Intro to Pantograph

After finishing the Nine Patch Quilt I was excited to get another top onto Lola. My Mystery Quilt is still a long way from being ready to quilt however I know what I want to quilt on it and its a shock to me. I plan to quilt it with a pantograph and that is not really something I am comfortable with but because of all the pieces it will help calm the quilt and make it not so busy.  (I will explain what a pantograph is as we go along in this post.)

I have a closet in my studio that I store finished tops and I looked through and found this lovely busy top "Flower Market".  I made this from just a bunch of floral fabrics that I had been collecting. My sister M gave me some of the fabrics for my birthday one year. Its just an explosion of floral and I love it! My only problem was I couldn't decide what to quilt on it as its really busy.

This is the backing I had for this quilt. While the top is loud and in your face, the backing compliments the top but is soothing and calm but still wild.

I didn't have enough backing and so I had to add another fabric to get me to the desired size. I like to add a little something different, something unexpected to my backs and this is what I came up with for this one.

Now for the pantograph. Lola has two sides to her personality. The front side is her carefree creative side and the one I always use. What comes out of the front is all me. I decide where the stitches go and how they flow on the top. Lola's back side is controlled and a follower. From the back I can place a pattern down on the table and use a stylus or a laser light to follow a pattern. Its a different skill and one I just haven't explored.

For the floral quilt I chose to use a pattern with large leaves.

Then after much set up that I won't bore you with I just follow that pattern with this laser light.  See that tiny red dot?

This is what the top looks like after just one pass of the pantograph. I have to say I really like the way it is looking! Sometimes I surprise myself.