Written by: Cheryl Koranda

Quilt retreats can be an amazing way to build or grow your own quilty community! Next month we'll be hosting our first Longarm League retreat with our members, and as Jess and I reflected on the impact quilt retreats have had on our own personal and professional lives, we thought this would be a great time to share some insights and tips for hosting or attending a retreat.

So this month we sat down with our good friend Kristen Olson of Heartfully Handmade to talk all things quilt retreat. Kristen has been coordinating twice-a-year quilt retreats for the past 8 years - in fact that's where Jess and I met! Kristen always does such an amazing job for our group, and we had a great time talking to her about the ins and outs of planning and hosting retreats.

While our full discussion is available to League members, we wanted to share a few tips here on the blog as well.

Before we dive into talking about retreats, I wanted to make sure to mention that...

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...

Lateral is a new extended-width design that is somewhat small in scale (more on that later) and great for providing lots of background texture that won't get in the way of a quilt's patchwork.



If you are new to extended-width pantograph designs, I'd encourage you to visit this blog post that provides more information and help with set-up. These designs are different than traditional edge-to-edge designs and may require different configurations or settings with your software. This design, in particular, includes six whole rows of quilting with the stagger (or offset) between rows built into the design.

I started fiddling with this design by manipulating one long and narrow teardrop shape. After lots and lots of futzing, and once I had it arranged as shown throughout this post, I realized how much it looks like a Wishbone variation! That was not the plan, but it totally "works" for me and here's why:

This month in the Longarm League, we published a coaching call featuring Linda DeMaris of 414 Quilts n More. I sat down with her to talk about connecting with local clients through teaching and guild meetings, her longarming and memory quilt services as well as her unique memory bears that she offers.

While League members have full access to the recording of the call, we asked Linda to share a little more about herself and her business with our blog readers.

Without further ado, let's meet Linda...

Linda DeMaris, 414 Quilts n More

Located: Norcross, GA
In business: 2-3 years, give or take... ;)
Machine and software: HandiQuilter Amara 20 with Prostitcher
In the Longarm League: Since March 2024

Where to find Linda
Website: https://414quiltsnmore.wixsite.com/website-2
Instagram: @414quiltsnmore
Best way for someone to contact you for quilting? Through my website, or email me with any questions.

Q&A

Tell us a little about your business and the services you...

This new design is called Hours. I was inspired by the hourglass shape, but I didn't want to name it that because there are some other Hourglass pantographs on the market already. So Hours it is!



Just like last month's new design release of Echoed Curves, I was intimidated to quilt this quilt because of all the solid fabrics that show the quilting oh-so-well! I mean, I do this to myself for better or worse. I love it when the quilting shows, but it's added pressure to make sure it's a good pantograph design that fits the quilt! 



When I look at the array of several rows laid out (with every other row offset at 50%), it appears to be "balanced" in the direction of the curves. But in reality, five of the lines curve to the left and only one line curves to the right. I spent a lot of time attempting to simplify the design and was surprised by this fact! I think that the offset helps give the design movement and flow.

The negative space within the pantograph design...

Introducing Echoed Curves! 



Let me tell you, I felt some internal pressure after I finished this quilt top to pick the perfect pantograph for ALL of that negative space! 

I also wanted to use this quilt to test a new design. So, I went through some sketches I'd been working on in my design software and identified this one as being complementary for the funky curves of the patchwork. I love the texture of the quilting, especially when echoed lines are used. There's a magic texture-compounding effect that happens when echoing is present.

I was so happy when I stitched this out for the first time and it worked! Not in the technical sense - I knew I could stitch it out as designed, but in a "I'm glad I made this choice" kind of work. 

Naming a design can be the hardest part for me! I have a design named Echoed Swirls, so I thought Echoed Curves would be the next in an "echoed" series, albeit four years later. ;)

The Quilt

This is the...

I started working on the Hexlow design a few years ago, but it wasn't until I made this quilt pattern called Jelly Stars by Modernly Morgan, that I knew I wanted to revisit the quilting design and get it ready for use.



If you are new to extended-width pantograph designs, I'd encourage you to visit this blog post that provides more information and help with set-up. They are different than traditional edge-to-edge designs and may require different configurations or settings with your software.

In the blog post I linked above, I explain one of the reasons why I love using extended-width designs as a format, and that's to maintain spacing throughout the design. This design just wouldn't have the same flow as a standard edge-to-edge repeat.

The Quilt

I was in Wisconsin for a quilting retreat and shopped at the Stitch Supply quilt shop located in Altoona. I picked out a jelly roll (precut 2.5" strips) from the shelf and added it to...

Turnstiles is a simple design that delivers great texture! After I completed this top, I knew I wanted something cute and small scale to use for the quilting.

I struggled with what to call it, so I turned to social media for help and got many great ideas! Two years ago, the design we released was called May Flowers, so even though this is another May release that could very well look like a flower, I knew it needed to be something different.

Another popular name suggestion was Propeller. It makes so much sense, but since we have a design called Propel, I didn't want to confuse them. Whirligig was another popular option, but there are so many other Whirligig pantos out there! 

This is where I shout out Christi on Facebook for suggesting Turnstiles! Thanks, Christi—I liked it right away. It's one word (which I like), unique, and contains 'tiles' as part of the word, which calls back to some other name suggestions because the angled...

This month in the Longarm League, we published a coaching call featuring Susan Smith of Stitched By Susan. I last chatted with Susan in the fall of 2022, when she joined our roundtable discussion on Being Visible in Your Business.

This time around we talked about how to determine and prioritize what's most important vs what to set aside when you're running a business with multiple income streams. We also talked about her newly updated Freehand Quilting Masterclass (registration opens in the next several days), and the longarm quilting cruise(!!) she's hosting next January.

While League members have full access to the recording of the call, we asked Susan to share a little more about herself and her business with our blog readers.

Without further ado, let's meet Susan...

Susan Smith, Stitched By Susan

Located: Spokane, WA
In business: 9 years
Machine and software: BERNINA Q24, occasionally use Q-matic
In the Longarm League: 3 years

Where to find...

Merge was released to the membership in September 2020. Back then, I didn't have the time to write blog posts for all the new designs, so I still have some catching up to do with my early designs.

I created the Merge pantograph because I had no idea how to quilt the quilt shown below. Kamie Grangroth made that spectacular top! It is an original design of hers, which she called Merge.

Kamie is such an exciting artist and quilter! I love her use of color and design. Because of the vertical nature of the piecing, I was stumped as to which edge-to-edge design to use.

So, I took inspiration from the patchwork itself to echo some of the parallel and angled lines. 

Most longarm quilters can quilt a depth between 10-20" of space per pass, depending on the throat size of the machine, so it makes sense that most digital pantographs tend to be row-like rather than column-like.  

But not Merge!

Merge is a great...