First Pantograph

[jans]

I did it. I completed my first quilt with a pantograph. It's a charity quilt for Quilts of Valor. It was more difficult than I expected, but I got better as I went along. I was very critical of my stitching while I was doing it, but when I took the quilt off the machine and trimmed the edges it didn't look half bad.

I have some questions for you experienced people.

How do I treat the edges of the quilt? I quilted the design over the edge onto the excess batting and backing. Then when I cut that off, I wondered if the stitching would hold.

How do you hold the handles on the back side of the machine? I saw a video on youtube that showed standing beside the machine and holding onto one handle only. I tried it both ways - two handles or one - and neither felt very comfortable.

This question if more general:

How do I handle stitching when I run out of bobbin thread? I forgot to check it a couple times and ran out in the middle of a row. Do I tie it? Start back a few stitches?

Any other pearls of advice would be welcome.

Thanks.

Jan

[Quilting Heidi]

Jan,

Congrats on your first panto. For me the 1st one was the hardest and then each time you learn something new. I only hold the left handle with one hand. I usually sit and roll along just fine in my saddle stool. If I'm doing a really difficult panto I will sometimes hold onto the left handle with my left hand and rest my right hand on the machine head. I've also tried holding onto the left handle with my right hand and put my left hand up on the take-up bar. Try all and see what is most comfortable for you. I much prefer sitting and stitching over standing and moving along.

The one thing that I do that has made a huge difference for me is to pin baste next to the two bars at the front of the machine. This ensures that as I quilt the quilt doesn't suck in and make it harder to get it straight on the next pass. I finish stitching, roll and then remove the basting pins and move them back. I stitch off the edge of the quilt and back tack a little and then start new. If there are two rows on my panto then I only back tack but I don't break my thread, I go back the opposite way. I've never had a problem with that. I always use a 11 stitch length and haven't had any trouble with my stitches coming undone. If I run out of bobbin in the middle then I tie off and bury (I always do this) and start new and then go back and tie and bury those too. Usually I can see where the stitches were going to go and I can stitch enough stitches to secure the thread before I return to the back of the machine.

Happy stitching!

[Bonnie]

Originally posted by jans

How do I handle stitching when I run out of bobbin thread? I forgot to check it a couple times and ran out in the middle of a row. Do I tie it? Start back a few stitches?

Jan

Yepper that is exactly what you do....and I even frog a bit further so I can get a long enough tail of THREADS top and bottom so I can bury them...then I put the needle exactly where the last stitch was and pull up a bit of the thread again long enough to bury and go off again.... You won't see your start and stop and neither will anyone else.

[victoriasews]

I'm a double handed pantographer. I've heard lots of people say they use just one hand but I feel totally out of control doing that. Like Heidi, if I have 2 rows to stitch, I stitch the 1st, then stitch the opposite direction for the second row. After quilting for 4 years, I read to do that and couldn't believe all the time I saved. Not only that, it relieves some of the boredom from stitching the same thing over and over. It's like doing 2 different pantographs.

Hang in there, it becomes more and more comfortable as you go on.