Seashells for a Mermaid: Using the Edit Features to Lay Out an Edge-to-Edge Design
Happy Feature Friday, quilting friends! There's a brand-new little quilt on the frame in the sewing studio this week. In Feature Friday 2026 Episode 39, Aubrey walks through setting up an edge-to-edge design from start to finish, using the Edit features (Repeat, Scale, proportion lock, and Move) to get a seashell pattern sitting exactly where she wants it.
Meet the Mermaid Quilt
This little top didn't come from a pattern at all. Aubrey pieced it from odds and ends and fat quarters already in her stash, mostly four-patch squares and larger squares, and made it up as she went. It's the same make-it-work spirit behind the recent leftovers quilt and scrappy projects.
The star of the show is the embroidery in the center: a mermaid design from Urban Threads, a great source for embroideries that are a little bit fun and a little bit funky. It pairs perfectly with the main fabric, which features little sailors along with mermaids and octopuses in the background, seashells, and what look like sparrows, all set against a denim-blue look.
With all those seashells in the fabric, the quilting choice was easy: seashells to bring them out.
Planning Around the Embroidery
This quilt will be quilted edge-to-edge, but there's one exception. When the quilting reaches the mermaid block, that block will be skipped so the design never stitches over the embroidery. That part comes next week. This episode covers the first row.
Setting the Pattern Box
The safe area was already set using the backing and batting as the measurements. From the Layout screen, it's time to add a layout box:
Set the first point. Bring the machine to the top left corner of the quilt top, hovering about a quarter inch above and a quarter inch to the left of the corner. That little bit of extra room makes sure the stitching catches everything, even if the edges run slightly crooked.
Add the next point. Tap the plus sign, then move across to the right side and pick a point about a quarter inch outside the edge, giving a nice wide area to quilt in.
Confirm. Tap the check mark, and the layout box is ready.
Choosing the Design: Seashells
The pattern for this quilt is Seashells from Epic Quilt Studio, a mix of seashells, a sand dollar, and little bubbles (because, as Aubrey says, there always have to be polka dots somewhere). Go to Patterns, highlight the design, and add it to the layout box. Adding a pattern jumps you straight into the Edit menu, which is where the rest of the setup happens.
Edit Feature #1: Repeat
At first, a single seashell repeat hangs off the bottom of the box and leaves lots of empty space across the quilt. In Repeat, Aubrey added horizontal repeats until the row stretched across, settling on three.
That number was a deliberate choice. She wanted big seashells, not a small, jumbled design packed with stitching. Fewer repeats means a larger scale and a pattern you can actually see on the finished quilt.
Edit Feature #2: Proportion Lock and Auto Scale
With three repeats, the design ran slightly past the layout box, a bit on the bottom and a little more on the right. That's a job for Scale, but first comes the most important click:
Lock the proportion. With the proportion lock on, any size change is applied to height and width together, in proportion to the original design. That keeps the bubbles circular and the seashells in their proper shape instead of stretching them out.
Auto Scale. With the lock on, tap Auto Scale to pull the whole row inside the layout box.
It's the same lesson from the duffle bag's bubble border: lock first, then scale, and round shapes stay round.
Edit Feature #3: Move
After scaling, take a close look at the display. The green line around the pattern sat just slightly inside the orange layout box at the top. It's a tiny difference, but even a quarter inch could mean missing the top edge of the quilt.
The fix is in the Move feature, which has four quick-position buttons:
Move the design to the top of the pattern box
Move it to the bottom
Move it all the way to the right
Move it all the way to the left
One tap on the top button nudged the seashells flush with the top edge of the layout box. If your robotic system has these buttons, Aubrey encourages playing with them. They're a quick, fun way to place a pattern exactly where you want it.
Don't worry about a small gap. Moving the design up left a tiny space at the bottom of the box, and that's fine. Nesting will cover it as the next rows go in. Aubrey would rather have a pattern a little smaller than the box than too big, because extra repeats can always be added, and a too-large design risks the machine bumping into the roller bars.
Thread Choice: Navy Blue
The thread for this project is a plain, straight navy blue from Superior Threads Omni, Aubrey's go-to thread line. It suits the denim-blue fabric and the nautical theme.
Stitching It Out
With everything looking good, go to Home, tap the needle so the machine will stitch, and press the green start button. Double-check that the needle is out of the fabric, then confirm.
A note on the starting point: Many patterns begin at the very top or very bottom of the design, but Seashells starts about two-thirds of the way down, right on one of the bubbles. It's worth checking the display so the starting spot doesn't surprise you.
From there, it's the familiar routine:
Single stitch. Take a single stitch and tap the check mark.
Pull up the bobbin thread. Move the machine out of the way, hold the top thread, pull the bobbin thread up so you have both tails, and confirm.
Recenter and lock. The system recenters on the starting point. Aubrey cycles the needle about three times to lock the stitches, though you can skip this if you prefer to tie knots and bury your threads.
Stitch. Turn stitching on, tap the check mark, and let it go.
Follow along on the display. The point where the blue crosshairs meet is where the needle is, so you can always see where the machine is in the design. In this case, it started on the sand dollar, worked out from its center, and then moved up to the next seashell.
One Row Done
By the end of the episode, the first row of seashells is finished, and it mirrors the seashells in the fabric beautifully. It's right on theme for this little nautical top.
Next week: nesting the next row and skipping over the mermaid embroidery so none of that fun stitching gets quilted over.
The Takeaway
The Edit features are where an edge-to-edge design becomes your design. Repeat sets the scale you want (fewer repeats for bigger motifs), the proportion lock keeps shapes true while Auto Scale fits everything in the box, and the Move buttons put the finishing touch on placement. A small gap at the bottom is nothing to worry about, but missing the top edge of the quilt is, so take a close look at that green line before you hit start.
Want to see the full process in action? Check out the complete video here: Feature Friday 2026 Episode 39: Editing Features.
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