As I was working on this design, I kept thinking how similar it is to the Wishbone design. It may even look more like a wishbone than Wishbone?! My husband thought I should call it Tuning Fork, which would have also been an accurate description. I decided the one-word name 'Liquid' represented the flow and drip of the design.
 


This has been one of my favorite combos of quilt pattern + pantograph for quite some time! I can't help but have favorites.



I think the simplicity of this design gives it versatility and can be used in different styles of patchwork: contemporary, modern, water-themed, you-name-it. The curvy shape gives it an element of fun and playfulness.

The Quilt

Quilt Pattern

The pattern I used for this quilt is called Amelia by Crystal Manning. Once again, I was prepping for a retreat and needed some ideas of quilts to make before leaving. I believe I found this pattern while browsing on Pinterest, and my star-loving heart pitter-pattered with joy! 

I love ...

This design called Bell Tower is our latest edge-to-edge digital pantograph with a modern, geometric theme.
 


Sometimes it's tough to pinpoint why I like or dislike a design, but I think the reason I like this one is the space between the shapes creates a "channel" that gives some visual oomph. 



If I look at this design long enough, it looks like a deconstructed orange peel, just don't ask me to explain how or why!



I chose to quilt this design on this quilt top because of the vertical orientation of both. I like how the soft curves of the panto add interest, as well.

The Quilt

It's a star quilt; what's not to love?

The pattern I used is called The Helen Quilt from Kitchen Table Quilting. You can find the PDF for sale here. I love the orientation of the stars and how they alternate between large and small. It was a great way to use the fat quarter bundle of Lazy Afternoon, a fabric line by Zen Chic for Moda. 

I used scrappy low-volume prints in white and cream for the star b...

Pendulum is a funky, off-beat, edge-to-edge quilting design perfect for modern quilts! 



Instead of regular intervals of curved lines, this design alternates between thick and thin arch shapes.



It results in a fun, modern texture that looks a bit organic. Two different side-by-side motifs repeat to add some variation.



With the quilt top made entirely of 2"x4" finished rectangles, I wanted the quilting to contrast and not look as uniform as the patchwork.

The Quilt

 This quilt came about because I wanted something EASY to sew during our first-ever Longarm League retreat in September of 2024. Before I left for retreat, I gathered my colorful, solid fabrics and cut a bunch of 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles. That's it! That's all the prep work I was willing to do, knowing my focus would be on chatting and having a good time with other retreaters instead of my time being "production" focused.

To sew the units, I grabbed three rectangles of one color and two of another color, making impromp...

Refract is a simple, geometric design that was designed with modern quilts in mind. And boy oh boy, is this a modern quilt!



The combination of smooth curves and lines gives a unique look. I also love the diamond shapes that form between rows. ✨



This abstract design could look like gems, paving stones, ribbons, or waves that cascade across a quilt top. But primarily, I like how simple, repeated geometric shapes provide texture as a backdrop to the patchwork.

The Quilt

If you've been reading this blog or (knowing me as a person) for any length of time, you might recognize that this style is out of my norm, but it was a fun departure!

I made this quilt top during a workshop I took with friend and brilliant quiltmaker Riane Menardi Morrison back in 2016. In the workshop, we made large traditional blocks and deconstructed them. As you might guess, my starting point was a log cabin block with that lovely gold on one half of the block, white on the other, and the black and white s...

Just so you know, the only thing I was thinking about when I was designing this new edge-to-edge pantograph was hot dog buns! I was going for that rounded shape. In the end, I thought the name Plus sounded more mature than Hot Dog, which was the temporary file name until that final save.



I think this quilt top paired so well with the design! Usually, I have a small stack of quilt tops waiting for a new design to test out, but in this case, I was reminded of the Peanut Butter pattern as I was looking through Instagram posts I'd saved, and I made the quilt top just to use for this Hot Dog—I mean Plus!—design.



The design has just a bit more complexity than I'd like, but I couldn't find a way around it. When the stitch path is almost completed, it pivots direction to backtrack across the top horizontal line of the plus shape on its way to start another repeat. I tried bisecting the design with a straight line through the middle, but I just didn't like the way it looked compared t...

Merge was released to the membership in September 2020. Back then, I didn't have the time to write blog posts for all the new designs, so I still have some catching up to do with my early designs.

I created the Merge pantograph because I had no idea how to quilt the quilt shown below. Kamie Grangroth made that spectacular top! It is an original design of hers, which she called Merge.

Kamie is such an exciting artist and quilter! I love her use of color and design. Because of the vertical nature of the piecing, I was stumped as to which edge-to-edge design to use.

So, I took inspiration from the patchwork itself to echo some of the parallel and angled lines. 

Most longarm quilters can quilt a depth between 10-20" of space per pass, depending on the throat size of the machine, so it makes sense that most digital pantographs tend to be row-like rather than column-like.  

But not Merge!

Merge is a great design to use when you need some vertical action! I designed the ...

Boa consists of a simple, repeating serpentine shape. I designed it as an extended-width file to maintain the consistent spacing of the lines throughout each row of stitching.



If you are new to extended-width pantograph designs, I'd encourage you to visit this blog post that provides more information and help with set-up. They are different than traditional edge-to-edge designs and may require different configurations or settings with your software.

This quilting design is sure to bring whimsy to any quilt top! For that reason, I think a quilt top with bright colors, children's quilts, modern quilts, or even water or snake-themed quilts would be perfect candidates for the Boa design.

The Quilt

I used the Raspberry Kiss block tutorial from Wooden Spoon Quilts to make this quilt top.

The x-shaped patchwork requires only small amounts of fabric, which gives you a lot of bang for your buck when you pair it with a high-contrast background like I did.

I'm not quite sure what...

This is Flight.

It's a minimalistic version of a bird in flight. You can tell by the little beak leading the way. I wanted the tail feathers to look like they were nestled between the next row of birds so they got a bit of a scalloped edge.



Mainly, this is a fussless edge-to-edge pantograph design that will blend into the background but still provide interesting texture with its gentle curves and angles.

Remember the early 2010s and "put a bird on it"? Well, I'm a decade late, but I finally did it! 

If you had a quilt with bird fabric or bird elements like applique or piecing, this would be a perfect panto for it! But the nice thing about this design is that it will also serve as a nice texture without being bird-related at all. In fact, it might even be mistaken for acorns. I don't know, ask my husband. :)

The Quilt

This was a fun and fast quilt top to sew up, made with leftover scraps from other projects.

I'll include an image of the cutting instructions I made fo...

Ledger is a tricky design to execute and not for those who stress about perfection. How is this for a sales pitch?! But also? OMG, I'm in love with the modern-looking result! 

I like to be upfront about the degree of difficulty of a design because I'd hate for a beginner to get frustrated.



Ledger has a look you might only expect to see from careful walking-foot quilting on a domestic machine. But luckily—no basting, quilt wrangling, or taking it off the frame and re-mounting it halfway—is involved with this method.

I was feeling very ho-hum about this quilt top when I finished it at a retreat earlier this year, but after I quilted it, my excitement meter went up.

WAY UP! 📈  



I decided to experiment with grid quilting as an edge-to-edge design, building the grid "brick-by-brick". You can watch the video of the stitch-out at the top of the blog post to see what that looks like. 

I wanted to keep the longer lines of the rectangle free from backtracking, but doing it this way m...

Trace is a digital quilting design that's built for speed! 

Do you ever get quilts that come through your studio for quilting with fabrics that are so busy that you know any quilting you do will barely show up?

Quilts with busy fabrics would be the perfect use-case for a quick pantograph like Trace.

You'll get a sense of loops and multidirectional curves, but it's meant for providing background texture and does not need to be the star of the show.



Through the design process, I thought these simple loopy shapes reminded me of practicing D'Nealion when I was in elementary school. Kids probably don't get this pleasure nowadays. ☺️

The Quilt

It's a common refrain by this point because it seems like I only finish projects while I'm at retreat! This quilt top is no different; I started and finished it while at the same retreat. It was super easy and lots of fun!

My friend Shelly of Ma Tante Quilting made a version of this same quilt pattern—Cake Dash by Emily Dennis of Qui...