Lovebirds Edge-to-Edge Digital Quilting Pantograph

I'll always prefer a "graphic" style of panto design over a novelty one. That's my preferred aesthetic. With that in mind, meet Lovebirds! It's a kinda-sorta, lovey-dovey (ahem) take on a novelty concept for Valentine's Day... and beyond.
 


In each repeat, you'll find two pairs of lovebirds joined in an amorous but discreet pose. Awfully romantical! 💕



The mirrored shapes, gentle curves, and circles still work together to give the design a graphically strong quality that will result in a nice texture when quilted.

The Quilt

Quilt Pattern

I hopped aboard the bandwagon and joined Quilty Love's Patchwork Hearts II Quilt Along that started a few weeks ago (January 2025). Having sewn many of Emily Dennis's patterns before, I knew this would be fast-n-fun and a great way to use the fabrics I already had instead of buying new. It is a quick-win kind of project. The original Patchwork Hearts pattern is smaller in scale and while it would take more time, it's also very cute and requires smaller scraps.

Quilty Love patterns are always clear, with great diagrams and cutting instructions for precuts and scraps. Helpful and efficient, what could be better?

Once again, I used Doug Leko's Simple Folded Corners Ruler to snowball the corners when the pattern called for it. This has easily become my most-used "specialty" ruler. I have the mini version. I love the tool because it eliminates marking diagonal lines, and when I trim the excess fabric away (before sewing), it keeps the discarded fabric all cute and nicely paired so that I can seam the bonus HSTs easily.

Fabrics

I initially thought to use mainly all solid fabrics in pinks and various light/pastel colors to make the blocks. Why? Because you can see the quilting a lot better against solid fabrics! :)  However, as I searched through my fabric—including the scraps—I found that I had almost none! I believe this indicates that I've already used most of what I once owned, but I also think my purchasing habits have evolved. I still love using solid fabrics, but I just haven't been buying solid fabrics as much as I've been buying prints, especially pre-cut bundles of fabric lines. I never used to do that.

In the spirit of using what fabrics I already had, I was delighted to use the leftover wide-back fabric I purchased for this quilt as my heart fabric. I had more than enough! It helped tie the room quilt together by providing some cohesion amidst the scrappy backgrounds. The heart fabric is Starry in Natural, designed by Alexia Abegg. I ordered it from Doodle Quilting Studio. It's 100% cotton with a soft sateen finish, and I thought it was perfect for my hearts.

The quilt I finished just before this one had the Starry in Multi wide-back used as the backing. I had SO MUCH leftover from the other project that it covered 80% of this quilt, too! I found another remanat from another wide-back fabric (light blue shown below) from so long ago, I don't even remember which quilt got its first use. 

Imagine my excitement to seam these two large pieces together—without even having to square them up or trim first—AND have a backing big enough for this project! That never happens. But, funny story. The photo below shows the ENTIRETY of the backing I trimmed away after the quilting was complete! 

Talk about THRILL QUILTING! ⚡️ That's a wing and a prayer, right there. More on that in the next section.

The Quilting Details

I gave this design an "Easy" rating as far as difficulty to use. There is a 50% offset/stagger between rows, so you'll have to do that in your software before stitching this out. Then, close the gap between the rows until you like the spacing. You can use the gap amount given in the specifications below or just eyeball it according to the panto image provided.

When I tested the design initially, I wasn't happy with the backtracking, so I stopped my machine after two motifs were stitched and went back to the drawing board. I re-sequenced the lines and broke them out into additional segments so that the pivoting or backtracking happens immediately after a segment is initially stitched. I'm telling you, this results in a much "cleaner" experience. I just hate to have threads pile up or look messy.

If you'd like to look at the stitch path, there's a video at the top of the blog post that shows how it travels.

This E2E panto requires no special attention when realigning. There's plenty of space between the rows that you don't have to be perfect; there is wiggle room in the layout.

Scale

The circles within the design quilt at 1.5" in diameter at the scale shown below (and in the pictures). I could have sized it a little smaller—as I enjoy dense quilting—and I would have been happy, too. If you like looser quilting, you could size up from what I've shown and it'll still look great.

Here are the sizing specifications for how I set up this quilt using my Intelliquilter (61" x 73" quilt size):

Row height: 4.0"
Gap: -1.0" 
Pattern height: 5.0" (measurement from top to bottom of the repeat)
Offset: 50%
Backtracking: some

Here's a look at the included PDF:

MAXIMIZING the Backing

I want to go "back" to the part of the blog post where I was humble-bragging about how I eeked out the quilting with barely enough backing fabric.

If you are a quilter who sends your tops out to be quilted, but aren't a longarm quilter yourself, you should probably stop reading this now. We might talk about you. 😆

Okay, now that they're gone, we as longarm quilters know that a client should double- and triple-check to make sure their backings are the proper size, which includes the overages we request to make loading doable with no issues or surprises. But, in practice, we know that doesn't always happen. If you haven't been quilting that long, you might not know how common it is to be short on backing, so here are some tricks of the trade. 

What to do if you find the backing smaller than requested.

1. Use pins to attach the backing to the leaders. Pins will eat up the least amount of space. If you have pockets sewn into your leaders for Red Snappers or Leader Grips and normally use a rod-and-clamp loading system, you can slip the rod out of the pocket and pin the backing to the edge of the leader(s) instead. You might be able to free up enough space that you'll only need to pin at the top edge of the backing. If it's an extremely tight fit, I would pin the bottom edge, as well. 

Pins are so low-profile that you should be able to place the quilt top very, very close to the top of the backing where you pinned without having to worry about clearance issues with clamps and your machine carriage. 

2. For a much less fun and more time-intensive solution, you could sew a scrap fabric leader(s) to the backing to make it bigger for loading purposes. I would still try to position the quilt top as close to the top of the backing as you can. It's not fun to get to the last pass and realize the backing is too short. If you are cutting it close and unsure of the position of the back in relation to the top, try basting along the edge and/or sides, then check under the quilt to make sure the quilt is aligned properly. If you need more assurance, baste and roll the whole quilt in place to make sure the bottom is okay, too. See this post for a more thorough explanation. If the job is for a client, I would charge extra for the time it takes to add to the backing. You could take the extra fabric off when you are done and maybe even save it for a future use.


3. If the backing is too narrow, using "typical" side clamps to hold tension on the backing presents a problem because the machine carriage can run into the clamps if there's not enough clearance. If this is available to you with the kind of clamps you have, use a pin and attach the elastic from the opposite end of the clamp to the backing's edge. In the photo below, you can see this in action on both sides. On the far end, you can see how the orange clamps that came with my frame act as a counterweight (you can adjust the amount of tension here by locking the elastic in place). The cool thing about this is that it takes up so little room and there's nothing for the clamps to bang into. I secure my sides like this 99.9% of the time, even when there is plenty of fabric.

These are just a few work-arounds. If you are quilting for a client, you can always ask them to provide bigger backing for you or seam extra fabric to avoid prep fees. This isn't always easy or possible when receiving a mail-in quilt, but could be an option for local clients.

If you use Lovebirds on a quilt, we'd love it if you used the hashtag #lovebirdspanto and tag @longarmleague on Instagram so we can see how you use it! 



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.