Nesting the Raindrops: Continuing "Dripping" Down the April Showers Quilt
Happy Feature Friday, quilting friends! We're back in the sewing studio picking up right where we left off last week on April Showers. In this episode, it's time to take those first two rows of Dripping raindrops and carry them down the quilt using the nesting feature — plus a few habits that keep the quilt straight and the stitching clean along the way.
Where We Left Off
Last week we imported the Dripping pattern and laid it out, stitching two rows of raindrops inside a single pattern layout box. They turned out beautifully, and they fit the theme of this quilt perfectly — little raindrops falling across the top, right alongside all of those scrappy half-square-triangle raindrops pouring out of the big gray cloud.
Now the quilt needs to move forward on the frame, and the next set of rows needs to line up seamlessly with what's already stitched. That's exactly the job nesting was built for.
What Is Nesting?
When a quilt is larger than your machine's throat space, you can't quilt it all in one pass. You stitch a section, roll the quilt, and then pick up where you left off. Nesting is how the robotic system knows where the new rows should sit relative to the stitching you've already done — so the design flows down the quilt as if it were stitched in one go, without gaps or overlaps.
Step by Step: Nesting the Next Rows
Everything starts from the Home screen, with the needle still engaged from the end of last week's stitching. Tap the Nesting feature, and the robotics walks you through each step with on-screen prompts.
1. Select and mark your nesting point
Slide the machine to roughly the middle of the quilt from side to side. Aubrey likes to choose a point that sits low on the design, so she scooted down and lined the needle up with the stitching line at the bottom of one of the raindrops, then dropped the needle right into it.
Dropping the needle into the fabric holds that exact spot for you. If you'd rather not leave your needle in the quilt, you can mark the point with a marking tool instead — just make sure it's one that will come back out of your fabric so no little marks get left behind.
Tap the check mark to confirm.
2. Roll the quilt
Next, release the roller bar locks on the side of the frame and slowly roll the quilt forward. With the needle sitting in the fabric, go nice and slow so you're not putting any stress on that point.
As you roll, keep an eye on the space behind the machine. You want plenty of room between the back of the machine and the roller bar, so you don't accidentally bump into it while quilting the next section. It's a bit of a balancing game: enough space in front to keep quilting, but not so much that you're crowding the back. Once you've done it a few times, it starts to feel natural.
Lock the front roller bar and tap the check mark.
3. Move the machine to your nesting point
The system now asks you to move back to your nesting point. Because the needle is already dropped into the fabric right on that spot, there's nowhere to go — the machine is already there.
If you used a chalk pencil or other marking tool instead, simply hover the needle back over your mark. Tap the check mark once you're in place.
4. Place the nested rows
Here's where last week's setup pays off. Remember tightening up the vertical spacing between the two rows of raindrops to -0.90? The robotic system remembered that distance and used it to nest the new rows automatically.
On the display, the new rows appear in black inside the orange layout box, tucked neatly underneath the rows already stitched, which show in gray.
If you ever need to tweak the placement, you have two options:
Spacing adjustment. Opening it brings up a keypad where you can type in a new spacing value. Here it still showed the -0.90 from the original layout, so Aubrey just tapped the X to close it.
Crossbars with arrows. This lets you physically move the machine forward, backward, left, or right, changing the distance between the rows by moving the machine itself.
Neither was needed this time — the placement looked fantastic as it was. Tap the check mark, and a quick "Nesting complete" message flashes across the bottom of the screen.
Before You Hit Start: Two Quick Checks
The two new rows will stitch out just like last time: starting with the first raindrop on the far left, stitching across to the right, stopping so you can tie off and cut your threads, then traveling back to the left to begin the second row. But before starting, there are two things to take care of.
Bring the needle back up
Double-check that the needle is engaged — and remember, it's still dropped into the fabric from marking the nesting point. Bring it back up before doing anything else so nothing goes wrong with that needle sitting in the quilt.
Anchor down the sides
Every time the quilt is rolled, it's worth anchoring the sides again so the quilt stays nice and straight as you go.
Aubrey uses a pink centering tape with little markers on it, positioned at key points across the quilt: one at the outer edge, one on the border line, one running through a seam between the cloud puffs, one on the opposite border edge, and one on the far outside edge. Lining those markers up with the quilt makes it easy to see that everything is straight. Smooth out any wrinkles in the batting before stitching anything down.
Then it's time to anchor:
Pick up the previous anchor line. Drop the needle on the same line of anchor stitching from the first section.
Bring up both threads. Pull the bobbin thread up so you have both top and bobbin tails, then realign at the starting point.
Lock in a straight line. Aubrey turns on the horizontal channel lock so the machine can only move vertically down the side. (Freehand or a ruler works too — whatever method you like for anchoring, this is the moment to do it.)
Stitch toward you. Start stitching from the handlebars and pull the line of stitching down the side. Stop before running into the centering tape.
Finish and clip. Bring the bobbin thread back to the surface and clip the tails.
Repeat on the other side. Release the channel lock, move to the opposite side of the quilt, line up with that side's anchor stitching, and do it all again.
A tip on stitch length: Aubrey anchors with the same stitch length she quilts with — 11 stitches per inch. You can certainly switch to longer basting stitches for this, but if you forget to switch back before stitching the pattern, you'll end up ripping out stitches and starting over. Keeping the setting the same avoids that problem entirely.
Stitching Out the Nested Rows
With the sides anchored, turn the channel lock off and get ready to go:
Start. Turn stitching on and tap the check mark. The robotics thinks for a moment, then travels all the way to the left side of the quilt where the next row of raindrops begins.
Single stitch. Take a single stitch when prompted.
Pull up the bobbin thread. Move the machine out of the way, pull the bobbin thread to the surface, and confirm.
Recenter and lock. The system recenters over the starting point. Cycle the needle to lock the stitches and confirm.
Stitch. Turn stitching on, tap the check mark, and let the raindrops roll.
The rows stitch out exactly as before, with the same tie-off and thread-cutting stop at the end of the first row before the machine jumps back to start the second.
Four Rows Down
By the end of the episode there are four rows of raindrops on the quilt, and the nested rows line up perfectly with the first set. As Aubrey put it, it's a real treat to have the robotic system doing all the hard work of keeping everything lined up. The plan from here: keep on quilting and try to get the whole raindrop quilt finished in a single day.
The Takeaway
Nesting comes down to a simple rhythm: mark a point, roll the quilt, return to the point, and let the system place the next rows. But the small habits around it matter just as much — choosing a nesting point low on the design, rolling slowly with the needle down, leaving room behind the machine, bringing the needle back up, and re-anchoring the sides every time you roll. And when your first layout is dialed in, the robotics carries that spacing all the way down the quilt, raindrop after raindrop.
Want to see the nesting process in action? Check out the complete video here: Feature Friday 2026: April Showers — Nesting.
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