Plus Edge-to-Edge Modern Quilting Pantograph Design

Just so you know, the only thing I was thinking about when I was designing this new edge-to-edge pantograph was hot dog buns! I was going for that rounded shape. In the end, I thought the name Plus sounded more mature than Hot Dog, which was the temporary file name until that final save.



I think this quilt top paired so well with the design! Usually, I have a small stack of quilt tops waiting for a new design to test out, but in this case, I was reminded of the Peanut Butter pattern as I was looking through Instagram posts I'd saved, and I made the quilt top just to use for this Hot Dog—I mean Plus!—design.



The design has just a bit more complexity than I'd like, but I couldn't find a way around it. When the stitch path is almost completed, it pivots direction to backtrack across the top horizontal line of the plus shape on its way to start another repeat. I tried bisecting the design with a straight line through the middle, but I just didn't like the way it looked compared to the backtracked way. At any rate, the backtracking is minimal, but it exists.

All in all, the smallish, repeated shapes make me happy. I love the texture, the linear elements, as well as the curves. I think the design would work best on modern quilts, and I especially like how the center square of the pantograph design mimics the sashing squares of this quilt pattern.

The Quilt

As previously mentioned, this pattern is called the Peanut Butter Quilt by Then Came June. It's a very generous free (in exchange for an email address) and well-written pattern. I had so much fun making it!

I'm pretty sure my favorite category of fabric is low-volume, so I was only too thrilled to cut into them for my blocks. I'd purchased a fat quarter bundle of the Besties line by Tula Pink earlier this year, and I thought that decision would make it super fast and easy to cut out my sashing strips. And I was right! If memory serves, it was a lazy Sunday evening when I got the urge to cut out this quilt, and it didn't take long at all. The pattern made everything simple.

I'm running mighty low on fabric yardage, period. I tend not to buy more than a yard at a time unless I know it'll be used for a back, so I wasn't about to start the tedious process of piecing together a backing with fat quarters. Instead, I went to my Kona 108" wide bolt. This color is Parchment. 

I love the lighter blocks with the cheerful colors sprinkled throughout. I chose a dark gray solid fabric for the sashing squares because I liked the contrast against the low-volume and the bright fabrics. In the end, I also decided to bind the quilt using a dark gray, although—gasp!—not the same shade of gray. I'm all about using what I have, and I didn't have enough of one single gray fabric to make it go around.

As long as we're making confessions, I decided it would not matter if some of the same fabrics ended up neighboring each other. I know! Wild woman over here! 🙋‍♀️ Last week, I was ripping out the quilting for an entire quilt because I didn't like the scale, and this week I'm looking the other way as same-fabrics butted up against each other. What can I say? I contain multitudes.

To be fair, I'm MUCH more picky when it comes to the quilting than I am about the patchwork, and I guess that's why I'm in this line of work. :)

The Quilting Details

I'll call this out again, there is some backtracking with this design. Please watch the stitch path video at the top of this post if you are concerned. Here's an extreme close-up of the stitches from the back so you can see how closely the backtracking lined up. 

I generally use the same quilting threads for most projects, but I think that choosing a 50- or 60-weight thread when there's backtracking involved helps minimize the prominence of a doubled line. And I would also NOT use a thread that highly contrasts with the fabric, if at all possible. I mean, I used a linen thread on the top, so there are parts of the quilt where it's going to stand out against the fabric. That is unavoidable. But, I wouldn't intentionally choose a thread that contrasts with the majority of the fabrics if I were executing a design that has backtracking. I just don't like when the thread stands out a lot. 

As far as sizing, I scaled this down slightly from the default size. I wanted the center square to be similar in size to the sashing squares. It's always an option to size up, but would keep the sizing small-ish for this design. I think it looks more texturally rich at a small scale, and it keeps the backtracking nice and tight.

This design requires an offset of 50% to get the result as designed. This means that every other row is staggered by 50%. With my software, it's as easy as pushing a 50% preset button, but if you're not sure how to set it up with your equipment, I'd do a Google or YouTube search with the terms [your software] + 'offset' or 'stagger rows' for instructions. Manuals, or dealers, or Facebook user groups are other good sources of info if you need to figure out how to do something with your software for the first time.

Here are the sizing specifications for how I set up this sample quilt size using my Intelliquilter (65" x 76" quilt size):

Row height: 2.0"
Gap: -1.077" 
Pattern height: 3.077" (measurement from top to bottom of the repeat)
Offset: 50%
Backtracking: some

Here's a look at the included PDF:

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

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