Bejeweled Bugs n’ Bees

Enjoy sewing this fun project using 3 of your favorite bee embroidery designs and IQ Designer to create decorative fills.

Finished size approximately 14” wide by 50” high 

Click HERE to download printable instructions with additional photos.

• Baby Lock Solaris Vision Sewing Machine
• Baby Lock Triumph Serger - Optional
• P5 Cording Foot for serger – Optional
• ¾” Belt Loop Binder Attachment for serger - Optional
• ¼” Quilting or Patchwork Foot (ESG-QF) – Optional
• Baby Lock narrow zipper foot (ESG-ZF) - Optional
• W Foot (Embroidery Foot)
• J Foot (General Purpose Foot)
• 10 5/8” x 16” embroidery hoop
• 7” x 14” Baby Lock magnetic hoop – optional
• Baby Lock Ultra Soft Stabilizer BLC204 - 3 pieces 16” w x 22”h for black fabric and 2 pieces 16” w x 1 ¾”h for gold fabric
• No-show mesh stabilizer BLC301 - 3 pieces 16” w x 22”h for black fabric
• 2 pieces 16” w x 1 ¾”h for gold fabric
• Black cotton fabric for 3 embroidered “bug” panels – 3 pieces 16” w x 22”h
• Gold cotton fabric – 2 pieces 16” w x 1 ¾” h
• Decorative sashing cotton fabric - cut 3 ½” wide by perimeter of wall hanging, approximately 140” long, plus extra for overlapping
• Batting – approximately 1 ½ yards (cut larger than project to accommodate hooping)
• Soft cording - approximately ¼” wide x 120” long
• 3 decorative buttons (optional)
• Embroidery Needles (80/12 or 90/14 recommended due to thickness of project)
• Basic sewing and embroidery supplies including embroidery 40 weight thread, bobbins, regular sewing thread, pins, rulers, ironing board

The three designs included in this project are:

• Top block: “Jeweled Dragonfly” from Secrets of Embroidery
• Middle block: Bee Design on Solaris Vision:  Embroidery: Category 2: Subcategory 4: Design #13
• Bottom block: “Jeweled Beetle” from Secrets of Embroidery

Prepare fabric for embroidery:

• Cut 3 pieces of black fabric
• Cut 2 pieces of gold fabric for small inserts
• Iron Baby Lock Ultra-soft fusible stabilizer to wrong side of black and gold fabrics
• Hoop no-show mesh and black fabric in 10.5” x 16.5” embroidery hoop

Embroidering the blocks:

This project takes advantage of IQ Designer to create the background fills around each design using the 10 5/8” x 16” hoop.   The “bee” design is programmed in the Baby Lock Solaris Vision (or fully upgraded Baby Lock Solaris 1 or 2) under Embroidery:  Category 2: Subcategory 4:  Design #13.  These instructions are for the center block – the bee.  But you will do the exact same thing for the other 2 blocks using the designs from Secrets of Embroidery. 

To Begin:

• Select Home
• Select Embroidery
• Select Category 2:  Subcategory 4:  then Design #13  
• Select Set
• Select Edit
• Select Outline/Flower Icon
• Select Memory
• OK

Adding a background fill around your designs using IQ Designer

• Select Home, OK
• Select IQ Designer
• Select Shapes icon 
• Select the Hoop icon (top row, 5^th icon) and select the 10 5/8” x 16” hoop.
• Select OK
• Select Outline/Flower Icon
• Select the first design – 01 – which is the outline just saved
• Select OK
• Select design #024
• Select OK and OK
• Select the Region Bucket Fill icon and touch in between the bee and the outside of the hoop.
• Select Next
• Change size to 125%
• Leave Outline off
• Set Randon Shift to 1A (you can leave as default setting or just have fun and play a little here)
• Set - OK
• Select Add
• Category 2, Subcategory 4, Design #13
• Select Set
• Select Embroidery
• Select Memory (always a good idea to save as a backup)

Hoop your black fabric in the 10 5/8” x 16” embroidery hoop, hooping a no-show mesh stabilizer under your fabric.  Stitch out the design.

Complete these same steps to create your other 2 blocks using the other designs from Secrets of Embroidery (or any others of your choice) on your black fabric.

Sew the blocks together:

Using the ¼” patchwork foot and a ¼” seam allowance, stitch the 2 gold strips (which are interfaced) to the black embroidered pieces, placing in between the 3 black blocks. Press seams toward gold strips.

Embroider the green branches:

Using the Baby Lock magnetic frame, we will now embroider the green branches. (I use this hoop to get closer to the edges of my hooped design. You will also notice that I hooped my fabric sideways and didn’t use the clips on the top and bottom. As you’ll see in the photo, I added these decorative branches after I had my sashing and cording already attached, but I would advise you to do all the embroidery at this point.) 

• Select Home
• Select Embroidery
• Select Category 2: Subcategory 1: Design #55
• Select Set
• Select the Camera/Scan button - OK
• With your fabric hooped and, on the machine, select Scan to scan your hooped fabric - OK 
• Select Close
• Select Edit and then the Move key - OK
• Use the Move and Rotate keys to place your branches on your wall hanging that is pleasing to your eye. (Note: some branches ran off the fabric and into the gold inserts for interest and design appeal.  Some were resized for variation.)
• Select Embroidery
• Stitch out the design.

Repeat this process of scanning your fabric (and moving your hoop to accommodate each area) as many times as you choose to place branches on your wall hanging.

Quilting the Gold Fabric Insets Using the Region Fill Function:

To quilt the gold strips, I used the scanning function on the Solaris Vision and selected a fill to quilt these strips over the green branches.  To do this:

• Measure the size of the gold strips
• Select Home – OK
• Select IQ Designer
• Select the Shapes Icon
• Select the square box #1 in closed shapes. Select OK
• Select the SIZE icon and create a box that is about ¼” smaller than the gold strip
• OK
• Select Region Fill
• Select the 3^rd icon, and Select Decorative fill of your choice

Note:  For this project, a design from Zandra Shaw’s Collection #20-01 Leaves, from the new Baby Lock Design Suites (BL-IQFM-ZS) was used. If you do not own that collection, there is a built-in fill (pictured below) that works beautifully. Top design was at 50%, and bottom design was stitched out at 100% - you choose which size you like.

• Select fill #027
• Next - OK
• Select Size (again fit to the size of your gold inserts using the scan function as before)
• Rotate design 90 degrees
• Select Set – OK
• Select Embroidery
• Select Scan/Camera icon
• Select Scan – Close
• Select Layout – use the Move and Rotate keys to position your design on top of the gold fabric
• Stitch the fill
• Repeat for the other gold strips

Decorative strips

For this project, decorative “strips” were created using a triple cover stitch with the ¾” belt loop binder attachment on the Baby Lock Triumph serger, which are placed on the seamlines between the gold and black blocks. 

To create these:

• Set up your machine for a Triple Cover Stitch using the Reference Guides
• Cut a 1” piece of decorative fabric to use in the ¾” belt loop attachment (by cutting it to 1” instead of 7/8”, you are assured the edges will meet on the back)
• Stitch out several lengths of belting – or as I call it our “decorative strips”
• Cut these and attach over your seamlines where you seamed the gold and black fabric together using invisible thread with a straight stitch on your sewing machine.

There are many options you can use for these decorative strips if you don’t have a serger or just simply want a different look.  You can make strips of fabric on your sewing machine just by cutting a piece of fabric the width you need by 4 times the width.  Fold in half lengthwise and press.  Open out the fabric and fold each raw edge to the center fold line.  Press and fold in half.  Stitch down the edge of this strip and you’ll have a strip to add as a decorative element.

Another option that would look great is to use a decorative ribbon.  The sky is the limit – or you could just skip this step entirely.  It is purely decorative.

Create the quilt sandwich:

• Cut a piece of Warm and Natural batting (or batting of your choice) several inches larger than the entire size of the pieced blocks. (You’ll need extra fabric/batting when using the magnetic hoop.)
• Cut a backing piece of fabric slightly larger than the batting.
• Lay this piece wrong side up, place the batting on this piece of fabric, and lay the embroidered wall hanging on top of this.
• Pin or spray baste together.

Creating and Applying Cording

• Attach the P5 cording foot to the serger.
• Set up your machine for a 3-thread overlock wide stitch using your Reference Guides
• Cut a piece of contrasting color cotton fabric 1 ½” wide
• Wrap your fabric around the piping making sure the piping is in the fold and your raw edges face the knife.
• Hold the cording behind the cording foot and stitch a length of cording at least 10-15” longer than the perimeter of your entire wall hanging.
• Lay the cording in between the black blocks and the sashing.
• Beginning at the bottom of the quilt, (somewhere in the middle) attach the cording to the wall hanging with the cording laying towards the center of the wall hanging, using either the 3-thread wide stitch and keeping your cording under the P5 foot. Or you can attach the cording using the narrow zipper foot on the Baby Lock Solaris using a straight stitch and the needle position to the far right, snugging up the cording by stitching the cording one stitch tighter to the cording.
• At each corner, be sure to snip the cording up to the stitched line to release the fabric and ease around corners.
• When you complete attaching the cording, gently overlap the edges of the cording and leave about a 1” tail in the seam allowance.

Attach the Sashing

• Select a sashing fabric of your choice.
• Cut decorative fabric 3.5” wide by length of entire hanging – approximately 140” – but ample fabric to go around the perimeter of your quilt sandwich, plus enough to overlap and sew together.
• Using a ¼” seam allowance and the Baby Lock ¼” foot, attach the sashing on top of the cording and all layers. I typically attach the sashing using the seamline from the backside, then I flip it over and go around one more time, this time stitching at least 1 – 2 stitches closer to the piping so that it’s nice and snug.
• Overlap and stitch the sashing pieces together to complete
• Press seam allowances toward sashing

Quilt your Sashing using the built-in Enhanced Quilting Function

By using the enhanced quilt border function, it allows us to create quilt borders of an increased size up to 118” x 118”.  The IQ Visionary projector and needle drop point are used to assist in positioning start points when connecting border sections. 

The machine will guide you step by step through the border stitching process.  Typically, the border starts in the top right corner and advances clockwise.  You can visually position the border with the help of the projector.  When created, the design is automatically saved to the machine’s memory.  You will select this saved design to proceed stitching your enhanced border.

• Set up your machine for Embroidery.
• Attach the embroidery W Foot
• Select the Q-Menu
• Choose the 1^st tab – 01 - for Quilted Borders single-line patterns
• Select Design #19 (leaves)
• Select Set
• Select the multiple option on the right for the type of split
• On the screen, enter the following:
  • Width = 14”            SET
  • Height = 49.75” SET
  • Width of sashing = 1.5” SET
  • Hoop – 7” x 15” magnetic hoop (or if you don’t have the magnetic hoop, choose the
    10 5/8” x 16” hoop)
• Select MEMORY - OK

On your screen, select the first pattern showing, which are the measurements just entered. Select the first icon again (showing 16 sections to stitch out – or depending on your hoop or specific sizes it may be different) which is the auto-split file.  Notice there are the individual sections that can also be used for individual border sections.  But we are using the auto-split function for this pattern.

Be sure to verify the overall design size and number of sections is correct for your wall hanging. 

• Stitch out the quilting borders, following all the prompts on the screen and re-hooping.
• For the quilting on the wall hanging, I simply “stitched in the ditch” around the bugs.

Attach the binding

• Trim the sashing down to 2”. Press seams towards outside edges.
• Miter your corners.
• Attach quilt binding. For this project, 2 ¼” strips were used, folded in half, for the binding.
• Hand or machine stitch your binding on the back side.

Add some Pizazz
To add some pizazz to the project, 3 “Bejeweled Buttons” were added on each of the bugs' bodies.  Play and have fun!