A Guide to Quilting Styles and Types

When it comes to the actual physical stitching on a quilt, the quilting, there are three main styles: the pantograph, the free motion quilting, and custom quilting. And today I'd like to show you exactly what that is, or what those are, and what it means. The first quilt today that I'm gonna show you is a pantograph. A pantograph, and you can't see it too well on the front because I used what we call MonoPoly thread. It's a clear thread, but I have an all over design on the quilt, and that's what a pantograph is. I like to call it wallpaper for your quilt, and you can probably see it a little bit better here on the back where I used a variegated thread. The design goes from side to side on the quilt, from one edge to the other, and from the top to the bottom of the quilt. So again, it feels like wallpaper. The design repeats over and over and over again. It's a fast, fun way to quilt. Longarmers can either follow a paper pattern to create the design using a stylist on the machine and guide the machine to make the pattern. Or if they have a computerized machine, then you can have a digital pattern, and the machine will do the stitching for you. You still wanna make sure you have good tension, and there's a lot of technical details involved with the computer machine, but it does take the effort of hand guiding out of the equation. I like the pantograph a lot. I use it probably on maybe up to 85% of the quilts that I do. It's wonderful for utility quilts, for baby quilts, for the drag-around-TV quilt where you want the recipient to use it, abuse it, and enjoy it. And the patterns are limitless. Today, there are thousands, thousands of patterns. If you can think it, it can be created into a pantograph. Like you said, this one has stars, moon, sun. It's a fun pattern. There's children's pantos, there's nature pantos, there's geometrics, there's feathers. You name it, there's a panto for it. So if you're using a Longarm quilter, it's probably one of the less expensive options rather than custom quilting or even free motion and hand guided quilting. But, you will have a beautiful quilt, and I think you'll find you're going to be very pleased with the results. And it adds a lot of interest. It's like adding another layer to your quilt that draws the viewer into it. So, keep the pantograph in mind. It is not something that can be done on a domestic machine. The pantograph is strictly for Longarm quilting. Very similar to the pantograph would be free motion or hand guided quilting, and that's where the quilter is literally just playing on the quilt. They are doodling. This quilt, while it is primarily custom, there are portions of it. For instance, inside here, if you just look at the interior of the panto, this would all be considered free motion, hand-guided quilting. It's a stitch known as McTavishing, which is just a free-flowing stitch. If it's repeated all the way across the quilt, and the quilter just kind of goes, it does look similar to a pantograph. Maybe not intricate as the designs in a pantograph with a specific motif, but the flowing motion of the quilting. It can be curves and swirls, and you can throw in stars and whatever creative ability you have. It just flows across the quilt. But again, it has been hand guided. It is not following a pattern. It is truly spontaneous, and coming from within the quilter. The final method of quilting is custom, and that is truly what this quilt is, in this case. Custom quilting usually involves stitching the ditch along the seam lines. It involves any kind of ruler work, which I have an example of that in a minute. It involves dropping individual motifs into a block, as I did with these pinwheel blocks. It involves extra work in the borders. In this case, a cross hatch within the border pattern. It may involve another motif, such as in this border, where I did the little monkeys and the palm trees. In other words, it is a one-of-a-kind design for a one-off quilt. This design is made just for this quilt. I decided this is what's going in each place. So it's custom, it is for that quilt. It also can include things like thread painting, which is what this is considered up here in your tree, where you're adding in details, free motion. So obviously that kind of work, if you're using a Longarm quilter is going to cost you a little bit more money. It can cost you a lot more money, but it is wonderful for heirloom quilts. If you've done a very special quilt, like a Baltimore Album, you're going to probably want to have that custom quilted. Applique quilts are oftentimes custom quilted. So again, those are things to discuss with your quilter, or to keep in mind if you are quilting yourself, whether it's on a Longarm or on your domestic machine. This is a very, very simple quilt, but it was custom quilted. I dropped a motif into the center block, and then I stitched in the ditch for all of the individual blocks, the nine patches. And then I did ruler work to highlight the triangles, the setting triangles on the sides and in the corners. I did some ruler work in the border, and then I dropped in a border pattern that is very difficult to see because of the print in the fabric, but I did drop in another one. So this again is another example of custom quilting. So again, keep in mind while there's lots of ways to quilt, there's three basic styles of quilting. The pantograph, which goes from edge to edge, top to bottom using one, single design. Free motion or free hand quilting, where the quilter is guiding the machine by hand, or the fabric under a domestic machine by hand, and coming up with the quilting pattern as they go. And it goes over the entire quilt. Or, there is custom quilting, which is where you are dropping in individual designs into each block. You probably have stitch in the ditch along your seams. You have separate patterns for your borders and your sashings. All of them are lovely, lovely options for your quilt and picking them is part of the fun.