Embroider and Quilt a Fleece Baby Blanket

When I found out that a dear friend of mine was going to be a great-grandmother for the first time (whoo-hoo!), I thought this would be the perfect project to create and share. Follow the steps below to build your very own adorable fleece baby blanket! Skill level: Easy Machines used: THE Dream Machine® XV8550D THE Dream Fabric Frame with the Innov-is DreamCreator VQ2400 Features: Scanning with ScanImation Scanning Frame and InnovEye 2 Technology Embroidery Quilting Supplies: Yard of 58” wide fleece fabric Embroidery thread All-purpose sewing thread Medium weight tearaway embroidery stabilizer Choose a font. Click on the letters and use the icon for adding capital or lowercase letters. Add a Disney® embroidery design. I found this design within THE Dream Machine; there are also numerous fun designs on iBroidery.com. Choose a spot on one side of the fabric and hoop the fleece fabric with medium weight tearaway stabilizer. Add a plastic topper to keep the embroidery from embedding into the fabric. Embroider. Designer Tip: DO NOT tighten the hoop too much or the fabric can get hoop burn. After embroidering, I showed the blanket on my live Facebook show and someone mentioned there was a comma missing after “love” – of course this was after I un-hooped the fabric and turned the sewing machine off. I decided this was a good time to test the ScanImation feature! Fortunately, I had not cut away the stabilizer yet so I re-hooped the fabric and stabilizer. Using the same font as the lettering, I opted for the minus sign over the comma. Scan in the fabric. Sit back as the hoop will move around while the fabric in the hoop is scanned into the sewing machine. Here you can see the image of the embroidery on the fabric and the minus sign. Move the minus sign around, rotate and change the size. After seeing how the minus sign looked, I thought about trying a different symbol. Click on “Add” and choose a different symbol from the same font category. Move the new symbol in place, rotate, and adjust the size. Delete the minus sign. Add a plastic topper and embroider. Note: I did not use topper in this photo so you can see the embroidery. Tearaway the embroidery stabilizer. Quilting the Blanket Fold the fabric in half, as shown. Insert the folded fabric into THE Dream Fabric Frame with the embroidery side up. Stitch free motion embroidery or stipple the entire blanket. Stitch around the embroidery design and stay 5” from the edges of the fabric. Flip the back around and stipple the rest of the blanket, staying 5” from the edges. Remove the fabric. Trim off the selvages and cut open the side with the fold. Cut from the edge of the blanket to the stitching. Cut every 1” as shown. Continue to cut around the entire blanket. That’s it! You can tie the sliced edges together or leave them just like this. By quilting the two layers of fabric we covered up the backside of the embroidery and created a warmer blanket. A blanket that will be truly cherished for many years 😊 We would love to see photos of your blankets! Be sure to use hashtags #StitchingSewcial, #brothersews and #angelawolf Cheers, Angela