Longarm Design

I have learned that the most comfortable way for me to quilt on my longarm is best represented in the photo below. I have my design nearby where I can refer to it as needed and I use one of a selection of chalk pencils to mark my design onto the top. I find chalk wipes away fairly easily with a cloth (or the corner of your sweater..) and I am still not completely won over by the idea of using a marker on my quilts, even if they do disappear with water or heat, depending on the brand and style of marker. 

Generally if I am stitching the same design repeatedly across the surface of the quilt, I might sketch in the first few and after that, I eyeball the balance. This gives me control of the surface design, yet freedom to use the space as I quilt. I can alter the size, the direction and extend my design to fill in the odd spaces that might occur and be awkward if I left them unstitched. And I have to admit, I love using what I call my “cabbage rose" design. I have quilted several quilts using variations of my pattern and all have been well received. 

I also keep a whiteboard near by so I can play with directions and thread paths.  If I happen to create a design I think I would use again, or that I might want to develop further, I take a photo or two of it for future reference. No wonder I have almost 20,000 photos on my hard drive. I take soooo many photos..

I do enjoy the ease and speed of using pantographs, and I also enjoy ruler work. Feathers are the bane of my existence right now, but some upcoming amazing classes with some incredible teachers will hopefully cure me of my hesitation. I quilt feathers. I just don’t love my feathers. I plan to fix that for good!