How to Decorate Squares for Quilting

Use your quilt square as a blank canvas for embellishment.

Usually, a quilt takes its decorative appeal from the patterns of the fabric joined together to make the blocks for the blanket. However, you can add texture and "bling" to your quilt if you decorate the squares themselves before assembling and quilting your coverlet. Many craft techniques work well for square decoration, but embroidery and bead work are especially well-suited -- you can use them to enhance an existing print or to create a design on their own.

Things You'll Need

• Quilt squares
• Freezer paper or wax paper
• Iron
• Transfer pattern or transfer paper
• Embroidery hoop
• Embroidery needles
• Embroidery floss
• Beading needle
• Silk beading thread
• Seed beads
• Focal beads (optional)

Instructions

Embroidery

1. Iron a piece of freezer paper or wax paper to the back of the fabric square. This will provide stability to the quilt block and make it easier to embellish.

2. Iron an embroidery transfer onto the square or use dressmakers' transfer paper and a pencil to draw your design on the fabric. Be sure to leave 1/2 inch on all sides for the sewing seam allowance. For a personalized square, add pictures of events or hobbies, such as a birthday cake and candles, and "sign" your name and the date in embroidered script.

3. Place the square in an embroidery hoop and tighten the screw to secure it.

4. Fill the pattern with satin stitches, French knots, chain stitches or other embroidery stitches, as appropriate to the design. Outline the design with backstitches.

5. Tear away the backing paper.

Bead work

1. Iron wax paper or freezer paper to the back of the fabric to create stability.

2. Thread two needles and tie a knot in one end of the threads.

3. Bring one needle up from the back of the square on the line of the fabric pattern that you wish to embellish. It may be easier to work with the fabric if you secure it in an embroidery hoop.

4. String 2 or 3 inches of seed beads onto the thread.

5. Lay the string along the line to be beaded. Hold the thread at the end of the beads taut against the surface with your nondominant hand.

6. Bring the second needle up from the back of the fabric about 1/4 inch from where you inserted the first one, as close to the beads as possible.

7. Pass the needle over the string of beads and push the needle to the back of the fabric, as close to where you brought it up as possible. Repeat along the string of beads, about 1/4 inch apart.

8. Add more beads to the first thread as needed, and continue tacking them to the quilt square.

9. Fill in sections of the patterned fabric by laying the bead string adjacent to and touching the string used to outline the pattern, and continuing to spiral in to the center, tacking the beads down every 1/4 inch or closer as needed to hold them in place.

10. Stitch larger focal beads to larger areas, such as flower centers, as desired.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are using patterned fabrics for your quilt squares, instead of filling a design, consider just outlining it with running stitches or backstitching. Alternately, select small areas to embellish, such as a single flower petal that you fill with a chain stitch.

• Use rubber stamps and stencils with fabric paints and inks as another alternative for decorating quilt squares, as well as appliqués and iron-on transfers.

References

• Valerie Mates: Ideas for the Quilt Squares for the Dec 98 Babies Quilt
• Legacy Quilts: Decorate a Quilt Block Activity
• MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory: Connie's Memory Quilt