Bespoke Extended-Width Digital Quilting Design

Bespoke is an extended-width design with hand-drawn, unique feathers meant to look like free-motion quilting.



If you are new to extended-width pantograph designs, I'd encourage you to visit this blog post, which provides more information about this unique format. These designs are different than traditional edge-to-edge designs and may require different configurations or settings with your software. 

When looking for inspiration for a new digital design, I looked back at my photos from before I had a computerized longarm. I used a meandering feather design like this way back in the day as both an "allover" design and in custom areas (examples below), and thought that by using an extended-width digital format, I could recreate an edge-to-edge version.

I decided to call it "Bespoke" because it can look like custom quilting. I intentionally did not duplicate any part of the design to give it a one-of-a-kind and dynamic look.

The Quilt

When I first saw this quilt called Wagon Wheel, I wasn't a huge fan. But I grew fonder of it each time I saw it pop up online here and there. It's so quirky and fun! I'm on Denyse Schmidt's email list (she's the pattern designer), and when she announced a Sew Along for it a few months ago, I decided to go for it. I like that it's so different from the quilts I typically make.

The pattern uses templates, which is usually not a big "plus" for me, but the template pieces were big enough that they weren't intimidating as I dove into quilt top construction. I dug old cereal boxes out of the recycling bin and made my own templates, which felt very Oregon Trail of me—in a good way. :)

Leave it to Denyse to get me to use templates and sew curves! I made her Free Wheeling Single Girl quilt earlier this year, and it quickly became a favorite of quilt mine. It's enjoyed a recent "promotion" to my bed, in fact.

The construction methods were not what I was expecting, but it worked out great! No problems whatsoever sewing the large, forgiving curves. Because of the size of the blocks, the quilt top went together much faster than anticipated.

For the wheels, I used Robert Kaufamann 10" squares of blue fabrics that I must have bought ten years ago and haven't depleted yet! Now that I think of it, all of the fabrics were from my stash (Win!). I used low-volume fabrics for the wheel backgrounds and sashing. I decided the wheels were punchy enough without adding more contrast by using a bold color for the sashing.

Thanks to making my Single Girl quilt earlier this year alongside friends at a retreat who modeled going "off-pattern" for me, I knew to make an in-between-size top. The pattern has baby (4 blocks), twin (12 blocks), queen (16 blocks), and king-size (20 blocks) cutting directions, but I made a throw size with 9 blocks and then added a border (using old-timey Cotton + Steel fabric 🤩) to the top and bottom so that the final size was 66" x 75.5". 

The Quilting Particulars

I designed this extended-width design to be manipulated from row to row so that it looks even more like custom quilting.

Here's a photo that will hopefully illustrate what I mean:

If you look at the top and bottom edges, you'll see the (approx.) 13" tall row has a subtle scallop at regular intervals along the top and bottom. This will allow you to nest the rows closely; the scallop will help disguise the rows. I didn't want it to result in an obvious straight-line delineation where the rows meet. 

What might not be so easy to detect from the photo above is that I've flipped, mirrored, and staggered the rows randomly so that the same portion of the row did not get stacked in the same place vertically. Since most of the quilts we work on are not 120" wide, we won't need the entire row very often. On my screen above, you can see the red rectangle faintly. With my Intelliquilter software, this represents the quilt's dimensions. Everything outside of that rectangle will be trimmed away when it's time for the actual sewing.

When I hand-guided this design in the past, I liked to alternate the direction of the feathers, so I encourage you to flip/mirror the rows to alternate the direction of the feathers. You don't have to, but I think it adds movement.

When you arrange and re-arrange your row segments, you'll want to close the gap between rows as much as possible without overlapping the quilting. This might mean shifting the rows on-screen to the right or left slightly so that the gently scalloped edge "fits" with the rows above and below.

I kept the scale at 100% of the default size when stitching it out on the quilt shown in the pictures. Some feather plumes are big, and some are small. If you don't have enough throat space with your frame or machine to fit the ~13" row height, I would scale it down to fit while keeping it as large as your equipment will allow.

Here's the link (again) to more information about extended-width designs. Within the blog post, we have links to video tutorials showing how to set up extended-width designs for all major software brands. 

We ordinarily sell extended-width designs with a L to R (left to right) version available, but with the stitch path of this design, that wasn't feasible, so there is only one option.

I digitized the design to complete the feathers on one side of the spine for roughly a 12" segment, then travel "backward" to stitch the spine, and then to stitch the feathers on the other side of the spine. Once it completes the segment, it'll begin a new 12" segment in the same manner. Your machine will incrementally work from left to right, but having some right-to-left movement within each segment. With the spine gently undulating, it shouldn't snap the thread like straight lines moving from right to left can.

There's a video of the stitch path at the top of the blog post to see how it works.

The default width is 119.53" wide, which means you'll want to trim/clip away the excess design for each row, leaving only what's needed for the quilt you have mounted on your frame.

Here are the sizing specifications for how I set up this sample quilt size using my Intelliquilter (66" x 75.5" quilt size):

Row height: 13.28"
Gap: 0" 
Pattern height: 13.28" (measurement from top to bottom of the repeat)
Offset: manual
Backtracking: none

Here's a look at the included PDF:

If you use Bespoke on a quilt, we'd love for you to use the hashtag #bespokepanto and tag @longarmleague on Instagram so we can see how you use it! You can also visit our full digital design shop to look at all our previous designs.

Interested in getting new digital pantograph designs like this one on the day they're released (and at a deep discount)? Sign up for our Digital Panto Club and get them delivered directly to your inbox on the first Wednesday of each new month.