. So I made sure to bring my bobbin thread up before the start of the embroidery.

With the big size of the ASQ27s that allowed me to use a large design, I had my quilt done relatively quickly. I really like this look. It gives you the impression of long arm quilting.