I get questions about pantographs that I use on my long arm all the time. I’ve been wanting to put together a post discussing these as I thought it would be helpful to new long armers. And here it is! I could have titled this: “Things I wish I had known before I wasted my money.” LOL! Keep in mind, I have a machine with an 18 inch throat. You will have to determine what will and won’t work on your machine.
I have posted pictures of pantos that I own and have used and will discuss what I like or don’t like about each one. Unfortunately, it is not easy to show the scale accurately. Most of these show the width of the row.
Loop the Loop is one of my favorite designs. It is simple and forgiving, but the lines are close enough together to give a great texture. This particular panto has two rows printed on it so that means I don’t have to advance the quilt as often. This makes it faster to do! I highly recommend this one.
Sumptuous is another design that gives great texture. As you can see, it is an 8 inch wide pattern. If I had it to do again, I wouldn’t buy this one because it is very similar to the next one I will show that I already owned.
I have used Fern Gully a LOT! Why do I prefer this over Sumptuous? Because it is wider and goes faster and they don’t look all that different. Both look great, this is just a speed issue and I could have spent that money on something different.
Woven Wind is a newer panto for me. It is a great example of a nesting design. What I mean by that is, the rows are not straight across, they fit together like puzzle pieces making the rows themselves less easy to distinguish. I really like this in a design. Some have only a bit of nesting like Fern Gully, but even that little bit disguises the rows. Woven Wind gives an appearance similar to a Baptist Fan design without all the lining up that is so difficult to do. Keep in mind that even though it says it does a 10 inch row, because it nests, you won’t advance that far with each row. An 80 inch quilt will take a lot more than 8 rows!
Any Which Way is another of my favorite designs. This is another great beginner pattern. It is printed with two 7 inch rows and it is non-directional. I can load a quilt sideways and the design still looks good. Look back at Woven Wind, this would not look so good quilted sideways.
Oh, Bubble Wrap, can I get a refund? This is a cool design, but when picking out pantos, think to your self, what quilt would I use this on? Each “block” of quilting is about 11 inches. Imagine superimposing this on a quilt with say, 8 inch blocks. Um yeah, I don’t like that visual either. I used this once on a baby quilt. It also has to be shifted and realigned with each row. not user friendly.
I was given this next panto by a long arming friend. I wouldn’t have bought it myself, but it is in fact, an awesome panto! In fact, this is a perfect panto for a beginner. It goes very fast. It eats up fullness in a top and it is the most forgiving pattern of all for newbies. It won’t give super close quilting or glorious texture, but it looks good. The fact that the lines are a bit farther apart, means that if you get off track, you aren’t likely to cross over another line of stitching. It doesn’t have any points that can sometimes cause tension headaches either.
Photon Wave #2 is a great panto for jelly Roll Race quilts and strip quilts. I have used it on other designs as well. It is fun and fast and gives great texture. It is easier than it looks! It has two rows printed on it which makes lining up those offset rows a breeze.
Eagle landing is a favorite for Quilts of Valor. It is a manly looking design with great texture. I have used this on side loaded quilts as well, but it loses the eagle talon look that way.
Flowerburst is one of the first pantos I ever purchased, not a good one for a beginner. The design is tight so if you get off your line, it is easy to cross another one and that doesn’t look so good. It also takes forever.
Ground cover is a really great looking design, but again, not so good for a beginner. The rows nest well and it is very hard to see the individual rows. It takes a long time to quilt this out.
All That Jazz is a design I have used a lot. It gives wonderful allover texture and works well on pretty much any kind of top. It is non-directional so it works well on a side loaded quilt.
If you like feathers, Plumbago is a good edge to edge design. It does have some places where you retrace over your line of stitching and that can be a little tricky in the beginning. However, it won’t take long and then this is good feather practice.
Flying Feathers might not look harder, but it is! Those lines are very close together and this one is just a bit too wide for my 18 inch machine. I have to get the spacing just right to get it to fit. I’ve only used this once. LOL
This is another one that looks great, but it is not easy! Those lines are REALLY close and this one takes forever. Choose a simpler feather, at least to start with.
Lightening is a cool design, but again, it is very similar to All That Jazz and this has the disadvantage of being directional. I should have spent my money elsewhere.
This last one is also one of my oldest pantos. Every other row is offset making the design look more random than it is. The panto has great markings though to make this realignment easy. Another feature of Meadow Lyon Designs pantos that I like, they all have tiny arrows so you don’t get lost! These feathers are quite long and “swooping” and it can be a bit tricky to get them smooth in the beginning.
I have many more, but these I already had pictures of. I hope by reading this, you can get an idea of what I look for or learned from in each of these.
Generally speaking, if I were new and buying pantos, I would stay away from widely spaced designs with long swooping lines. Every wobble will be glaring. Also stay away from pantos that are way too detailed, you will drive yourself crazy. If you struggle with tension, avoid designs with lots of points, stick with more rounded designs until you get a better grip on your tension issues.
As you look at each panto design, ask yourself what kind of quilt it would work on. You want to get the most bang for your buck, especially when you are building your collection. Find one good feather design and use it for a while. Decide what you like and don’t like about it. Then you are better informed next time.
I hope you have found this helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.
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