thimblebug6000

If you use your home machine for machine quilting AND using a traced design, like from a pantograph….how do you do it?

I trace my design on Golden Threads paper and then pin it onto my sandwiched quilt, and then stitch trying to follow the lines. Then tear off the paper..and then tape the pattern onto my kitchen counter again and trace the pattern out on the Golden Threads paper…and on and on. I am not looking for a method different from this per se but just wondered if anyone who uses this method has any tips. Thanks! 😀

Three Dog Night

I do something similar but use foundation paper piecing paper. I run it through my printer. Leah Day has some great patterns and was where I first head about doing this

thimblebug6000

Thanks! …..

Iceblossom

To get the designs I want, I often sew through paper. The advantages are (a) I can see the design! in my scrappy style it is very hard to mark a design with anything that lets you see it on all colors of fabric. (b) no one else can see if you went off the lines. Yes, it is time consuming to copy the designs. It is time consuming to take off the paper but you develop techniques.

Mostly I use cheap parchment paper from the Dollar Store, the current brand is a bit slicker than the old yellow packaging. The paper is 12" wide by 20' long, so yes, it takes a couple of boxes to do an entire quilt.

I put down my purchased pantograph or original design and tape it securely. Then I put the parchment paper over and copy with pencil. Warning: If you are using white thread/and or a white background, the graphite can transfer through to the thread and be very difficult to remove so I don't recommend this on white on white applications. Typically I can safety pin the parchment paper to the quilt in non-stitched areas.

I also use newsprint. With that, I make stacks with a design on top, then using a big stitch and no thread, I sew through the pattern making holes on the subsequent sheets. Edit: The holes will keep together pretty well during the quilting process but makes the removing even easier.

Here's a couple of pix, one is some paper punch templates, and one of me taking the paper off an all over edge-to-edge design. That's Buddy the dog in the picture, he has passed but is why I have my current two dogs

Onebyone

I use Crayola Ultra Washable Markers to trace the design. I have never had the marker to not wash out. If on a project where I don't want to wash it I use Pounce iron away chalk using a stencil.

LGJARN52

I've tried the Leah Day patterns and they drove me crazy using regular copy paper, plus you have to make a hundred copies or so. Not sure I'd have the patience to pull off all the papers once sewn onto a quilt and I'd be aftraid the stitches will pull out and break. Would onion skin papers (Office supply stores or Amazon) work. I do have some Carol Doaks PP foundation papers I've never used. What about them?

Mkotch

I have a roll of Golden Threads paper that I forgot about. I liked using it a few years ago but really hate pulling the paper out. I prefer to draw a pattern directly on the quilt using a wash away pen and stencil. Sometimes I just draw freehand squiggles using the wash away pen.

Iceblossom

First off, correction -- about the paper templates, I said "big stitch" (which is not a bad thing) but I meant "big needle". I usually piece with a 10 and machine quilt with a 14, would use the previous quilt's quilting needle. You want to use up an old needle and not sacrifice a new one. I think the daisies were done with a thin broken needle? Shaft was long enough and it was the eye that broke so it was actually a pretty good little puncher.

That quilt was an UFO from the thrift store, it came pinned together with a double layer of batting and a too-small flannel back, but everything was like $2.99 and ended up with a donated quilt, batting used, and flannel donated to another quilter making donation quilts. The test picture I was seeing if my umbrellas read as umbrellas, wasn't about the correct stitch.

The dog house quilt was the parchment paper. It was easier for me to trace the 10" or whatever the design was onto the 12" paper and overlap than it was to trim the slippery parchment paper. Going through two thicknesses I would slow down but it did just fine.

I do draw all my quilting designs first, keeping or making "registration" marks to line them up. On the domestic machine I just quilt one strip at a time. Good old start in the middle and work to the ends. The parchment paper can hold up through the whole job...

Some people can freehand much better than others. I would think I could do the large dog bone meander free hand on a long arm, but sitting down and closer I don't think I could be consistent in sizing enough as well as fitting into the area. I can freehand meander (including objects like stars or whatever) but consistency is still an issue, even if I don't draw myself into corners any more.

That consistency is a killer -- like I wanted the daisies to all have the same number of petals and couldn't guarantee that on my own... they were 4-6" large I think. Having them prepunched like that, they had just enough oomph to stay on during the sewing.

I don't think so well in quilting designs, I can figure out basic shapes and things. Or, I can copy something from someone more talented than me

I do like the Pounce pads and have made my own templates with them, but I love the prepared ones! I have extra vision issues added, and I just can't always follow the pattern if the fabric is busy and the "wrong" color for the chalk.

I have tried tissue paper before, the nice big sheets were alluring. Couple of things -- it does not hold up and tears before you want it to. Still suitable I think for single blocks. Some paper has a plasticized coating on one side. Doesn't tear out as nicely as you would hope, even if you wet it. Buy the cheapest basic white stuff you can find, look for a plastic shine on one side.

When I wasn't working in an office any more I was going down to my local Office Supply store which had an area with printers and copiers as such to use. I could download my designs and print there in color if I wanted, but they did not stock newsprint in their copier area. The staff was used to me and let me bring in paper from my ream and load it into the copier. I still got charged the corporate rates for using their paper, but that was pre-programmed. I would make "cutting" copies for the stacks, I would do about 6 layers at a time, blank on the bottom and just the cutting copy on the top.

Added another project picture, Here Kitty Kitty had an overall meander in the bed of the quilt, and footprints along the edges.

Lena1952

I use a roll of examination table paper to copy my quilting designs. Pin them to the quilt top, quilt through the papers and then remove the papers. The exam paper holds up better than tissue paper but is easy to remove. Since the exam paper is any length you want, I make the design for one quilt width. The first time, I pinned all the papers to cover the complete top as the pattern overlapped. That didn’t work well. The second one, I pinned one pass and then lined up the next pass as best I could. I couldn’t find anything that was off kilter when the quilting was done so I must have match them up well enough. I bought the exam paper on Amazon. It comes in two widths.

QuiltE

I always found it too awkward working with paper pinned on ... and then of course, peeling it away, without disturbing the stitches, was another deterrent.

While this is not as precise as following a traced design ... I draw the design on with white chalk (or if a light fabric, frixxion pen). If I don't like what I draw, I backtrack, erase it, and re-do. Then when I get to the FMQ part, I don't necessarily stay right on the line, and let the FMQ part truly take over!

Years ago, I took a FMQ course with an amazing teacher who taught us to be "consistently inconsistent". IOW don't stick 100% to a design, because then if you have an oopsie, then it shows. That really got into my head and let me get going with FMQing.

When I am really in the zone ... I might just draw the stem of a feather, with no feathers to give me a bit of a guide ... or might be really risque and go with no markings, especially if it is a no-feather design.

I love FMQing ... just don't get doing it enough. My winter plan is to get back to my happy place with it!!