Custom Quilting a quilt with a Cheater Panel

 

This is part of a quilt with a cheater panel that Kathy quilted for a customer.  Part of it was pieced.  It is amazing how Kathy transformed the Santa panel into something really awesome.  Here is a link where you can see more it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xl_hC4hVfco

 

I hope this inspires you to use some of these techniques to quilt something awesome yourself.

Using a pantograph patterns

Using Pantograph Patterns on your frame

This is a message that Kathy posted to one of her Machine Quilting 

Groups that I wanted to share on our Blog.  (This was previously posted 

in 2005 on an older version of this Blog)

Can anyone give me any hints on following a pattern (where to start, 

direction to go etc.) I can't seem to be able to see the starting point 

and direction or how to make it flow smoothly. Tammy


Tammy,
With a pantograph pattern, I was always taught to move from the
Right to the Left. This is opposite from the way you would normally
read or write. This makes your quilting machine move in a 'forward'
direction. Your tension will probably be much better by moving in this
direction as often as you can. It doesn't mean that you can't move
'backwards', but to constantly move that way is like going in reverse,
and that's when I find that my threads could pop or skip. (I do suggest
that there is probably no right or wrong way, but this is just the way I
was taught years ago, and it's worked great for me.)

First, after your quilt is attached and ready to quilt, you want to
put your needle down into the quilt at each corner of the quilt, so that
you can place your blue tape (or however you mark each side of the panto
so that you'll remember to stop) at each side of the pattern. Twist and
turn your laser light so that you won't go off your quilt and into the
leaders, etc. I also move the machine along that top edge of the quilt
(while looking at my panto) to make sure none of the parts of the panto
run off the quilt. (I often only quilt half that panto on the first
row, especially if it's an interlocking pattern, so that I don't have
empty spots on the quilt top edge.) Move your panto pattern around
inbetween these two marks so that you can center the pattern or how you
want the pattern to look on your quilt. 

So, when you're standing behind your machine, start at the right
side of the pattern, and follow it all the way to the left of the
quilt. Then, I put my needle down in the Red dots on the pattern that
say "top of pattern", and gently roll my quilt. I slide the Pantograph
Pattern so that the 'bottom of pattern' dot will be at the approximate
spot where the laser light falls. With the needle still in the quilt
(be very careful here so that the quilt doesn't rip or tear - gentle), I
get the quilt ready for the next row by getting my quilt tension right
and attaching the clamps, etc. I slide the panto pattern until the
laser light exactly hits where my next red dot is, and this will offset
or align the panto pattern correctly. Then, I quilt the 2nd row.

On panto patterns that don't have 'top' and 'bottom' of designs, I
make my own by deciding the appropriate distance between the pattern so
that it doesn't look like I've made 'rows' of quilting. I put my 'Dots'
on the top and bottom of each design (sometimes I have to put the panto
over the top of itself so that I can see exactly where I want the offset
to land.) I want the look to look like it's all one continuous design
on my quilt, without obvious lines where there is no quilting. Some
patterns are very elaborate with lots of crossing of the lines of
quilting, and most of these either have an arrow to follow so that you
move in the right direction, or they have a different color where the
lines cross so that you don't mistakenly move in the wrong direction. 
Also, on many patterns, when you unroll the pattern and put it on your
frame, you want to be able to read the words and directions that may be
printed on the panto, and many of these show you with arrows the
direction to quilt (and it's usually from the right to the left while
standing behind the frame.)

That's probably as clear as mud, I know, but the machines do run
better if you try to feed fabric through them the same way as if you
were sitting at your domestic machine, in a mostly forward motion. I
always quilt a panto from right to left, and never follow it back the
other way. This can get your quilt to zigzag (how do I know this?), so
aligning your quilt and panto with each row, makes your quilt come out
perfectly in the end. Remember that quilts have a lot of variation in
the size through the center, the different fabrics used, the grains and
bias, etc. This means that each row will be different from the last
row, and I usually treat each new row as if I were starting the quilt
all over, aligning the laser light up where I need it, etc. I don't
want my panto patterns to 'shift' unless I want them to on purpose.

I do about 95% custom quilting, but sometimes a panto pattern is fun and
can enhance a busy quilt. I find it fun for a change, and can really
listen to my books on tape or CD as I go along, and don't even realize
that I've finished my quilt so quickly. I don't have to think nearly so
much when I use a panto pattern.

Happy Quilting!
Kathy w/ gam classic 7 years - almost 1800 quilts (Kathy has done over 4,000 quilts now!)

Time To Share Kathy's Tips So You Can Quilt Like A Professional

We are so excited to share tips that Kathy Barlow from KathyQuilts.com has been collecting over the last 26 years!  These won't be in any particular order so you will want to subscribe and check out the tips as they come.  We will be doing more videos on YouTube so subscribe and click the notify button so you will know when the new videos are published.  If you zoom in on this Flip Flop quilt you will see some really awesome fill patterns.  This gives you some really great ideas of what you can do with your quilt.  This was quilted on a Q'nique 21 Pro but Kathy can so the same thing on her Gammill Classic.

Lynn and Kathy want to help you elevate your quilting so that even if you aren't a professional machine quilter you will be able to quilt like one.  Technique is one thing but knowing what fill patterns to use, what to quilt in a block, whether to use automation on your quilt or free motion, knowing how to use all of these techniques will help you to become the awesome quilter you has always dreamed of becoming.

We will be posting at least one or two tips a week or more if there is more demand. We want to help you free of charge but we ask that you share our web site, blog, Facebook page with anyone that you feel might like what we do.

Thanks,

Lynn

Quilting on the Block RockiT or Q'nique long-arm quilting machines

Featured Products

Block RockiT and Q'nique long-arm machines are the best machines for the money that can be found on the market. They have a lot of different accessories that can really help make quilting a lot easier. I want to mention just two of the nine attachments that is included with the 9-Piece Attachment Foot set, the Glide Foot.

There are some of the really expensive long-arm machines that have a Glide foot or that can be purchased as an add-on. The Glide foot allows you to quilt over thick seams, quilt off the edge of you quilt and then back on without catching on your quilt top. This foot alone is worth the price of the set but you also get Couching Feet, Echoing Feet, as well as a Square and a Diamond foot. 

The first time I heard about quilting with a couching foot I wondered why would you want to do that? After getting to play with the couching foot using Bernat Baby Blanket Yarn that we bought at Walmart it was so cool!  It was like painting on my quilt. This gives you a lot of extra ways to embellish your quilt to give it that one of a kind look.

Here is a video that shows Kathy using one of the Couching feet:

For those who don't know Kathy and Lynn Barlow from Kathy Quilts!

Kathy and Lynn have been married for over 37 years.  We have six children who are all married but for the our youngest.  The whole time that I have known Kathy, we met in High School, she has loved sewing.  Her father was a farmer in Northern Utah.  Being a farmer he had to do a lot of extra jobs to make a living.  As a teenager Kathy helped her dad with some of his side jobs. Harold's entrepreneurial spirit had a huge impact on Kathy.  She has sewn nightgowns, tailored clothes for customers, made many items that she would sell at Boutiques.

I grew up moving every two to three years and moving around the United States and two times in Japan.  My dad was in the Air Force and had a good foundation in sales before joining the ROTC program at the University of Utah.

Kathy Quilts! had its early beginnings partnering with Stylish Fabrics Bernina in Logan Utah.  We came up with that name because that is what Kathy does, she quilts!  We were the first company to sell Grace Frames on EBAY and one of the few stores to have an internet presance.  I would work from home selling Grace hand quilting frames and hoops on the internet and Kathy quilted for her customers on her Gammill Classic.  She has quilted well over 4,000 quilts over the past 23 years and is and was probably one of the most profitable professional quilters in Northern Utah.  Kathy and I told Jim Bagley at the Grace Company that we needed a machine frame that we could put a domestic sewing machine on to enhance our sales.  The GMQ was born shortly after that.  We sold Juki 98E's along with the GMQ's like hotcakes.

It wasn't too long after selling the Grace machine frames with a short arm machine that we knew that we needed a longer throat machine.  In late 2013 we introduced the Block RockiT 14+ which took many years for the Grace Company to develop for us.  When we first introduced it the price point was unbelievable.  So many people wanted to do long-arm style quilting but the cost was just too much for people that just wanted to quilt for themselves, so this new machine was just want they had always hoped for.

The Block RockiT 14+, it was always a 15 inch throat machines so we eventually changed the name to Block RockiT 15,  sold so well that lots of online shops and big name online companies wanted to sell them too.  They couldn't use the name Block RockiT because Kathy Quilts owned the rights to that name so the Grace Company came up with the Q'nique brand.

What sets Kathy Quilts! apart from other quilting machine manufacturers is that we want our machine owners to be successful when embarking upon the long-arm adventure.  We have observed over the years that most companies that sell long-arm machines never really have a plan for their customers to learn how to use their machine.  With the experience that Kathy has quilting professionally she knows the techniques, tips and tricks that make learning how to become an awesome quilter a lot easier.  Too many people start off just stippling or meandering their quilts and never quite learn that with a little more direction and practice they could have their quilts looking so much better.

It is Kathy and my desire to help the quilting community to enjoy better quilting with less stress.  The majority of issues people have with their quilting machines is that they just don't have enough experience so they make fundamental mistakes which can be really frustrating.  We want to help you avoid those mistakes or at least learn from them so you can blossom into the quilter you have always wanted to become.

Thanks,

Lynn Barlow
Kathy Quilts!