Mister Marbles Digital Pantograph Design

Mister Marbles is a fun-time pantograph when your top needs some extra texture, movement, and pizzazz! 

When I look at the design, I think of a marble maze or marble run game. More on the name later, it gets much more nerdy, I promise.

I think this design would look great on quilt tops that are modern, for kids, or have fun and festive fabrics.

The movement is subtle, but it's still there.

This one has some wiggle room when you're stitching out the rows, so that's nice! It makes it a bit more user friendly than some of my other trickier designs.

There is minimal backtracking involved with this design, see the video of the stitch path at the top of this post, it's very doable.

Here are my specifics using a baby-sized sample in the photos (45" x 50" quilt size):
Row height: 3.5"
Gap: -1.167"
Pattern height: 4.667" (this is the total span of the design from the top to the bottom of the repeat)

I use an Intellquilter as my computer system, so your terms might differ. 

With the corner of the quilt turned over in the photo above, you can also see what this design would look like if a quilt top were loaded on its side. This might be a fun alternative if you wanted to accentuate vertical movement.

There is no offsetting necessary, just decrease the gap between the rows so that your spacing looks consistent. 

I really liked the design at this scale shown. The circles ended up about 1.75" in diameter and the long edges of the "curvy rectangles" were about .75" apart. It was a quick, worry-free stitch out!

Why the name Mister Marbles? Our household loves Seinfeld and there's an episode where Mr. Marbles is the name of a dummy that Jerry thinks "comes to life". Click here for a short clip.

When we hear scurrying, or otherwise unexplained noises (usually because of our cats), we look at each other and say worriedly "Mr. Marbles...?". With the circles resembling marbles, we thought it would be funny to name it Mister Marbles. 'Mister' is spelled out because it's easier to read in a hashtag that way. :)

Now that you know that "interesting" tidbit... if you use Mister Marbles in your quilting, please use the hashtag #mistermarblespanto and tag @longarmleague on Instagram so we can see how you're using it!