Quarter - Extended-Width Quilting Design

Quarter is an extended-width design that began as one-quarter of a circle. I thought this would work best as an extended-width design so that I could get every other row to alternate directions.



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. 

I like this design because of the simplicity of the basic shape, yet when traveling in different directions, it creates interesting texture and movement!

I was excited to try this new pantograph on this quilt top because it's just a touch "busy" with many bright colors, the secondary diagonal element (fields and furrows layout) created by the placement of the log cabin blocks, and the stars. I liked the idea of a small-scale quilting design to add texture, fearing a more complex quilting design would get lost in the other elements.

This pantograph also appeals to me because it resembles patchwork with curved piecing. It could be fun to pair with a quilt top constructed with curves. I think the design could also work as wild grass or vegetation, waves, or shark fins. 

The Quilt

This scrumptious quilt is called Spectra, a pattern designed and written by Modernly Morgan. I love a modern take on a log cabin quilt, and if there's a sawtooth star involved? There's no sense in trying, you can't keep me away from it. :)

I thought the pattern was very easy to follow. I was a bit stumped about how I wanted to place my colors for each block, but I used the handy coloring pages as part of the pattern and opened it in the Goodnotes app on my iPad to color in the digital PDF.

Even so, as I assembled the blocks, I doubted myself until I laid out all the blocks and seamed them together. Then, I was like, "Ahhh! It worked!"

For the fabrics, I used three or four prints from the Juicy line by Melody Miller for Ruby Star Society, including the star fabric, which is the same print in every block. I was able to mix and match with a few fabrics from the Starry line by Alexia Marcelle Abegg, which is also from Ruby Star Society. These played nicely with other colorful but much older fabrics that have moved house with me two if not three times. I'm loving the happy vibe!

For the backing fabric, I thought the 108" wide Starry in Multi would be a perfect match, thankyouverymuch! 

The Quilting Particulars

I rated this design "intermediate" in difficulty only because the rows should touch or be very close to touching when you stitch it out. In practice, as I was quilting this, it was a breeze to stitch out AND realign. It might have been because my backing was so straight and that I pinned carefully to the take-up leader, but each time I advanced the quilt, my alignment was spot-on without any adjusting. I was very happy with that.

Here's a tip that works well if you have horizontal channel locks and need precise alignment. I often use this technique when quilting straight lines. After you advance the quilt and are about to stitch the next row, engage the horizontal channel lock so the needle will hover over the bottom-most point of the last stitched row. I'll do a needle down/needle up every 10" or so as I slowly spot-check the alignment, just to make sure the needle is dropping on the same part of the panto repeat. If it's off, you might want to do some tweaking or investigate why the quilt isn't rolling uniformly. 

We have even more tips for the precise alignment of digital designs at this blog post.

The Overlap

If you zoom into the design from your software, you might be able to see that the stitching lines overlap just the tiniest bit. I did this intentionally so that when it's stitched, it should kiss the top of the row above and not leave a gap. 

Visual Reference Point for Realignment

When setting up multiple repeats with your software, I added a visual reference at the bottom-left of the design that you can use to align with the top of the next repeat. You can see the partial shape a bit better at the bottom of the illustration below (the black arrow is pointing to the spot). When aligned correctly (red circle), the vertical lines of the quarter-circles should be aligned throughout.

Sizing

My software (Intelliquilter) automatically resized the design as I imported it into my block and I forgot to change it. So, instead of the 7.1" default height, the size I used on this quilt was 83% of the default size or 5.9" row height. This resulted in the quarter-circle shapes being about 1 5/8" across at their widest point. At the default size, that measurement will be closer to 2". 

Here are the sizing specifications for how I set up this sample quilt size using my Intelliquilter (64" x 64" quilt size):

Block height: 5.9"
Gap: -0.25"*** 
Pattern height: 5.9" (measurement from top to bottom of the repeat)
Offset: none
Backtracking: none

***There is a slight negative gap between repeats. This is illustrated in the image above. 

Here's a look at the included PDF:

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. 

Alternating Rows Version Vs. L to R

The "regular" file called Quarter - Extended-Width is programmed to stitch the first row of the repeat from left-to-right and the next row from right-to-left. The third row of the repeat is again L to R and then the fourth row R to L.

We also have a left-to-right only version available called Quarter L to R in the zipped file you'll get with your download. In this version, you'll want to stop to clip your threads after each row and move your machine back to the left to start each subsequent row. You'll want to use this version if your machine has trouble traveling right-to-left with thread breaks or tension issues.

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

Trim/Clip

The default width is 119" 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.

If you use Quarter - Extended-Width on a quilt, we'd love for you to use the hashtag #quarterpanto 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.