Quilting Around the Mermaid: Nesting, Channel-Lock Basting, and Cropping Out an Embroidered Block
Happy Feature Friday, quilting friends! We're back in the sewing studio with the little mermaid quilt from last week. In Feature Friday 2026 Episode 40, Aubrey nests the next row of seashells, anchors the sides with channel locks, and then uses the cropping feature to quilt all the way around the embroidered mermaid block without stitching a single seashell over her.
Where We Left Off
Last week we laid out the Seashells design using the Edit features and stitched the first row: a sand dollar, little seashells, and plenty of bubbles (because Aubrey always has to have her polka dots). This week's row is the tricky one, because it runs right through the center of the quilt, where the mermaid embroidery from Urban Threads sits as the focal point.
Step 1: Nest the Next Row
Starting from the Home screen, right where the last row finished, open the Nesting feature and follow the prompts.
Select and mark the nesting point. Aubrey picks a spot roughly in the middle of the quilt, on the stitching line, at one of the lower points of the design. This time it was a little bubble, and she dropped her needle right onto its stitch line. If you'd rather not leave your needle in the fabric, mark the point with a chalk pencil or another marking tool that will come back out. Tap the check mark.
Roll the quilt. Release the roller bars and roll the quilt forward slowly, so there's no stress on the point where the needle is sitting. Leave some clearance behind the machine so it doesn't touch the roller bar, balanced against enough room in front to quilt the next row. Tap the check mark.
Return to the nesting point. With the needle still down in the fabric, the machine is already there. Just tap the check mark.
Check the placement. On the display, what's already stitched shows in gray, and the newly nested row shows in black inside the orange box. Zoom in to check how the rows meet. Here, the sand dollar sat just next to a starfish point and a bubble tucked close to a shell, so no adjustment was needed.
If you do need to tweak the placement, there are the two usual options: move the machine forward, back, left, or right to nest the row by hand, or open the keypad and type in the distance you want between rows. Tap the check mark, and you'll see "Nesting complete."
Step 2: Anchor the Sides With Channel Locks
Before anything gets stitched, pull the needle out of the fabric, tighten the roller bar if it's loosened, and give the batting a little tug to smooth everything out. Then it's time to stitch the sides down so the quilt doesn't creep or scrunch while you work.
Start on the left side. Bring the needle in and out of the fabric to pull the bobbin tail up.
Lock it straight. Turn on the channel lock and stitch down the side. Aubrey is happy to admit she's not great at stitching sides down freehand, so the channel lock makes it easier. If you're comfortable without one, go for it.
Finish and move over. Turn the channel lock off, bring the bobbin thread back up (tricky one-handed, she says every time), and move to the other side.
Repeat on the right. Line up with that side's stitch line, pull up the bobbin tail, keep the tails out to the side, turn the channel lock back on, and stitch it down. Clip the threads.
Same stitch length, every time. Aubrey anchors with the same stitches per inch she quilts with instead of switching to a longer basting stitch. If you change it, it's too easy to forget to change it back before quilting.
Step 3: Crop Out the Embroidered Block
Now for the star of the episode. The nested row runs right across the mermaid, and seashells on top of her would hide the focal point. The fix is to tell the system to skip that square entirely.
Create a pattern box for the block
From Home, jump to Layout and add a new pattern box. This one outlines just the embroidered block:
Hover the needle over the top left corner of the block and tap the plus sign.
Move to the bottom left corner and tap the plus sign.
Move to the bottom right corner and tap the plus sign.
Move to the top right corner and tap the check mark.
Now there's a square on the display that represents the mermaid. You can step back through the layout boxes to see each one: the new square, the seashell pattern box, and the safe area.
Crop it out in Edit
Go to Edit and make sure you have the full seashell pattern selected, since that's the design you're cropping the square out of. Then open the Cropping feature.
There are two crop buttons, and which one you need can depend on how many pattern boxes you have, so test before you commit. Aubrey tried the center button first, and it cropped away everything around the box, the exact opposite of what she wanted. That's what Undo is for. She stepped back, tried the other button, and got the right result: the seashells stay everywhere except inside the mermaid square.
Step 4: Check Your Jump Stitch Setting
Cropping a hole in the middle of a design leaves lots of cut-off lines, the ends of seashells and bubbles that now stop at the edge of the box. To keep the machine from asking you to cut threads at every one of them, make sure jump stitches are set up.
Go to Settings, then the Parameters tab. The jump stitch setting is on the right-hand side of the display. Aubrey keeps hers at 8, which means the system will tie off and jump up to 8 inches to the next starting point without stopping to have you cut threads. It just leaves a long thread trail to clip later. To change it, tap the box and type in a new number on the keypad.
Then head back to Edit for one last look before stitching.
Step 5: Stitch, Stop, and Restart Around the Block
From Home, make sure the needle is engaged, check that it's out of the fabric, and press start. The machine travels to the starting point, and it's the usual routine: single stitch, pull up the bobbin thread, recenter, cycle the needle to lock, and stitch.
When the stitching reaches the edge of the mermaid box, here's what happens:
The machine stops and has you turn stitching off and cycle the needle to lock it.
It moves a short distance, sometimes just a hair, sometimes about an inch, sometimes three-quarters of an inch.
It asks for a single stitch, another needle cycle to lock, and then stitching back on.
That repeats all the way around the block as the design swishes up to the edge and turns away. It's a lot of starting and stopping, and you'll want to stay with the machine for this part, but it's what gives you clean edges around the embroidery. Once the row is done, clip the little threads left behind by the jumps.
How It Turned Out
The full row is done, with seashells across the bottom, along the sides, and right up to the seam lines around the mermaid, and she stays clear as the focal point. The sand dollar is cut off partway at the edge of the block, just as the crop intended. A long thread trail from one of the jumps showed why setting the jump stitches to 8 was worth it.
A couple of stitches did sneak inside the block along the top. Aubrey had set her corner points dead on the seam, and the block was a little crooked. Her tip: set your points just a hair outside the block when you're cropping around something you want to protect.
The Takeaway
Cropping is what turns an edge-to-edge design into custom-looking work. Nest the row, anchor the sides, draw a pattern box around the block, crop it out of the full design (with Undo ready in case you pick the wrong button), and set your jump stitches so the machine can travel without constant thread cutting. It takes more babysitting than a plain row, but a mermaid floating in a sea of seashells is well worth the stops and starts.
Want to see the full process in action? Check out the complete video here: Feature Friday 2026 Episode 40: Nesting, Basting With Channel Locks, Cropping Out Center of Design.
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