Quilt in a Day Forums

A ton of safety pins???? I only put flat head straight pins in to fasten my backing and batting to the leader canvas. I load my top, pin it to the batting & backing, run a stitch all the way across and then I can take those pins out and I am done with any pinning. My bars and side grabbers keep everything smooth and taut enough that I don't quilt in any wrinkles and it seems to stay straight.

If you can only go one way on your big machines how do you make things like feathers in a circle or flowers? It seems to me that where I'm limited in throat space, y'all are directionally limited. But I have seen Linda Whatsherface on QNN and she goes all over the place with her Gammill - does she have a different one? I'm guessing that she would use only the Cadillac of quilting machines to do her demonstrations on. I love to watch her - it's so relaxing. I'm not at all suggesting that you don't have the Cadillac - I'm just confused in what all I'm hearing and seeing. It's probably a good thing I can't afford one. I'd be driving everyone crazy with questions. LOL

Oh gosh, cindy, I guess I got you all confused. I'm talking about the general direction that you move when you're sewing a pantograph. Of course, the Gammill can move any direction you want it to, circles, loops, feathers, whatever. The right to left thing is simply where you begin and end. I think Nadine means (by the safety pins) that is how you would do it if sewing on your regular machine without one of those frames. As I said before, I really think we're comparing apples and oranges here!

Quiltcreator...when you say right to left are you on the back of the machine or the front? When I do pantographs and stand at the back of the machine, I am going from my right to my left. But when I'm on the front of the machine I go from my left to my right. I think we are really confusing people. LOL

If you are not familiar with a longarm...just think of it this way. On a domestic machine you move the fabric...on a longarm you move the needle. The needle can go any direction. It's just when you are doing a panto or free motion, the machines like it better going just one way, but you can go any direction while you are heading that way.

I'm at the back of the machine when I'm doing a pantograph. So I'm traveling right to left. I don't do pantographs from the front (is that possible?) When I'm in the front, I'm freehanding and it doesn't matter which direction I'm moving; just do the next logical area. And, yes, I think we are confusing everyone!

I think I have it easier than y'all when doing a panto because my machine goes easy going either direction. But that's the only good thing about mine, that and I don't have to baste.

No...I only do pantos from the back. As I am facing the machine standing in the back I move the head from the right end to the left end. If I'm in front I also go anywhere I want, but I start (facing the machine) from the left end of the machine to the right. I just can't believe the APQS and Gammill are so different. Unless we are saying the same thing but hearing something different. You know what I mean.

From the panto side of your machine, you go from right to left. The machine is geared to move better from right to left than from left to right.

I used to really dislike being behind the machine then I pushed my walls out and dont feel so crapped there anymore so the back is pretty fun - just needed alittle more room back there lol

Please, go to WWW.LONGARMUNIVERSITY.COM and print off the best directions ever for pantos. This is the queen of longarm websites. Amie

I havent' been here for a couple of days and reading all of this just confused me. When I was talking about using all of the saftey pins I was talking about using a home machine. That way nothing can shift. I use the T pins to pin the leaders to the quilt top, back and batting just like you Cindy. I leave all of the T pins in until I get to the bottom of the quilt then I remove the pins and sew everything together and then I'm finished. After that I remove the rest of the pins. This is really funny when you read it all we all sound really confused. I don't know if this will help or confuse us more.