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How to Choose Pantographs - Picking the Perfect Quilting for Your Quilt

How to Choose Pantographs - Picking the Perfect Quilting for Your Quilt

Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you: You’ve picked a quilt pattern, pulled gorgeous fabric, lovingly pieced the quilt top, trimmed the stray threads, and beautifully pressed your top in preparation for longarm quilting…only to realize you don’t have any idea what kind of quilting you want your longarmer to do! 🙋🏻

With so many panto designers and libraries, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the choices…but after picking quilting pantos for dozens of quilts now, I’ve figured out some good ways to narrow things down. 

So today I’ll share my process, give you some tips, and tell you about some of my favorite pantographs!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Quilting pantographs 101

Before we go any further, let’s make sure we’re on the same page: When I talk about a panto (short for pantograph), I’m referring to a digital quilting pantograph. These are quilting designs that can be downloaded and then used on computerized longarm quilting machines. 

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 What is a longarm quilting machine?
A longarm quilting machine is designed specifically for quilting big projects, so the sewing head moves around instead of the quilt. These machines cost a lot and take up lots of space, so most quilters don’t have their own. You can pay someone to longarm your quilt for you…or you can experiment with other kinds of quilting, like hand quilting or straight-line quilting on your domestic sewing machine.

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Pantos usually come in edge-to-edge designs, meaning you get the same quilting pattern all over your quilt (as opposed to custom quilting, which uses different quilting designs on different parts of the quilt).

You can find all kinds of these edge-to-edge pantos, from popular motifs like swirls, stars, and florals to geometric pantos…and even graphic pantos (like dogs, books, and skulls).

There are tons of designers offering their own unique quilting pantos, which means you have thousands of edge-to-edge pantos to choose from…so how are you supposed to pick?

How I pick my quilt pantos

When it’s time to pick a panto, I start by looking carefully at my finished quilt top. Because while I do have some pantos I love and use over and over, I try to make sure I’m choosing the right panto for the specific quilt I’m working on.

That means that I look at my quilt top and analyze things like:

  • Negative space
  • Density and detail
  • Angles
  • Shapes
  • Theme

Then I use those factors to figure out what kind of panto will work with the quilt…and which kind won’t. Let me walk you through it!

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 Other kinds of quilting
While I’m talking about digital pantos in this post, my “rules” below can still apply to picking any quilting design…even domestic and hand quilting!

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NEGATIVE SPACE

I love the little details on quilts! Most of my quilts have smaller piecing, usually with some amount of negative space, so I’m always thinking about how the quilting looks both on its own and on top of patchwork. 

Take my Winter Blush Upscale Plaid quilt. I used layout 3, which meant the quilt has a lot of negative space right in the center of the quilt. All that space practically demanded a more detailed, interesting quilting design…and so I went with Retrograde by Karlee Porter. The "repeat" of this design is quite large, like 10 or more inches, but there's still a good bit of density, even with a larger repeat.

To me, that's the sweet spot of using up negative space in a thoughtful way. It added some great visual interest to the middle of the quilt without distracting from the piecing elsewhere.

My 70s Velvet Granny Patch quilt doesn’t have a huge block of negative space like Upscale Plaid. Instead, the negative space is spread all over the quilt. So for this one I needed something that created a sense of movement and continuity between the foreground and background fabrics.

DENSITY AND DETAIL

I’m also someone who loves the texture and crinkly-ness of more dense quilting, so I’m usually gravitating towards designs that have enough detail that the pantograph repeat isn’t super apparent from far away. 

You can think of it this way: A simpler pantograph might look like a zig-zag or horizontal row, but if there’s enough elements that repeat, it can be harder to see where the quilting starts and stops…which lets you focus on the overall texture that the quilting creates.

My Holiday Knitted Blooms is a good example of this. With this quilt, you don’t see the exact repeat and the swirls keep your eyes moving all around the quilt instead of only vertically and horizontally.  

One thing to keep in mind: You can usually choose pantograph density! Your longarmer can make adjustments to the panto to make it more or less dense. A denser panto will take more time and thread, which means it usually costs more. Plus, it can actually shrink your quilt top just a smidge (ask me how I know!). Your quilt might also turn out a little more rigid…but it should get softer with washing and use. 

A less dense panto should cost less (and use less time and thread), and your quilt will end up a little more flow-y and less crinkly. It all comes down to your preference, so think about what kind of results you want! You can also consider the piecing in your quilt, since denser quilting can help stabilize your seams.

ANGLES

Another thing that I like to think about are angles. If I have a quilt that has a lot of 45 degree angles (like with flying geese or half square triangles), I’m probably not going to choose a panto that mimics 45 degree angles. 

In my Zen Garden Nightingale quilt, the repeat appears to be along a 60 degree angle, which adds extra movement and interest to the quilt as a whole, since Nightingale has a lot of 45 and 90 degree angles in the piecing.

 

Or if you look at the Valley Song Cover quilt, you can see that I went with a very angular panto…but while the quilt top has a bunch of 45 degree angles, the quilting has much sharper angles. Again, it keeps your eyes moving all around the quilt instead of just following the 45 degree angles.

SHAPES

Along with angles, I also consider the shapes on the quilt.

For a quilt that has a bunch of rectangles and straight lines, I’m more likely to use a curvy pantograph. On the Rhythm cover quilt, for instance, I went with vertical curves to set off the horizontal rectangles of the quilt top.

Or consider my Sketchbook Mosaic Star quilt. The quilt top is all about triangles, so the curved arches of the quilting add a wonderful contrast.

Speaking of curves, this principle goes the other direction too! For a quilt with curved piecing, like my Golden Retro Blossoms quilt, it can be fun to use a panto with more straight lines. The panto on this one mimics the piecing with its grid and quadrants, which grounds the curves a little bit and gives contrast to the patchwork.

THEME

Finally, I also love following the theme of the quilt…but in a non-traditional way. 

For example, Cover Upscale Plaid follows a Christmas-y theme, with the red and green palette and the holiday-appropriate plaid …so I went with a pantograph that loosely mimicked twinkly lights. Again, it's not overly "Christmas" but the quilting certainly reflects a similar vibe.

Or there’s my Knitted Blooms cover quilt. The Knitted Blooms quilt pattern has a retro, handmade feel; so I chose a pantograph that gave groovy 1970s vibes. Combined with the retro color palette, the whole quilt looks like something your grandmother might have knit in the 70s.

Of course, not every quilt has such a clear theme going on…but when it does, that sure helps to narrow down my panto choices.

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 Quilting thread color
While you’re picking your panto, you can also think about what color thread you want to use for the quilting! You can go with a bold, bright thread for more obvious quilting or a neutral to keep things a little more subtle. Either way, your color will have a big impact on how your panto looks.

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More tips for choosing a panto

If you’re still not sure what panto to use on your quilt, you can always talk with your longarmer! Most longarm quilters would love to give you some input. They have lots of experience seeing what pantos look good on what kinds of quilts…and they know tons about what pantos are even out there to use. 

I have definitely asked my longarm quilters for their advice when I don’t have any concrete ideas…and  I’m usually thrilled with their suggestions!

You can also browse for inspiration on social media. You can use hashtags to see what pantos other quilters used on the same pattern you’re making…or you can just look at beautiful quilting in general.

And sometimes, you may just want to turn to a quilting panto you know and love…like one of these favorites!

My favorite pantos

I’ve used dozens of pantos across my many quilts (someday I should count how many!), but there are a handful that I’ve come back to over and over again. These are some of my favorite, most versatile pantos:

Looking back at all this beautiful quilting, I can definitely see myself using these pantos again and again in future quilts. 

But just because you have favorite pantos, don’t overlook ones you haven’t used before! I had passed over Karlee Porter’s Beaded Rows panto lots of times…until finally I decided to use it on my Sugar Plum Petite Plaid quilt, where it was absolutely perfect! I’m so glad I branched out and tried something new there.

Conclusion

The right quilting panto can elevate an already beautiful quilt. It can emphasize certain elements or bring different elements together. And of course, it can add such a dreamy texture! 

By paying attention to things like your quilt’s theme, angles, and shapes and by thinking about how much density and detail you want, you can find the perfect panto for any project!

Happy quilting!

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FAQ about quilt pantographs

What is a pantograph in quilting?

A quilting pantograph is simply a design you can follow for your quilting (the part when you stitch your quilt top, batting, and baking together).

Technically there are several different kinds of quilting pantographs, including printable versions you trace onto your quilt. 

But usually when we talk about quilt pantos, we mean digital files for computerized longarm quilting machines. With digital pantos, the machine follows the design automatically…under the guidance of a skilled longarm quilter, of course!

Can you use pantographs on a domestic sewing machine?

You can use printable pantographs with any sewing machine that can do free motion quilting, which, yes,  includes many domestic sewing machines. If you want to use a digital panto, though, you’ll need a computerized longarm sewing machine.

What are some popular pantograph designs?

Swirls, stars, chevrons, and baptist fans are all popular quilting pantos. You can find some of my favorite panto designs above.

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