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...

Lateral is a new extended-width design that is somewhat small in scale (more on that later) and great for providing lots of background texture that won't get in the way of a quilt's patchwork.



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. These designs are different than traditional edge-to-edge designs and may require different configurations or settings with your software. This design, in particular, includes six whole rows of quilting with the stagger (or offset) between rows built into the design.

I started fiddling with this design by manipulating one long and narrow teardrop shape. After lots and lots of futzing, and once I had it arranged as shown throughout this post, I realized how much it looks like a Wishbone variation! That was not the plan, but it totally "works" for me and here's why:

• Lateral is named that way because it emphasizes side-to-side movement,
...

Introducing Echoed Curves! 



Let me tell you, I felt some internal pressure after I finished this quilt top to pick the perfect pantograph for ALL of that negative space! 

I also wanted to use this quilt to test a new design. So, I went through some sketches I'd been working on in my design software and identified this one as being complementary for the funky curves of the patchwork. I love the texture of the quilting, especially when echoed lines are used. There's a magic texture-compounding effect that happens when echoing is present.

I was so happy when I stitched this out for the first time and it worked! Not in the technical sense - I knew I could stitch it out as designed, but in a "I'm glad I made this choice" kind of work. 

Naming a design can be the hardest part for me! I have a design named Echoed Swirls, so I thought Echoed Curves would be the next in an "echoed" series, albeit four years later. ;)

The Quilt

This is the famed Free Wheeling Single Girl pat...

Turnstiles is a simple design that delivers great texture! After I completed this top, I knew I wanted something cute and small scale to use for the quilting.

I struggled with what to call it, so I turned to social media for help and got many great ideas! Two years ago, the design we released was called May Flowers, so even though this is another May release that could very well look like a flower, I knew it needed to be something different.

Another popular name suggestion was Propeller. It makes so much sense, but since we have a design called Propel, I didn't want to confuse them. Whirligig was another popular option, but there are so many other Whirligig pantos out there! 

This is where I shout out Christi on Facebook for suggesting Turnstiles! Thanks, Christi—I liked it right away. It's one word (which I like), unique, and contains 'tiles' as part of the word, which calls back to some other name suggestions because the angled lines do look like tiles.

Perhaps 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 ...

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...

The Design

Are you familiar with "extended width" digital quilting designs? Usually, the standard files we upload contain one repeat that's multiplied side by side across and down the quilt by our software when in pantograph mode. With extended width designs, the design itself is typically around 100" wide—give or take—with any repeating sections "built in". If you are new to this kind of design, read more here (including specific info if using Intelliquilter). The main takeaway is that they need to be set up as a block pattern.

 Rich Girl is an extended width design that stitches out very quickly. The echoed lines are angled very subtly, but the diamond shapes that result amidst the lines give just the right amount of contrast in their open spaces.

This is a perfect design to use as an alternative to straight line quilting. It will unify a busy quilt top like straight lines do so well, but with a bit of added, low-key interest. 

As I was stitching this out, the design ...

Now that my day job is supporting the Longarm League membership and teaching new longarm quilters how to start a business, I need to be extremely intentional about setting time aside to feed my own creativity or it does not happen.

After a 4-year hiatus, my passion for piecing was reignited this year after being invited to a retreat at Stitch Supply Co. in Altoona, Wisconsin. It was glorious! The desire to plan, cut, and sew a quilt top has stuck with me since retreat. I'm drawing the distinction here between piecing and quilting because I frequently quilt samples of new digital edge-to-edge designs, but that isn't the same feeling as creating patchwork.

It's safe to say, patchwork and I are back "on" again.

The Patchwork

For this project, I started with a palette in mind. I pulled scraps from bins of pink, orange, yellow, and blue. I decided to work with the teal-y blues although I did let some darker royal shades pass through my filter.

I originally planned to make a lot of ha...

Buying new digital pantograph designs is often as enticing as picking up a fat quarter—or ten!—at your local quilt shop. They can be oh-so-appealing, but which ones will you actually use the most in your business?

I can remember designs that I fell in love with and purchased on the spot, yet never actually used on a client’s quilt top. Conversely, there were several that I used over and over again, wringing every drop of value out of them. I developed my favorites based on ease of use and versatility.  Of course, a longarm quilter's personal style and preferences can certainly play a part when making recommendations to clients, as well.

It’s been a while since I’ve quilted for others, so I thought it would be fun to ask other quilters what their current go-to pantographs are. I invited quilters from the Longarm League membership—along with other quilters who follow our social media accounts or subscribe to our email newsletter—to chime in with their current favorite edge-to-edge design...

The inspiration for the Groove design came from the subtle curve of lava lamps. I really liked the idea of non-symmetrical, gentle curves contained within the straight lines and perpendicular angles that "house" the lava lamp shapes.

Do I detect a "mid-century modern" vibe here? It wasn't intentional but I also wouldn't be mad about that. Not one bit!

The orientation of the design is more of a vertical nature, which just doesn't seem to be as common with digital edge-to-edge options. Much like the 'positive', sometimes you want to ac-cen-tuate the vertical! 

The repeated motif is staggered, meaning that when it comes to setting it up with your computerized system, you will not need to offset. Just close the gap between the rows and you'll be good-to-go. The stitch path can be viewed in the video at the top of this post. There is some backtracking, but overall it has a smooth and fluid stitch path.

This design would be great on modern quilt tops or like I mentioned ear...