Autumn Bouquet Desk Top Quilt - Advanced Embroidery Designs

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Autumn Bouquet Desk Top Quilt

This tutorial shows how to turn a large embroidery into a small desktop quilt. You embroider the autumn bouquet design, add pieced borders, and quilt the finished piece. It gives a clean frame for the stitch-out and makes a nice display piece.

You can frame stitch-outs of the picture designs, or make a desktop quilt as we do here. In this project we show the simplest version. We used the Still Life with Autumn Bouquet design. The finished size of the quilt is about 11" x 13".

You can purchase this wall quilt from our Etsy store!

A stitch-out of an embroidery design with autumn still life framed with matching fabrics and quilted.

You will need:

embroidery threads according to the color card;
a fat quarter of light-colored fabric for the embroidery;
a small amount of fabrics matching the colors of the embroidery threads (we used 5 fabrics: turquoise blue, rust orange, orange, burgundy, and bottle green; it is a good idea to make the embroidery first, then select the fabrics);
fabric for the backing;
medium-weight cut-away embroidery stabilizer (you can also use thin polyester craft felt as a stabilizer);
batting;
quilter's ruler;
rotary cutter;
iron;
#12 universal needle for piecing;
quilting threads of matching colors and invisible thread;
#14 quilting needle.

Embroidery:

Upload the file of the Still Life with Autumn Bouquet to the embroidery machine.
Select threads. Stabilize the light-colored fabric. Hoop it tightly and embroider the design.

Trim the stitch-out leaving 1/4" margins for seam allowance.

Cutting:

Cut all the fabrics into strips 1 1/2" wide. Measure the stitch-out. It should be 7 1/2" wide and 8 1/2" high with the seam allowance.
Please note that you can add the colored strips in any order you like, or follow our order.
Cut the following strips:

from the blue fabric, 2 strips: 7 1/2" and 10 1/2" long;
from the rust orange fabric, 2 strips: 7 1/2" and 10 1/2" long;
from the orange fabric, 1 strip: 9 1/2" long;
from the bottle green fabric, 2 strips: 9 1/2" and 12 1/2" long;
from the burgundy fabric, 2 strips: 12 1/2" and 11 1/2" long.

We made the binding from the bottle green fabric.

Assembly:

Note: the seam allowance is 1/4". Press each seam immediately after you make it.

Sew the blue 7 1/2" strip to the lower edge and the rust orange 7 1/2" strip to the upper edge of the stitch-out.
Then sew the blue 10 1/2" strip to the left edge and the rust orange 10 1/2" strip to the right edge of the stitch-out.

The embroidered center with a blue strip on the lower edge, a rust orange strip on the upper edge, a blue strip on the left edge, and a rust orange strip on the right edge.

Sew the orange 9 1/2" strip to the lower edge and the green 9 1/2" strip to the upper edge of the working piece.

The same piece with an orange strip added to the lower edge and a bottle green strip added to the upper edge.

Sew the green 12 1/2" strip to the right edge and the burgundy 12 1/2" strip to the left edge of the working piece.

The same piece with a bottle green strip added to the right edge and a burgundy strip added to the left edge.

Sew the burgundy 11 1/2" strip to the lower edge of the working piece.

The finished quilt top with a burgundy strip added to the lower edge, completing the pieced borders around the embroidered center.

Quilting and Finishing

Now place the backing on a flat surface (table) face down. Cover with batting. Spread your working piece over it.

Pin all layers together.
To avoid puckering of the embroidery, quilt with the invisible thread along the outline of the vase and leaves. Then proceed to the borders and quilt them with the matching threads.

Press with steam. Square the piece so that all angles are 90 degrees and opposite sides are the same length.
Finish the raw edges with the binding.