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Marking Pantos


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Not sure what you're asking. Do you mean when you finish a row and then advance the quilt, how do you figure out where to stop advancing the quilt so you can start stitching again?

(The instructions below assume you have the motorized feed with footpedal)

You may need to read this more than once!

What I do is: I place the needle about a 1/2 inch beyond the line that was just stitched, needle down. then VERY CAREFULLY, WATCHING THE NEEDLE the whole time, advance the quilt until the laser light is just over the bottom of your pattern. This takes a little practice and sometimes you have to barely touch the pedal to move it a hair or two in one direction or the other. Then, take your needle out of the fabric, manually test this to make sure you have advanced far enough or not too far, then stitch the next row. Clear as mud?

Lots of times the pantograph will have a small amount of the top portion of the pattern printed just below the bottom of the whole pattern itself. This gives you the recommended distance between rows.

Please don't hesitate to ask a question if you don't understand this explanation. :)

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As Robin stated above, lots of times there will be a partial design below the actual design on the panto. I line up my machine by setting the laser dot on an area on this partial line and set my channel locks or use clamps if you don't have channel locks. Then I go around to the front and advance the quilt until the stitching I just did reaches the needle( the needle is in the up position). I never advance with the needle in the fabric, I would be afraid of what could happen. By lining up the laser on a point in the partial line, when you advance the quilt, that partial line then corresponds to what you just stitched. Then when you start the next row, you have the exact spacing that is on the design itself. Hope this makes sense. On pantos that don't have that partial design, I will draw in parts of it so that I have a point to relate to. Also, I never readjust the laser once I have begun. This can distort or offset your pattern on the quilt.

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I really don't do pantos yet, but I do use the Circle Lord pattern boards and I think lining them up is about the same as lining up pantos. I put my stylus (in stead of the laser) on the mark and advance from the back - not the front and I can see exactly where I need to start. Maybe I am able to do this because I have a little Liberty and the distance is shorter. I still need to go to the front to unclamp/reclamp my sides.

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Christine,

I try to make sure to buy pantos that have more than 1 row. If they don't have more than one row most of them have dotted lines of where a row would fit in. I think only once I didn't have the option and in that case I just traced it in leaving the 1/2" spacing (you can pick anything but it seems to be a good distance). Now to advance I put my needle down in the furthest section stitched, closest to the front of the machine. Now I move to the back and very carefully advance my quilt until my laser light is on the top of the row that is marked in or the first row of the pattern. I needle up move to the left and start stitching. This has worked out wonderfully for me. Not sure if it is right or wrong but it works for me.

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