In an effort to build resources for computerized quilters, I've been looking for tutorials that explain how to set up extended-width designs with the various software options available today. Enjoli Strait of Doodle Quilting Studio created this video for setting up designs with Q-matic. She has even more resources under the Learn tab of her website linked above. Thanks so much, Enjoli! We hope it's helpful to you if you'd like to explore extended-width designs. 

The designs she uses in the demonstration video above are Royal, Fizz and Driftwood. 

All of the Longarm League extended-width designs come with a PDF that provides the default dimensions. If I use a size different from the default in my examples, they will be noted in the design's blog posts, shop product listings, and PDFs. If you are prone to getting thread breaks when quilting in the right-to-left direction, my files also come with L to R versions that I'd recommend using instead.

For general information about extended-width d...

Fizz is so simple and versatile, it'll work on anything!



This is an extended-width pantograph design, which means one squiggly line will travel the whole width of the quilt and then will travel back right-to-left to complete the bubbles, baubles...? Melon shapes? What are we calling these? Chainlink, but cuter? ;)

The advantages of using this design:
1) No backtracking.
2) Stitches smoothly (no corners or pivots) and quickly.
3) Looks great in either direction — loading a quilt on its side can increase efficiency by not having to advance the quilt as much.

Potential disadvantages of using this design (hey, just being honest):
1) If your machine doesn't do well traveling right-to-left, you'll want to load the L to R version of the design which is included in the purchase. This means manually moving the machine head back to the left edge of the quilt for each line, like you would for straight-line quilting. Kind of a pain. But, even so - no backtracking is still an advantage.
2...

While this type of design is not new, we as quilters may not see extended-width designs often. However, they seem to be trending in popularity as of late. Unfamiliarity with these kinds of designs can lead to avoidance, which is a valid reaction. But, as the market grows with beautiful and creative new extended-width designs, I'd like to provide some information so that you don't have to miss out on using them. 

First, we'll look at what an extended-width design is, we'll discuss some advantages and disadvantages of the designs, and then at the end, there'll be a list of video tutorials so you can learn best-practices for setting them up with your own software.

What Is an Extended-Width Digital Quilting Design?

To answer this question, let's first look at some "typical" edge-to-edge (E2E) designs that we most commonly buy online and use in our computerized longarm machines.

Above are some of my own designs with varying degrees of complexity. I wanted to show that whether simple or ...