When you started quilting on a frame did you learn freehand first or did you follow a pattern, such as a stencil, pantograph, etc.

I practiced stipple first then panto, still working on freehand.

I do mostly hand quilting, so I can't help you with this. :?

Like Kathy, I started with meander stitching practice pieces, then practiced with several pantos. For the real deal, I used a panto.

I have hand quilted on a frame with about 6 other ladies, but we just did straight lines. These were simple easy quilts to given away to families that had lost their homes due to fire. We did not get fancy because we needed to get them done quickly.

i did freehand first. i always rush into things. bad me! didn't work out well.

started again with stipple. when i had that licked, i started drawing with a chalk pencil right on the fabric. i have a pretty good handle on that now. my freehand is actually coming along. it looks just like jackie's. hehe.

next will be panto. i think panto is the hardest, because i have to work from the back of my machine, because i'm too short to see from the front.

butterfly wrote: "next will be panto. i think panto is the hardest, because i have to work from the back of my machine, because i'm too short to see from the front".

butterfly you could do pantos from the front of the machine by clamping a piece of plexy glass the length of your poles between the first and second pole. Kind of like suspending it in the air over the poles so that you can advance the poles when you need to. You can put the panto design on this plexy glass. If you had a way of mounting your laser light or stylus on the front of the machine, it is possible to do pantos from the front.

Is this clear as mud? Meant to add this to my previous post.

I started with pantos...didn't want to ruin a perfectly good top. :-)

I hand quilt, so don't know much about it