Pendulum Edge-To-Edge Digital Quilting Design

Pendulum is a funky, off-beat, edge-to-edge quilting design perfect for modern quilts! 



Instead of regular intervals of curved lines, this design alternates between thick and thin arch shapes.



It results in a fun, modern texture that looks a bit organic. Two different side-by-side motifs repeat to add some variation.



With the quilt top made entirely of 2"x4" finished rectangles, I wanted the quilting to contrast and not look as uniform as the patchwork.

The Quilt

 This quilt came about because I wanted something EASY to sew during our first-ever Longarm League retreat in September of 2024. Before I left for retreat, I gathered my colorful, solid fabrics and cut a bunch of 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles. That's it! That's all the prep work I was willing to do, knowing my focus would be on chatting and having a good time with other retreaters instead of my time being "production" focused.

To sew the units, I grabbed three rectangles of one color and two of another color, making impromptu color choices as I went. I alternated the fabrics, but to keep things balanced, I sewed units that started with a lighter-value fabric on top, and put them in one pile. Then I made another unit beginning with the darker value and put that in another pile.

Thank goodness Faith (pictured above) was willing to help me lay out the quilt on the design wall before I started sewing. She took one stack of units and I took the other. She "played" one light block like it was a hand of cards and then I had to "play" a dark one from my stack, with us both trying hard not to repeat colors too close to each other. It got to be challenging as we reached the bottom of the quilt. But it was fun! This quilt will always remind me of her and the retreat! 💕

The next afternoon, I got to ring the bell after I finished the final seam. 🛎️ We had a service bell at the front of the room so that people could ring it to show off their finish. Cheering for the new makes was so much fun and a welcome interruption!

I wasn't sure how soon I'd complete the top because I had no idea what quilting design I wanted. But as I was developing the idea for the Pendulum, I thought it was quirky enough to pair nicely with this colorful, modern top!

I scrounged around in my cabinets for a backing and found this one that was almost big enough. I'd pieced it together a long time ago and have been waiting for a chance to use it. I added another row of fabric to the bottom, and by that time, this small backing had about EIGHT seams! 

The Quilting Details

This design is straightforward to stitch. If you've done other edge-to-edge designs before, you shouldn't have any issues setting this up or quilting with it.

There is no backtracking and no offsetting between rows. Just narrow the gap between rows to make it look like a skinny gap, and it should look like a continuous pattern.

I scaled the size down just a bit from the default sizing because this quilt is pretty small.

I could not BELIEVE that I forgot to take a little video when I was quilting Pendulum! I recorded the stitch path from my digitizing software so you can see how it works (video at the top of this blog post).

I also took a photo of the quilt "upside-down" (below) to show you how well this design would work inverted! It looks like a variation on a Baptist Fan or a rainbow design. Super fun!

Here are the sizing specifications for how I set up this quilt using my Intelliquilter (48" x 60" quilt size):

Row height: 4.5"
Gap: -1.055" 
Pattern height: 5.555" (measurement from top to bottom of the repeat)
Offset: none
Backtracking: none

Here's a look at the included PDF:

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


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