Frequently Asked Questions

We always encourage you to shop locally and support your local specialty shops. Your local shop has the expertise and knowledge to assist you with your entire project.

We suggest calling your local quilt shop to see if they carry our products and if they have the product that you are looking for in stock. If for some reason your local shop does not carry our products or does not have the pattern you are looking for in stock, have them give us a call.

Orders can only be viewed while you are logged into your account. You can log into your account and then click on the My Account link in the top right corner of the menu bar.

We do our best to ship within 48 hours of the order being placed. Please note that we are closed Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays. Orders will begin being processed on the next business day when we reopen.

For security reasons all passwords are encrypted and we do not have access to them. You can change your password by using the Lost Password link on the Login / Register page.

If you are located outside the USA you may still purchase our downloadable products. We do not ship outside of the USA, even Canada our closest neighbor.

Within our sole discretion we will handle returns on a case by case basis. See our Refund Policy for more details. If you have an item that is defective, please contact us using the Help and Support Contact from and we will be more than happy to resolve the issue.

These are two separate and distinct products. You are not able to upgrade. If this has happened to you, please contact us using the Help / Support Contact form.

A large number of our products are also offered in our Traditional Applique Quilt Patterns. These include full size paper templates for use with traditional hand applique techniques.

Our machine embroidery patterns include the following formats:

.art .dst .exp .hus .jef .pcs .pes .sew .shv .vip .vp3

Machine embroidery patterns are specifically designed for use with embroidery sewing machines. They do not contain any full size paper templates for use with traditional applique methods such as paper piecing, freezer paper, fusing, etc.

If you wish to use traditional applique methods then you should choose the Classic Series. The Classic Series does not contain any files for embroidery sewing machines.

You need to make sure that your embroidery sewing machine’s hoop size is large enough to accommodate the embroidery design size listed on the product page.

This is not recommended. When reducing the size of the design the width of the stain stitches is also reduced. This will result in the satin stitch not being able to cover the edge of the applique fabric.

Each of our products include at least a CD along with printed instructions.

Most of our newer products include both a CD and a Redemption Code card. The Redemption Code card can be used to download the product directly from our website. This is useful for those who no longer have access to optical/ CD drives on their computers.

You can use either one to copy the files to your embroidery sewing machine.

By using the Redemption Code on our website it will have the added benefit of registering the product and we can contact you directly of any changes and corrections that may come about.

The thread colors that you will want to use will depend on the your choice of fabrics. Once you have selected your fabrics you can choose the thread colors that you want to use. You can choose to match your fabrics, contrast with them or choose any color that you would like.

Our quilt patterns include the instructions and embroidery designs to complete a quilt top. They DO NOT contain any quilting patterns or quilting designs.

Quilt pattern projects are finished by layering together the quilt top, batting, and fabric backing, together and then the quilting is completed after assembly.

You may not use any designs by Lunch Box Quilts on items for sale no matter the quantity.

Lunch Box Quilts Designs are copyrighted designs for home non-commercial use by the original purchaser only, and are protected under US and International Laws.

Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this product, or any portion of it, is forbidden.

This means that you may not stitch out the embroidery designs and sell, barter, or trade any quantity for any reason.

We hope you enjoy making these quilts for your own personal use. This publication and designs are protected under federal copyright laws. When purchasing a Lunch Box Quilts pattern and designs you have been granted certain rights and privileges.

You have the right to:

• Sew out the designs for your personal, non-commercial use.
  (This means you cannot sew the designs on items to be sold.)
• Sew out the design on a gift.
• Change the size of the design to your personal preference.

You DO NOT have the right to:

• Produce any quantity of finished products for sale.
• Produce any quantity of finished products for use by others if offered for sale by others, this includes charities and non-profits
• Place the applique embroidery designs on any items for sale.
• Sell items with applique embroidery designs on ebay or etsy

When purchasing this CD, these rights are granted to you exclusively.  You may not copy or share the designs with anyone else. Your friends and associates will have to purchase their own Lunch Box quilt patterns and CD. Copying these designs and giving them to your friends is theft. Please do not do it.

All of our embroidery designs are tested on a wide variety of embroidery sewing machine makes and models.

The number one reason that a satin stitch will not line up is that the hoop has been bumped or its travel is limited in some way, such as hitting a wall or some other object. It is also possible that the hoop has not been properly placed back into the embroidery sewing machine properly after trimming the applique pieces.

If the satin stitch shows up in the proper location on your embroidery sewing machines screen, then this is most likely the case.

This issue happens to the best of us, and has happened to us on occasion.

PES files come in a variety of versions, about 8 at current count.

If this is happening to you try using the files in the PES v4 directory. These files are also in the pes format, they are just a different version. This will usually solve the issue.

The most likely cause of this is that the embroidery design is too large for your embroidery machines stitch field or hoop size.

Please check that the embroidery design will fit into the hoop size that you plan to use on your embroidery sewing machine.

Another common issue is using the incorrect format for your embroidery sewing machine. You should use the manufacturer’s suggested format.

Sometimes, specific software will split the same color into multiple steps. Just follow along with the stitch sequence charts in the pattern and make sure the stitching is complete for a specific color before moving on to the next step.

The other issue that you may be experiencing is that your embroidery software has grouped all like colors into the same step.

If you are using 6D or 7D software you will need to make the following changes to your software default settings

Change your default settings using the “Configure Tool” in the software. Make sure that the “Color Sort” is unchecked under the “Export” tab. Make sure to hit “Apply” after making the change. The 6D default is to have this selector on and then the software groups like colors together. This is causing the issue.

We can also watch the Change 6D Software Default Color Settings video on our Tutorials page.

We suggest high quality cotton dish towels. These are available from your local quilt shops and sewing stores.

We also highly recommend dish towels from All About Blanks.

Suggestion 1:

Turn off the auto-trim or jump-stitch trim on your embroidery sewing machine. This will prevent your embroidery sewing machine from adding a tie-in and -tie-off stitch between each letter part. This will result in having to go back and trim each letter by hand, but will produce better results.

Suggestion 2:

If you are using a dark color thread for your small recipe text we suggest that you use a matching color bobbin thread. This will eliminate any halo effect or fringing around the lettering when using a white bobbin thread.

Suggestion 3:

Make sure that your top thread tension is adjusted correctly. It should be as loose as possible without producing looping.

Suggestion 4:

Use two layers of stabilizer on the back to reduce some letter parts as the “i” from sinking or pulling thru the fabric.

The number one issue of getting your code to work is that some letters and numbers look similar.

Such as:
“i” and “l”
zero and “O”
five and s

Please try again being very careful to make sure the correct letters or numbers are used. Still having problems send us a message using the Help and Support Contact form and we will try to resolve the problem.

Depending on your browser, the most likely location of the files are in your download directory on your computer.

You can navigate to the files by opening your web browser and then hold down the “ctrl” and “j” keys at the same time. This will take you to the default downloads directory. You can them copy or move your files to the location you desire so that you can find them easily.

Mark-a-Blocks are an accessory product used to trim your embroidered quilt blocks to their final size.

We have found that they reduce the amount of errors and anxiety that come with trimming the embroidered block that you have worked on to the wrong size.

They also aid in centering or getting the embroidered applique design in the correct location in the quilt block. This helps in lining up adjacent blocks embroidery designs such as in the case of the About Trout, which requires careful planning to line up the parts of the trout.

The short answer is No, you do not need to have the Mark-a-Block to complete the project.

The Mark-a-Block is an accessory item that is designed to take the anxiety out of trimming your block to the correct size.

If you registered the product on our website, or purchased it directly from us, and we have a record of the purchase we can send you a link to download the files.

If you did not register the product, or purchased it directly, we are unable to replace it or send you a new one.

If you registered the product on our website, or purchased it directly from us, and we have a record of the purchase we can send you a link to download the files.

If you did not register the product, or purchased it directly, we are unable to replace it or send you a new one.

Some of our patterns did ship with USB drives. These USB drives are media storage devices. We no longer sell patterns with USB drives and we do not have any supply to replace your damaged USB drives.

If for some reason your USB drive is damaged or does not work properly in your computer, please contact us using the Help and Support Contact form. We will provide you with a link to download the files.

We strongly recommend that you make a backup copy of the contents of your USB drive. We have made it convenient for you to do so. Simply plug the USB drive into your computer and drag the file DRAG THIS FILE TO DESKTOP FOR BACKUP.zip. Then if something gets accidentally deleted when you are using it in your embroidery machine or the USB gets damaged you can navigate to the damaged file in the .zip folder and simply expand it back onto the USB.

The USB drives will work directly in most brands and models of embroidery sewing machines. Due to the wide variety of the age of technologies and embroidery software and hardware operating systems they are not guaranteed to work directly in every embroidery machine. If the USB drive does not work directly in your embroidery sewing machine you should transfer the designs using the manufacturers recommended equipment and procedures.

If for some reason your USB drive is damaged or does not work properly in your computer, please contact us using the Help and Support Contact form. We will provide you with a link to download the files.

The fabrics we use in the model come from a great variety of sources. Some are completed using specific fabric collections available at the time when the model quilt was made. Most are completed using fabric purchased from our local quilt shops and include a wide variety of fabric designers.

Because of this most of the fabrics used on the models are no longer in production or are out of print.

The exception is the Ocean Odyssey Fabric Collection. This collection was designed by Angie Steveson and we have kits available, but no yardage.

You can purchase the fabric kit for the quilt top at the following link Ocean Odyssey Fabric Kit

If you purchased a fabric kit, then you purchased it from someone other than Lunch Box Quilts. Many local quilt shops as well as some national retailers kit up fabric kits for use with our patterns.

If you have any issues with these kits you will need to contact the retailer where it was purchased from directly.

The only exception is the Ocean Odyssey Fabric Kit, which we kit and sell directly because Angie Steveson designed the fabric specifically for the Ocean Odyssey pattern

Cutting Machine files or SVG files are not available for any of our products.

Unfortunately we do not have the time or expertise to be able to support the wide variety of machines capable of cutting out appliques.

Our patterns use the “trim-away” or “cut-away” method of machine embroidery applique. We have found that this method produces the best results.

Yes, you may make any of our designs and donate the item to a charity.

You may not receive any compensation for the item.

We ask that you give Lunch Box Quilts credit for the design.

You may request items for your event by submitting a Help / Request Contact form

Yes we sell wholesale to pre-approved qualified vendors such as quilt shops, fabric shops, embroidery machine retailers, etc.

We do not sell wholesale to the following types of organizations or companies:

• Online Only Retailers (this does not mean retail stores that also sell online)
• Quilting Guilds or Social Clubs
• Instructors or Teachers (unless affiliated directly with a retail outlet)
• Retreats or Organizations that only attend temporary retail craft shows or fairs
• Any Organization or Individual without a permanent physical commercial retail outlet with regular business hours

You can register for a new wholesale account at the following page Wholesale Registration

If approved you will receive an email with your login name and password. Approval can take up to 48 hours. Please understand that an account is not an application for credit and initial orders require payment by credit card. Subsequent orders are due upon receipt. We are unable to extend net 30 commercial credit terms without a credit application.

We are unable to provide any merchandise on consignment outside of our scheduled events such as Workshops and Trunk Shows.

If you have some specific event in mind that you would like to set-up with a Consignment Order you can contact us directly by submitting a Help / Support Request form.