Tartan

FYI- I watched a YouTube video from Laura at SewVeryEasy a couple of days ago. She showed a method of tracing a panto on plain backing fabric to enable you to quilt from the back on a regular sewing machine. It looks like quite a bit of work but she did get a lovely result. It is under the title....How to make Home Quilting look like long-arm quilting.

ckcowl

I wonder if you could make this a little easier by using a large needle and no thread, stitch out the design on the paper, then lay the panto on your quilt and using pounce powder or even a washable marker to trace it on- I think the ink from a marker would go through the holes. ( testing first of course to make sure it will wash out)

Iceblossom

I haven't had much luck pouncing* my paper made templates, but I quilt directly through parchment paper (I buy at the dollar store, $1 for 1 x 25 feet), after tracing the design from a commercial panto. I mostly work with very scrappy projects, so no one marker works on all, plus I have vision issues. I've done this on both long arms and domestic machines.

There are some things you need to be aware of -- like white thread can pick up excess graphite from pencil lead, or otherwise interact with whatever you draw with.

Yes, it is time consuming to draw out the designs and then to remove the paper afterwards -- and that creates quite a bit of fluffy bits of snow paper that manage to get all over the place -- but it allows me to get the results I want that I can't otherwise get.

When you needle punch through the design it helps the ripping off and takes out the graphite issues, but I find borders/rows are usually too long and stiff for me to sew-through but it works really well for smaller units/blocks.

*I love the pounce pad with the templates designed for them, and I still like them on general templates. I have white, pink and blue powders but mostly use white and blue. I don't have one of the pencils yet but am going to get one next time I'm doing something on a dark background to check it out.

Quilt30

Interesting video. A similar concept is available from one of the fabric companies printed in a wash out ink on wide backing. I have practiced with it and it helped with learning free motion quilting. I have a larger piece to use on a crib quilt.

SusieQOH

I watched that video the other night. I'm going to do a practice run with one of the free designs.
Not sure how quilting from the back is going to work but it's worth a try.

IceLeopard

Quilting from the back works just as well as from the front. Last quilt I did I found out that I had matched the quilting thread so closely to the fabric that it disappeared! I couldn't see where I had quilted, so I ripped out the stuff I had messed up, did SITD to define the areas, and then quilted the FM design from the back. I've also heard suggestions to choose a print for the back and then quilt along the lines of that print, again from the back.

I use pantos on my midarm by either the tracing paper method or by tracing on a transparent water-soluble embroidery stabilizer. You have to use sharpies to mark your pattern as water-based markers won't work on it. That's all to the good, though, since they won't run in the washing machine and stain the fabric.

Watson

I'll have to go look. I really want to do a panto-type job on my upcoming quilt, (If I ever get the borders on it...), and this might be just the thing.

Watson

Tartan

Quilt30, which fabric company has the wash out printed backing?

SusieQOH

Last night I printed out a few designs. I printed 6 of each, taped them together, and then used magic marker to make the design easily seen. I'm going to try this method.

I bought the wash out backing a long time ago. I can't remember the company but I bought it on Amazon. I still haven't used it and don't even know where it is. Thanks for mentioning it.