HQ Live – Quilt with Pantographs and Groovy Boards (March 2018)

[Music] hi I'm Marie eldritch and I'm Cheryl Duncan welcome to HQ live so I'm going to talk about pantographs and I'm going to talk about groovy boards so let's get started first of all let's talk about paragraphs a little bit paragraphs are a paper pattern that you put behind your machine it lays out on the table you follow the pattern with a laser light and your machine stitch is this a beautiful quilt fountain front you know it's easy for people that aren't confident with their machine from the front and yet they can have a really nice finished quilt right yes and you have this great patterns you can have lots of different patterns so let's talk about patterns here's one this is called bell flower and this one looks pretty complex actually this would be not so hard to quilt because you can see those you just hold onto that sugar you have just little kind of curls and twists that you have to follow so you kind of get an idea of the pattern you always want to trace the pattern with your fingers so you know which way you're going to go sometimes I even drive myself some little arrows of which way to go until I feel comfortable with it yeah but I'll usually go through the pattern all the way through once and then I feel pretty comfortable about which way it's going unless I stop so what you're saying is shorter distances are actually easier than longer distances a shorter line that you have to stay on because you have to follow that line with the laser light so you just want you know kind of small curves are easy to stay on rather than trying to take your machine and go great big curve and back so little curves they work good all right so that one's called Bellflower this one is one you can see it's about a 5 or 6 inch pattern and that pattern you could probably quilt two of those before you would have to advance your fabric so on a 16 and HQ 16 I probably wouldn't choose a pantograph that is wider than 10 or 11 inches probably 11 inches would be my max and then on an Avante I'm probably thinking you know you probably want to go about 4 or 5 inches smaller and it depends on the quilt because your quilt is going to build up on your frame and then that takes part of your throat space so on an Avante I would probably do 12 inches right around in there 12 13 inches maybe at the most if you moved up to an Amaro you could add 2 inches to that and then to an infinity probably two inches so you're probably around 16 inches which here's a pattern that it actually is not let's see if we can get that where you can see it so you can see on this pattern you're only going to quilt the black part or the dark print but it also shows you how this one nests in this one is called ramblin rose and it is really pretty quilted out and how it nests in you can't see the different rows so it is it's a good wide one I don't think you could fit this on all of the machines because it comes in and out so much right well this looks like this is the exact same pattern is this right and that's what helps you as you advance your fabric so we're going to get into this and talk about how to set this up and make it all work all right so I'm pulling up my sleeves you're getting into it I have already put I will move out of your way I'll show you can just be like my assistant here okay and what I've done is I've already taped the paper pattern to the table and I like to put it right along the back of the table because then I know that it's straight the other thing I've done is to set this up as I always drop my needle and you can see that I have the needle right in the corner usually when I do an edge to edge I like to be a little off the fabric so a little bit out on the batting maybe about a half an inch an inch and then if I turns out that I have like a half a bunny on one side and I have a half a bunny on the top a half a bunny on the side then when I get to the bottom of the quilt if I have a half a bunny I don't have to try and make it work exactly so so you'd go off on all four sides then so I would go stitch in the batting on all four sides and then when I end it's okay if I end in the batting right I don't have to end exactly on the fabric okay the other thing that you can see that I've done here is I have stitched this fabric right to the very edge the first thing I did I don't know if you can see it but I have a plumb line or a straight line I put a channel on look on my machine I put it on the wheel and then I stitched that straight line all the way across so I have that straight line that then I can bring my fabric up to and pin it and then I stitched that down right on that straight line so I know I'm starting out square so at least I'll start square will ends square how about that that's a good idea all right what else I have the glide foot on that's all I'd foot it's amazing for doing pantographs I think it was amazing just for that well you can't see what you're doing when you're back here and what would happen if you didn't have your size faced it down and you had your regular foot on you can really have a when that foot gets caught and sews into that fabric that is exactly and I thought oh I'm such a good seller that'll never happen well guess what every to once in a while a seam is not really tight or sometimes you know if you don't sell that really close to the edge that fabric will flip over so I strongly I'm in love with that glide foot yes yes about in confidence yes your votes there we go all right so we have everything set up over there I think we're ready to then move over here so I have actually you're gonna notice we have the Amaro we're so happy to have this Amara this is actually you're gonna see a couple of different things here because this is a prototype so we were so excited to be able to film with it that we said we'll take it we want to start with it so we are so we have a couple of different things that you'll notice since Cheryl is going to be doing the groovy board we have a groovy board adapter on here so that moved where my laser light is attached normally you would have it attached to this little post right here but because we have this on at the same time we're using it from here so that's one difference that you'll notice you can play a game with yourself to see how many different ones you notice okay so I have my needle down the needle and the laser light represent each other so the first thing I'm going to do is set this up I want to decide where I'm going to start on my pattern and I'm just going to mark it in pencil you can there a lot of different ways you can use to use your pantographs you can put a piece of vinyl over it you can put a grid over it you know what preview paper would work for that preview paper would work great you pay a lot of money for your pantograph so you want to take care of them but I'm fine with just doing a pencil mark and I'm going to line this up so that my I'm going to figure out where I'm going to start stitching so I want to start right in here I'm going to just draw me a line that that is my beginning so that represents the edge of your where you want your needle to be right right that's where I want my needle and then you know this is handi quilter tape we actually have blue painters tape that you can buy and there's also a blue painters tape that's for wallpaper that comes off your paper easily so I want to use your patterns again and again that might be the best tape to use right so I am take this down I've drawn that first line now I need to draw the lowest point of my pattern so that's going to be clear down here you can see those dip down in so I'm going to come all the way down so that I'm making kind of a corner right there where those two meet and that's actually where my needle is going to be so I'm going to adjust my laser so it's right in that corner okay when you get your laser you really want to make sure that you get that adjusted so that it doesn't shift while you're stitching because there's nothing more disappointing than having that come off just a little bit right oh and then you're stitching over top of your previous stitching and that's not fun to take out we don't like that unpick all right so I'm starting right here and I'm lined up there there's a couple of things I need to check one is that I always leave things on the fabric so you want to because you're quilting from the back of the machine you want to make sure everything is cleared off on the front I'm going to check this is kind of a small pattern so I know I have plenty of throat space to quilt it but I do want to check that I can come all the way to the back side and check that I can go all the way to the top then we're going to check all the way to the other end I'll let you do that Cheryl and figure out where we're gonna stop over there I think we're gonna stop about right at the end of your fabric right here how about for you make a pencil line look I'm letting you touch my commander graph okay I'll hold that for you all right so she's making a line right where the laser not where the needle or the fabric stops but where that needle says the fabric stops where the laser shines on the pattern all right so that tells me I can stitch over to that line outline right there all right I'm going to bring this back over here and just set it in the other thing that I want to do is what I talked about I'm going to follow this pattern so that I know exactly where it goes there's some different kind of things since it has an echo which stitches first the inside or the outside and then as I get right here you can see that it crosses over I'm going to follow that right through so that it kind of just flows so that could be a spot that you could get a little bit confused on right yes so I still am feeling like I want to kind of familiarize myself with this okay some things that you'll know about this pattern first of all in order to get points you have to pause on the points you have to pause there or it'll just round out the other thing is that I wish I was really good and I could just go quickly for some reason especially demonstrating and talking I cannot quilt and move my feet and breathe and blink at the same time so you'll have to do the same especially when you're starting you'll need to blink you'll need to breathe so stop on a point rather than on the middle of a curve so that you can take those steps or take those breaths or blink the other thing is is after you've done just a little bit stop and take a look and make sure that everything is stitching out where where you thought it was gonna stitch out so what do you have your machine on I like my machine set on cruise and I like low crews I like it too just when I stop it stops in that point it'll start you know kind of little paisa maybe one yeah a little tiny stitches finishes off that point I like it too I'm using omni thread so I would like it probably to be I'm setting this at 10 stitches per inch now normally you would have a real busy print here not this plain fabric where you're gonna see every bobble I'm a because I stitch this out and that's the good thing about doing a pantograph is the pattern goes this way and the quilt goes this way and it's just a lovely texture on your quilt right and nobody looks and sees that you got off the line so one of the things you want to remember is as you're stitching that if you get off the line don't just jump back on right it can be a design element do it again if you have to but if you just kind of get back on so I kind of like especially at first thing this is just kind of a suggestion of what I should be doing and then I'll do it like some of the pressure off to do that takes the pressure off alright so the other thing I like is I like to do needle down and then when I'm stitching if I stop the machine's not gonna keep wiggling around it is done so that's why the other reason that I like Cruz is because I have that choice alright so we've talked about how to stitch that down we've talked about needle down the Cruz stitches per inch we've got our fabric offset are we ready to sew I think so do you need me to go around the other side to pull up your bobbin thread ah or can you reach it from there you know we have this great yeah we probably better pull it up okay alright alright so nobody thinks I know how to do tools very good so I've asked Cheryl to tell you about the laser light okay so the laser light you don't want a really wide laser light you want just to find pinpoint so right here in the laser light there's a little slit that you can adjust that laser light so that you just have that little fine pinpoint of a dot you saw your follow up you're chasing around there's a way to fix it that's right so you'll just adjust this righty-tighty lefty-loosey so tighter is smaller right okay so then this is the piece that will fit on to that post if you don't have the groove of doctor so that would sit on the bottom and you want the laser light coming off the top all right and these just tighten and loosen to get it on there and you want to make sure that they're all tightened up nice and snug so that they're not sliding around Cheryl and I are really good at unpicking but we don't like it that's right all right we are about ready to quilt so now here comes the part you've got to stand behind the machine okay and I get comfortable so your feet are about shoulder width apart kind of lock your arms against your side you don't want to be doing this with your arms you're going to be doing this with your hands you know you kind of get your whole body into it kind of get into the groove of moving so if you put some music on that might help too right it has to be country Cheryl okay well that would be okay right so we're ready now the thing is is I think you get back here and you get so nervous but take a big breath let your shoulders just relax and I am just going to follow the line so I have two choices I can start right where I'm at and I'm just going to follow that straight line up till I get to the pattern or I could make myself a little start point at the top there where the pattern starts but I'm just going to follow that straight line up because I'm right in the batting all right there's my start point now going faster is better than going really slow and trying to stay on right on the line so you kind of want to have a little speed to it that makes the curves well and that makes the smoother doesn't it and it makes it smoother so big breath go for it here we go stop on the points you're following that really well Murray oh no you're gonna jinx me [Applause] okay this is that part where okay I've done a little bit of stitching I want to make sure that I'm stitching that I'm on the fabric so just take a look and make sure everything's going right and then pull up your sleeves and so how do you know if your thread breaks because that's not there but you know what you kind of can hear it if you listen for it and you can kind of watch out of the corner of your eye and see that things are going so so have you ever stitched a whole room without your thread do I have to say it's practice right it's practice all right here we go we're just going to finish this out [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] I am getting close to the end of my pattern I can see that line that shel drew that's the last of where I want to do my quilting so I want to mention a couple of things for one thing I have my laser at a 45 degree I want it out instead of straight down so that I can see better so I've kind of angled it that direction and as I come to the end I have choices I Cheryl did such a good job drawing that line that she took in the whole pattern if it was inside the pattern that I'd have some choices to make because I don't want to leave any blank spaces on my quilt in other words parts that aren't quilted anytime I come to a straight line I'm going to follow the straight line and then get back on the pattern but a shell drew it so good that I just have to eliminate just a little tiny bit so we'll go ahead and move on to that very last pattern that we can quill [Music] [Applause] and if I was going slow those curves would have kind of waddles in them I think they're fairly round I kind of took a peek and it looks like I know what I'm doing all right here I come I'm getting to that straight line so I'm just going to follow the line down come back up and around and I should be done and so let's take a look at the quilt see where the machine is Oh Cheryl we're right at the end oh I think we planned it that way I think we planned it that way now comes the part where we're going to advance the fabric all right so when we put this pattern down on the table there was a dotted line which actually represents a stiched line and we put that close to us so close to the bar here and that's going to help as we advance the fabric then we will know exactly how much to advance between each row we'll do it the same each time I'm going to find I am going to put my needle in one of these points so on the quilt side I'm just going to put my needle there and I kind of like to do it in the middle and I like a point because I recognize a point as opposed to a curve and this one looks like iPods there and got a good point as opposed to some that aren't alright right in the point all right now we're going to advance our fabric and watch the laser light because the laser is going to move down until it gets to that stitched path on okay so take our clamps off okay we're in the clear view of this studio frame so we're just advancing right until that laser light hits whoa whoa back up justise back till it gets right into that V so it's going to get right in the V right there so this is the same little point that was up here is now down here and that's where my laser light is so it looks like I'm pretty close I'm not sure if my laser moved or my needle moved or how we started out but whatever is on the quilting that's what matches up with the laser so I'm just going to make sure that those are both in the same place so I can adjust my laser just a speck so that they do match up all right there was a lot of preparation there we advanced the fabric we put our clamps back on stitch down the throat space I have the needle back in right where I'm ready to start stitching but I really like to verify that I have the placement right so I can just follow and make sure that when the laser is on whoops this row the row I already stitched that it matches up with what's on my quilt what do you think Cheryl I think it looks pretty kay there's a point and there's a point you're pretty close yeah because I'm you check these low points and make sure they're not gonna stitch over all they'll feel fine in there okay I hate done pick so I always check check twice but that's as easy as it is I'm ready to start stitching my second row and then I'll advance and counter crafts are actually a lot of fun they're not so hard well I'm it's an easy way for someone to get a design on a quilt so that will complete the whole process and how we see our groovy boards they're even easier all right let's get to it well Marie pantographs were fun but you know what you can kind of wobble off that line a little bit so I've got groovy boards and with the groovy boards they have an actual groove that the stylus stays in so it's really easy to follow foolproof that well not foolproof but close so we have a lot of different styles of boards we have boards that you only need one board boards that we highly recommend that you have at least two boards and we'll show you why and then we have some boards that we recommend that you have the full width of your quilt just so that you can keep it lined up so a couple of the boards are the words that we have that are just single boards we have the square which is the square in the square and the dueling squares we actually had them cut this board in half so that you can turn these squares on point to you all on your quilt because you couldn't turn the full board yep so that's one board another board that we have single is the feathered wreaths so we have two different sizes of feather trees but some of our boards you can look at them and there's other uses for them so if I cover up the outside of my feather what have I got in that design in the center saw blade feathers you have a saw blade or a Sun I'm just the inside of the feathers if you just wanted to do the feathers on the inside of a circle so you can look at the boards and find different purposes for the same board if I want to get my money's worth I know right so then we have the circle boards and they come originally like this but it's the circle in a circle and the spiral but we wanted to use the circle in a circle but we only wanted to stitch every fourth ringing of the circle so we just took a sharpie marker and colored inside of those rings so that it was very easy to jump from ring to ring without having to sit and count so that's something that you can do with your board to help make it this one is well-loved it is very well-loved it's even started to yellow a little bit but weighted cuz we use it in the studio a lot yeah so just some of the other boards that we have really quick we have boards that could be used just as a border or you can use the board for a whole quilt so these kind of offset don't they they do okay and then we have the spiral one this can be used as a border or as the full board this actually makes a really cute quilt and this is an easy one if you've got granddaughter your grandsons that you want to start quilting groovy boards a really easy way for them to start quilting a quilt and be successful and be successful yes have it looked really cute oh I like that one so this is one of our boards it's just it's a single design but it's a little more detailed than some of our boards just so this one would nest yes it would and it's got reference points for lining up when you go to roll so that's just like that dotted line that I had with pantograph it is showed the previous or reference line for stitching okay so then we have our board that has the apples and the cherries and we actually use this board but instead of using the whole board we just use the Apple motif in the center of a block and it worked out great see I like all these ideas to get my money's worth then we have boards that have different designs on the same board for borders or sash genes if you have a wider sashing you could use this we also have a board that has three different styles of leaves on it and you can use it for the leaves or one of the sets of leaves looks like Christmas tree lights so you could put it in the border of a Christmas quilt and that would be Christmas lights we also have some boards that are smaller boards just the six-inch white boards these would work great in a border or for people that still have the old handi quilter to frames and where they put their own machine on them these boards would work on that so physical space yes so the two boards that we recommend that you have the full width of your quilt just for lining it up is the clamshells and the Baptist fan because these are really easy to get off we've got this quilt here and if you look at this quilt you can see that the clam shells are lined up in rows and with the groovy boards you want to keep them straight across your quilt and if you don't have the board that go the full width of the quilt then you're gonna be jumping your boards across does that make sense that makes sense I like this I think that's just you know just a clamshell puts a great texture on a quilt it does okay so Murray we've got our boards set up here on the table that we're gonna do and this is filled of flowers and this is really a popular design and it works out really well on a quilt and it's pretty and it's easy to do but the reason that we recommend having more than one board is that if I were to quilt this where am I going to go when I get to this point on my board if I get to this point I've either got to stop and hope I don't bobble and move things around and move this board over so that I can start here again where if I've got two boards I can stitch off here continue on to my second board then I can move my first board into the third board position again so that helps with keeping your design straight so you want to at least have two you do want to have at least where you buy except for the squares right right right so we've pretty well set this up the same way that you set up the penta graphs in that we've just advanced our quilt here and we're starting here I want to start just off the edge of my quilt all the way around so I've taped down a line here so that I know exactly where I'm going to start we've got my sides basted down and I'm actually ready to go when you're stitching on the board's you want to make sure that you hug the side of the board this groove is wide enough that the stylus actually can wobble back and forth a little bit and that's where you're going to get those grandma stitches and even though we're grandma's we don't want grandma's stitches right so you're gonna hug the board on one side as you come to a point you're gonna pause so that you get that nice crisp point and you want to keep your machine flowing smoothly so should we quilt it out okay looks like everything taped down what are these little rings all of these little rings hold the two boards together but just for security I've got my tape here on the board to help hold it even though it's taped down I still want to be careful that as I'm going through my grooves I'm not pushing really hard on the board because I can knock it out of place and also if I'm going too fast I can actually jump out of the groove so not entirely foolproof so Murray if you notice right here I'm going to start but as they come along I'm going to run into my tape right here so what I'm going to do at that point with the pantographs you could just stitch yeah I could go so right now I'm gonna pick up my stylus and move it forward to this point but as I'm going around the sides of my board I want to keep that stylus right next to the edge of the board and that's what hugging the board is is that you want to be right there at that edge so let's see how this goes and the same thing here you want to know the path that you're going so I'm going to make sure that I know where I'm going because it is easy and some boards will go forward and then kind of come back and if it's not always going forward sometimes it'll come back to under the stylus and so you need to know where it's going to go so let's go pause in my corner hug that side of the board and at this point I'm just gonna stop I'm gonna raise my stylus up and I'm actually gonna stitch forward just a little bit and drop my stylus back down oh you just stitched there I thought you would raise your needle well because I'm out of yet my fabric I'm off of the edge of my fabric I can just stitch forward you're so tricky okay so now we're going to go pause on my point [Applause] the other thing that you want to make sure of is that you have that stylus down nice and snug so it's not loose as it goes around these curves [Applause] the same thing here you want to just walk along with you as you're stitching I like how this pattern of this nests into itself it does I think it will be a great texture that's probably why it's so popular let's see here at this point my board kinda comes backwards and if I didn't know where I was going I could get lost although not too bad because the stylus is just finally to me where I need to go looking good and the same thing with this I want to stop and when I stop I want to stop in a point and I want to check my quilting and see how it's looking it's not too bad you're in the fabric that's a good part I want to make sure too that my stylus is really snug I noticed that it was wobbling just a little bit so you want to make sure that it's snug and staying in place okay now which direction am I going back in the way coming back this way oh you're trying to get married yeah I'd make you take those stitches out [Applause] [Applause] kay Murray now look I'm coming close to where my two boys are joining but if you notice it's just a smooth transition and those boards are level and so I should be able to just go on a whole circus don't bother anything they don't just so it should be alright continue on he'll go right on to my next board this one actually goes back and forth a couple of times some of our boards like this one will only have one pass on them but some of our boards like that spiral will have two passes before you have to roll so when you advance you pretty much advanced the same way you do with the pantograph you do we don't have the lights to light up on all of the boards a couple of the words do have some reference lines but this we're just going to use the design and the edge of the board as we roll forward [Applause] I almost went the wrong way there if you notice over here if you can keep over the machine I put tape at the other end so that I know where to stop and I'm gonna do the same process once again you're going to come to my tape I'm just gonna lift up my stylus I'm gonna stitch along till I get to the next point I'll drop my stylus down do my little curved stitch to the next point drop that stylus down doctor this is that actually nice raise my stylus up oh [Applause] you're not leaving anything unquoted and there's no matting and that's the end that's the end so the same thing with our panagra I'm gonna find a point and I'm going to drop my needle and I can line it up really easy because my stylus is right there so I'm gonna drop my needle I'm gonna make sure my stylus is raised up and then I'm gonna roll my quilt until my stylus hits about a half-inch beyond the design so this is the same theory as the pantograph the needle represents the stylus yes it does so I know exactly where my quilting ends and where my my where my needle is lines up with the yeah yeah all right I got it so now we're ready to advance our quilt all right let's do it okay okay so Murray if you'll just roll it I'll tell you when to stop I want to stop can you see my stylus you want to watch the stylus as you're rolling and I want to go about a half inch beyond about right there and then I'm gonna stop okay and I want to Snug everything up I'll put my clamps back on then we'll base down the sides of the quilt and we'll be ready to stitch out the second row after we check and make sure that our positioning is correct okay summary now I'm going to check and I'm gonna look at my low points on my board and make sure that they're not stitching into my previous line of stitching so this is really easy because I can put my stylus down and then peek across my frame here and see that I want to be okay I'm gonna be about half inch away from my design let's do it again [Music] and I check all the way along just like a pen just like a pantograph nice so then we're ready to start quilting our design again I'm gonna drop my needle where I want to start and put my stylus down I'm gonna reach across and bring up my bobbin thread to bed you don't have a friend I need a friend where's my friend so I've got my and it's all tied off I love that tie off stitch right and then once again I'm just gonna start stitching when I come to my tape I'm gonna raise my stylus and stick stitch to my next groove drop that style of sin and I'm ready to go go like the well that's how easy groovy boards and pantographs are it is it's a great way to finish a quilt so I hope we've taught you something maybe you found out something you didn't know it was been fun it's been fun join us again on HQ live [Music] you you

Channel: Handi Quilter

Views: 35,814

Keywords: Handi Quilter, Longarm, Sewing, Quilting, Quilts, Free-motion Quilting, Finishing Quilts, Pantographs, Groovy Boards

Id: qfVXG4TlVt8

Length: 42min 1sec (2521 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 08 2018