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From in-the-hoop piecing to edge-to-edge quilting, embroidery machines can do all sorts of fun things for quilters.
Not to mention stitching applique or redwork block designs, creating quilt labels, and even adding stippling stitches to in-the-hoop projects.
Whether you’re first learning to quilt with an embroidery machine or are just looking for new inspiration, here are some free embroidery machine quilting designs to download and start playing with!
In the end, I’ll also include my favorite sites where you can buy designs. These are where you’ll find exactlywhat you’re looking for.
Table of Contents
Free Machine Embroidery Quilting Designs
I’ve tried to split these designs by type of “quilting” to make browsing easier.
Make sure to download these free quilting designs in your machine’s file format. For instance, .jef for Janome or .pes for most Brother machines.
And, if you appreciate a digitizer’s work, bookmark them for future purchases!
1. Free Stippling Machine Embroidery Designs
Stippling stitches are perfect for quilting small in-the-hoop projects. They also come in handy for finishing quilts, especially if you find a design to connect sections for continuous quilting.
Using continuous quilting designs produces a much snazzier quilt than stitching in the ditch or trying my hand at free-motion quilting does.
I use Hatch software to create my stippling and continuous stitch files, but I recommend SewWhat-Pro as a less expensive option for creating specific shapes with basic stippling.
If you’re not particular, though, below, you can find several basic, free stippling embroidery designs.
1. GG Designs Embroidery
Check out these free stippling stitches from GG Designs Embroidery!
The square stippling boxes include 4″x4″ up to 8″x8″ squares in 1″ increments. And, there are also full-hoop stippling designs in sizes 5″x7″, 6″x10″, 7″x12″, and 8″x12″ with an approximate stipple spacing of 8mm.
When creating quilted projects with an embroidery machine, the beauty of designs like these is you can stitch the stippling design first on the block and then add your applique or other block design to complete it.
2. Kreative Kiwi
Here are 7 more sizes of free stippling embroidery designs in a variety of machine formats.
2. Free Quilting-in-the-Hoop Machine Embroidery Designs In Other Shapes
If you would rather have a different design, here are a few other sites with options for making quilted blocks.
1. Kreative Kiwi
Here, you can find a cross-hatch quilting design that is essentially squares put together.
I am itching to see if this will be an easy way to make quilted fabric that I can turn around and use when sewing potholders or tote bags.
2. Five Star Fonts Embroidery
Five Star Fonts has another free diamond quilted applique frame in sizes 4×4, 5×7, and 6×10. There is a satin stitch surrounding the quilted interior.
3. Embroidery Designs that Look Like Quilt Blocks
If you don’t want to piece your blocks in the hoop using small pieces of fabric, you can instead use your embroidery machine to create fill stitches that mimic the look.
EmbroideryDesigns.com has two free, fun cross-stitch designs that look like quilt blocks!
Check out this quilt “X” block embroidery design and the quilt square “basket” embroidery design.
If you like this look, you can purchase several other designs to create an entire quilt.
4. Free Quilt Frame Designs
1. EmbroideryDesigns.com
Embroidery Designs has one free quilt block frame with intricate curls that is 4″x4″ in size.
As this is slightly larger than what you can embroider with a 4×4 hoop, you will need at least a 5″x5″ hoop to accommodate the design without editing.
2. Kreative Kiwi
They offer another free Curls embroidery design that can be used as a frame for another design or to stitch specific types of quilts.
5. Free Quilt Block Machine Embroidery Designs
Kreative Kiwi is a place to go when looking for cute, free machine embroidery quilt block designs.
While I recommend browsing through the free designs section to catch all of them, including the most recent releases, here are some of my favorite blocks.
- Free Baby Quilt Blocks (perfect free machine embroidery designs for baby quilts!)
- Free Zoo Animal Blocks
- Free Quilt Label (only kind of a block, I know.)
And, if you like the look of raggy quilts, you can create a baby raggy quilt with their instructions and designs. Raggy quilts with simple redwork designs are easy to make and a great beginner embroidery project idea.
6. Free Edge-to-Edge Quilting Designs (Continuous)
Continuous quilting designs have many names, but these are designs that you can seamlessly connect when rehooping your quilt top to finish it.(Above is an example of a continuous design I used on my puzzle quilt.)
If you have experience with embroidery digitizing software, creating designs like these takes less time than creating more complicated fill-stitch designs.
However, if you want to try designs before making your own, here are some freebies.
1. Designs by Juju
Designs by Juju trademarked the term end-to-end quilting designs, but these are still similar to edge-to-edge or continuous quilting designs for your embroidery machine.
If you hop over to Sulky’s blog post on end-to-end quilting, you can grab one of her free paisley end-to-end designs and read an excellent summary of how this technique is accomplished!
On Designs by Juju’s website, you can also check out more affordable end-to-end quilting designs.
2. Amelie Scott
Amelie Scott currently offers free patriotic edge-to-edge designs if you want to add patriotic stitching to finish your quilt.
She has many continuous designs to purchase and is a favorite in the machine embroidery community.
7. Free Quilt Designs and Instructions (to Create an Entire Quilt!)
If you have a Craftsy subscription (or want one), the included Machine Embroidered Quilt Class gives the designs and instructions to create a gorgeous machine-embroidered hourglass quilt.
This class was fun for me to watch, featuring applique, reversible piecing, continuous embroidery, continuous applique, and tips for binding!
8. Quilting Tutorials and Free Designs Through Hatch by Wilcom
Hatch Embroidery software offers several quilting block tutorials on their site that also include free designs with the tutorial download.
I really enjoyed these tutorials when first learning to digitize.
Thus, check out the tutorials for designing a continuous quilting block, pieced block, applique quilt block, fills and outlines block, trapunto block, and monogram quilt block.
Where to Buy Embroidery Quilting Designs (Other Options)
Most sites I’ve mentioned above with quilting design freebies also have great designs to purchase.
Finding free edge-to-edge quilting designs for an embroidery machine is difficult, so I recommend purchasing if you don’t create your own. The same goes for quilts made from embroidered blocks that tell a story.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, here are several more websites that I love! (This is by no means exhaustive.)
Etsy
Etsy is a source for both embroidery block patterns and continuous quilting designs. And, the designs are often more cost-effective, too.
My favorite digitizer for edge-to-edge embroidery designs on Etsy is JLdizains.
Anita Goodesign
Anita Goodesign quilt designs are NOT cheap, but I LOVE THEM.
For instance, the above doll house quilt? I made it from an Anita Goodesign design!
One great thing about Anita Goodesign quilt embroidery designs is most are a part of the “Mix and Match Quilting Collection.” This means blocks are similar sizes in all the quilting designs produced, so you can combine multiple sets into one quilt.
Embroidery Library
One of my other favorite places to purchase high-quality designs, Embroidery Library has a large selection of quilting embroidery designs, including quilt borders, quilt corners, full-hoop quilting designs, and even quilt blocks.
Kimberbell
Kimberbell is known for its cute embroidery projects. They also have tons of quilting embroidery designs.
For instance, some designs work for their Clear Blue Tiles (check these out if you never have!), border designs, and block-by-block designs.
6. DIME
DIME has “Cheater Quilts” where all you need to do is place their fabric front on backing and batting and use your machine for quilting it. There are also smaller fabric panels you can learn to quilt on a small scale with.
They also have their “Stipple!” collection for a fun twist, which features their unique quilt-applique-piece method. This method is a quilt-as-you-go as I described a little earlier.
If these didn’t fulfill your quilting desires, check out my post on where to find free machine applique designs or where to download free embroidery designs of all types.And, let me know if you know where to find any other free machine embroidery quilting designs!
