Quilting border pantograph with corner

[lakekids]

I want to quilt a border pantograph that has a design turning the corner. How do I plan this out to be sure the corner design and border design met properly?  Pointing me to instructions or a video would be great.

 

Also since my quilt is too long to turn on my table, what should be the order of quilting?  Should I:

1. Quilt the top border

2. Stabilize quilt - sides, side border seams, center, while rolling to bottom

3. Quilt bottom border

4 roll back to top, quilt side borders (right/left) while rolling to bottom

5. Quilt center of quilt

 

The quilt is a Boston Common pattern with inner and outer borders where I want to use border pantographs. 

 

Havent quite figured out out how to use the pantograph on the sides without turning the quilt but may just draw that section on another paper.

[quiltmonkey]

Hi. These are really good questions. 

There are lots of ways to skin a cat, and lots of ways to quilt a quilt. For your specific situation with the border designs, this is what I do (in this order).

As a note, I'm not sure if you fully float your tops or partially float. I have always been a partial floater because it gives me a little more control when I'm rolling and starting out to stabilize, etc. 

Because you are doing the special borders, I would quilt the middle section first and the borders last. That stated, load the fabrics on the frame as you normally would. Instead of basting down the top edge (because you are doing borders)  pin the top edges and the sides. During the quilting process, the fabrics shrink up a little. That's why I quilt the middle first and then the outer borders. So the order of quilting is this:

1. Stabilize the top edge and outer borders by pinning -- not sewing/basting. 

2. Roll down and pin the borders/sides. Quilt the center. Repeat these steps pinning the outer borders and quilting the center section until you get to the bottom.

3. Since you are at the bottom, you can quilt the bottom border first. 

When you are ready to quilt the outer borders, you want to arrange your designs from the corners first and work the design toward the center / middle.  It's way easier to fudge the center section of the border design than try to fudge a design into a corner. Corners and out is the easiest way. You can draw out/mark your design before you load the top onto the frame, or you can mark it while it's on the frame. I usually use white chalk or blue water soluble markers. Because the sides of the quilt are rolled up, I usually quilt the bottom and top borders first. Then I go back and sew baste down the side borders that I pinned and get ready to quilt the sides. 

If you don't have enough length on your frame to turn the quilt, you will have to mark your designs on the side borders and quilt and roll. Your corner sections will already be quilted, so you only have mark the designs and fudge in the side border designs toward the center part of the side borders. Anyway, that's how I normally do it when I have a special border design that I want to fit in.

Best wishes and have fun. Share a photo when you're done! 

Shana