How to Make Quilted Magnets with Brother Printmoda Studio Fabric Printer

Lately, I’ve been helping my son learn how to spell his name—and during one of our play sessions, we realized the letter “T” from his magnetic alphabet set had mysteriously vanished. Rather than buy a new set, I decided to turn it into a crafty opportunity and make my own quilted magnetic letters. With hundreds of adorable designs available in the Brother Artspira app and the powerful Brother PrintModa Studio Fabric Printer at my fingertips, I couldn’t resist adding a few fruity, playful extras while I was at it. Whether you're looking to replace a missing piece or add a handmade touch to your fridge or office, this tutorial will walk you through every step of making your own quilted magnets from start to finish.

 

 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• Basic sewing machine – Brother Innovis BQ3100, Quilt Club Series sewing machine was featured in this blog post.
• Smartphone or tablet with Artspira app installed and logged into an Artspira account. Note: Some designs and/or features  in the Brother Artspira library requires an Artspira+ subscription. 
• Brother Printmoda Studio HL-JF1 fabric printer to print letters 
• Printer to print out paper magnet templates 
• Download paper magnet templates here*
• Rotary cutter 
• Quilting ruler(s)
• Cutting mat 
  
• Batting – It is encouraged to use scraps in your stash 
  o    one (1), 7in x 11in rectangle for magnet front
  o    eight (8), 4in squares for magnet back
• Quilting cotton – It is encouraged to use scraps in your stash
  o    sixteen (16), 3½in squares for magnet back 
  
• Flexible magnet adhesive sheets
• Scissors for fabric
• Scissors for paper
• Pinking shears
• Fabric pen or pencil
• Coordinating 50wt cotton thread(s)
• Pen
• Pins
• Heramarker
• Seam ripper
• Snips (optional)
• Iron
• Basting spray
• Walking foot (Brother MuVit Dual Feed Foot was used in this tutorial)
  

*This blog post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something the author and designer may earn a commission. 

 

DIRECTIONS

Read through all the directions before you start. Seam allowance throughout the project is ¼in, unless specified. The directions are broken down into 7 key parts: Setup Circle Templates, Setup and Print Magnet Designs, Quilting Magnet Front, Printing Paper Templates, Preparing Magnet Sheets, Quilting Magnet Back, and Magnet Assembly.

Setup Circle Templates

This section is all about creating the base template for the front of the magnets. These circles are also used as a guide to help cut out the circle shapes of the magnets and help center the design.

 

Step 1: Download, open and log into the Artspria app on smartphone or tablet.

 

Step 2: Press the ‘+ New’ option located at the center, bottom of the app. Then select ‘Printing’ > ‘Design Editor’ which is located on in the center, right of the app.

 

Step 3: The app will prompt document size. In this tutorial I am creating a total of eight magnets. Each circle shape measures 2in. Select ‘Custom Size’ under ‘Fabric Roll’ subheading. 

From there, under the ‘Size’ subheading, set paper width as 5in and paper length as 9in. Then click ‘Create’ located on the top right corner to confirm selection. 

 

Step 4: A blank canvas with appear. At the bottom of the app, select ‘Design’. Then a new set of options will appear on the bottom half of the screen. 

Select ‘Basic Shape’ > ‘Basic Shape’. A set of basic shapes will appear. Scroll bottom half of the screen until you find a circle shape and select the shape, then hit ‘Done’. 
 

Step 5: Circle shape will appear in the middle of the A4 page. Select the circle (a blue bounding box should appear around the circle). 

Hit ‘Layout’ on the bottom right corner of the app. Then adjust the size of the circle by scrolling the bottom half of the screen, down. Change the ‘Height’ and ‘Width’ of the circle to ‘2’ inch.

Step 6: Select the circle shape again and a new set of options at the bottom of the app will appear. Click on the ‘Fill’ option in the bottom middle of the screen. Click on ‘Line’ and select the lightest grey color available on the palette. Hit ‘Done’ to confirm selection. 

Outlines of the circle is intentionally set as light grey to minimize the amount of visibility of the circle outline when the circles are cut out with pinking shears.

 

Step 7: With the circle shape selected, hold down on the shape with your finger to drag and move it to the top left corner of the document. Ensure the shape is within the red bounding box of the document.

 

Step 8: Duplicate the circle shape by selecting the circle shape. Then hit on the ‘More’ icon and select ‘Duplicate’. Adjust the number from ‘1’ to ‘4’ and hit ‘Done’ to confirm action. There should be a total of four circle shapes.

Step 9: Hold and drag circle shapes and arrange them into one column of four circle shapes.

Step 10: Evenly space and align four circle shapes by hitting the ‘More’ icon and ‘Multi-Select’. A textbox with option to ‘Select All’ will appear. Click on that to select all four circle shapes at the same time. 

Click on the ‘Layout’ option on the bottom right corner of the app. Following the screenshot below, click on the center align and evenly distribute shapes vertically icon as outlined in the red boxes. Hit ‘Done’ to confirm action. 

The purpose of aligning the circles is so that when it comes to marking quilting guidelines and quilting, you can do those all at once. Making these steps more efficient.

Step 11: With all four of the circle shapes selected, click on the ‘More’ icon and ‘Group’ to group the shapes together.

 Step 12: With all four of the circle shapes selected, click on the ‘More’ icon and ‘Duplicate’, then increase the number from “1” to “2” to create another set of four circle shapes. Hit ‘Done to confirm action.

 

Step 13: Hold and drag new set of circle shapes and move it next to the first column of circle shapes. Hit ‘Done’ to confirm action. Again, the placement of the second set of four circle shapes do not need to be perfect as that will be addressed in the next step.

Step 14: Select one of the circle shapes on the document. Click on the ‘More’ icon and ‘Multi-Select’. A textbox with option to ‘Select All’ will appear. Click on that to select all eight circle shapes at the same time.

 At the bottom of the app, click on ‘Layout’ and then hit on the align top icon as outlined in the red box. Hit ‘Done’ to confirm action. Now you have the base template of the magnets completed.

Step 15: Save the progress of the document by going to the top right corner of the document, click on ‘OK’ > ‘Save’ and type in the name of the document in the textbox and hit ‘Save’ to confirm.

To ensure you don’t override this base template, hit on the ‘Save’ button located on the top right corner and hit ‘Save As’. Type in name of the document and hit ‘Save’ of the new document. I’d suggest giving it a different name to the original document to avoid any confusion. With the base template saved, you can come back to the same document again for future magnet projects. 

 

Setup and Print Magnet Designs

With the base template all setup, this where the fun really begins. Browse through the 100s of designs Brother Artspira has to offer. Some designs may require an Artspira+ subscription. For this tutorial, I have decided to create magnets that spell out my son’s name to help him learn how to spell his name, as well as some fun ones for my office. 

Be sure to browse through the variety of categories so you don’t miss anything! The following steps walk you through how to add a letter design on one of the magnets. Repeat the same set of steps to fill all your circles.

 

Step 1: Firstly, ungroup the circle shapes so that they are treated as separate entities. This is going to make align the design cantered within the circle possible. To do this, select either one of the columns, click on the ‘More’ icon and ‘Ungroup’. 

Repeat with this with the second set of grouped circle shapes.

 Deselect the selected circle shapes by touching anywhere else on the document.

Step 2: Click on the ‘Design’ located on the bottom of the app. Click on ‘Logo’, swipe left across the various categories until you find ‘Letters & Fonts’. Choose desired letter and hit ‘Done’ to confirm selection and the letter design will appear in the centre of the document.

Step 3: Select the letter design and hit ‘Layout’. Then adjust the size of the letter by scrolling the bottom half of the screen, down. Change the ‘Height’ of the letter to ‘1.25’ inch and click on ‘Done’ to confirm selection.

Step 4: With your finger, select and move the letter design to the top left circle shape. Ensure the letter stays within the circle but it does not have to be perfectly centered as this will be addressed in the next step.

Step 5: Select letter design and hit the ‘More’ icon on the bottom right for ‘Multi-Select’ option. Click on that and touch the circle on the top left corner. 

Then click on the ‘Layout’ option on the bottom right corner of the app. Click on the centre and middle align icons (as outlined in the red boxes in the screenshot below) to centre the letter design in the circle shape. 

 

Step 6: Repeat Setup Magnet Designs, Step 2 to 5 to add designs in each of the circle shapes.

 

Step 7: Print the fabric by going the top right corner of the app, select ‘Done’ and you will be given an option to select your printer and the option to hit ‘Print’ on the bottom of the app will appear. Click on that and also follow the prompts on the PrintModa Printer. 

Quilting Magnet Front

Step 1: Take printed fabric. Cut 6in x 9in rectangle and remove excess fabric, keeping the circle shapes roughly in the centre. Do not separate the individual circle shapes

 Step 2: Remove plastic film from the back of printed fabric.

 

Step 3: Place printed fabric on top of batting (wrong side of the printed fabric touching the batting). With basting spray, spray baste between the layer. Do not cut the individual circle shapes. As previously mentioned, to speed up the basting and quilting process for the front of the magnets we’re going to do this all at the one once. That’s why we spent the time earlier aligning the circle shapes in the first section of this tutorial.

Step 4: With a quilting ruler and heramarker, mark quilting guidelines. I used the centre of each circle to help determine the placement of my quilting guidelines.

Step 5: Install walking foot and quilt the batting and printed fabric layers together.

 
 

Step 6: With a pair of pinking shears, cut on each circle outline to create a total of eight (8) Magnet Fronts. Set these aside for Magnet Assembly. Step 1.

 

Print Paper Templates

Step 1: Download and print paper magnet templates here**. The paper magnet templates are a PDF document. You will use this template to cut out the back of the magnets and adhesive magnet sheets.

Step 2: With a pair of paper scissors, cut on the solid line of the two circles templates – one for the back of the magnets and the other for the adhesive magnet sheets. Set paper template for magnet back aside for Quilting Magnet Back, Step 1.