Bernina 440E & All-over Embroidery as Quilting?

[bella25545]

Hello,
I am new to this forum. I would like to pick a few brains if I could. I have a bernina 440 E and I would like to know if anyone here
has used a simular machine to do an all over embroidry design to quilt the layers of a quilt together?

I am making a wedding ring quilt and I was wondering if I could use a preloaded quilt design for the middle motif. Can I succesfully quilt through all three layers
of a quilt with the hoop?

Thanks
Bella25545

[Laurie H]

Bella, welcome to the forum.  I don't have your machine and I don't machine embroider, so I'm probably not going to be much help to you.  I do quilt, alot, so I can usually help with quilting questions. 

I've made a double wedding ring quilt and I'm hand quilting mine.  As I read your question, I started to picture the quilt and wondered if it would be easy to fit under the arm of your machine after it's pieced and sandwiched together.  I assume the top will be completely finished and you'll hoop the section to be embroidered and then fit everything under the arm?  That might be a bit difficult to do, but I suppose it depends on the overall size of the quilt.

Now at first, I'm picturing a kind of puckered design, but I'm also picturing quite a dense embroidery and now that I type this, I realize you would probably stick to a traditional design?  Am I wrong? 

I guess we need a little more information about what you plan to do.  Like I mentioned, I don't do machine embroidery, so maybe I simply don't know enough about it to give you a good answer.  I might be far too traditional to even be able to think about what you're doing without picturing it all wrong.

[WesternWilson]

I have used my D1 to embroider motifs in squares on a baby quilt. It is a bit tiresome as you must hoop the area to be embroidered, and on the D1 I cannot simply put the needle down where I think the middle of the design should go, then tell the machine to do its thing. So the area must be hooped perfectly centred.

What works better is using decorative stitches as quilting...either wandering in a largish design all over the quilt or used in simple shapes.

[Quilt Queen]

Hi Bella,
You would need to consider how thick a batting you will want to use with this.  You can hoop quilts and embroider them (the single or double line designs can look very nice), but the thickness of the batting can make it very difficult to get the hoop on easily and patchwork can also twist the quilt as you try to hoop up.
I've done a few quilts years ago in an embroidery hoop..but the results weren't that great.  So....I learnt to fmq really well instead!  More fun than struggling with hooping up and getting a good alignment each time.  I also found  the gaps in between blocks were more likely to become puckered with the processes of machine embroidery than with pinning and free motion quilting under the needle in the more traditional way.
The other big thing to watch for is that the thickness of the quilt can eventually stretch your hoop out of whack and damage the screw from the strain of hooping up quilts...so you might want to see if Bernina do a hoop with two inner pieces, one for thin quilts and one for thick.  Husqvarna have one like this with a quick release clasp and it is specifically designed to embroider onto quilts.
Or if you want to do lots of this sort of thing buy two hoops the same size, have one as your quilting hoop and one as your embroidery for other things hoop- so that you won't have problems with thin layers not being able to be hooped tight enough when the hoop does stretch eventually through quilting in it.

Have fun and let us know how you go.
Cheers,
Quilt Queen

[granmomus]

I have embroidered quilt motifs on quilts-works great & fun-but do a practice one first to get a feel of centering your design & how it will look.
You do not hoop the quilt, but hoop a sticky wash away stabelizer, mark the center of the stabelizer & the center of where you want the design.
Put the hoop with stabelizer in the machine then place the area you want embroidered, kind of eyeballing the centers (I place my finger on the quilt center & try to place it on the stabelizer center).
 I don't have your machine but if it has a embroidery basting stitch and a way to pre move the foot & needle  around the area to be embroidered you can judge better if you are centered. I don't know what that is called but on my machine I push a button & the foot & needle moves around above the area to be embroidered so I can tell if the design will be where I want it.
Maire

[WesternWilson]

The 440 can use the Bernina Stitch Regulator, which gives you a much nicer stitch as you begin to free motion.

[clewis111]

I have a Bernina 440 and I have done alot of quilting using my embroidery.  It works great.  You do need to use a stablizer that you hoop and wet, then stick the layered quilt to.  I just pin baste first then put into the machine.  It does a wonderful job!!  I love it. 

[WesternWilson]

Clewis, can you give us a more detailed description of what works well for you? Photos would be fab!