It’s fun to feel confident quilting enough motifs that you feel ready to combine them into a semi-custom quilting plan. But what is the best way to move around your quilt on the longarm? Let’s take a look at some best practices.

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A semi-custom quilting plan means that you will use two or three motifs to quilt your quilt. This could be as simple as choosing one motif to do in the center of your quilt and a second for the border, or it might mean that you’re combining a few motifs to create customized texture in each block. In both cases, it’s important to think through where you want to start stitching and how to to navigate across the quilt— much like we use a maps app to plan our route for driving. Today, I’m going to walk you through the process on a Star Island Quilting Rockstar Panel.

Video

Tips & Tricks

• Taking the time to plan your route as a quilter is always useful— it saves time and energy as you stitch so you can enjoy the quilting process. But when you are working on a longarm, it is even more important to have a plan so that you can save unnecessary thread breaks, save rolling of the quilt top, and prevent accidentally skipping sections as you work.

• Travel in the ditches or by retracing already stitched lines to avoid having to break thread

• If you’re concerned about how the traveling will look on the back, use a print back to disguise any irregularities

• Don’t be afraid to roll the quilt back and forth as needed

• Draw your quilting plan with arrows on paper if that’s helpful to keep track of your route

• It may sound cheesy, but have fun with the “puzzle” of navigating your quilt top. Embrace the challenge, and know that it’s totally okay if you get lost once in awhile and end up breaking thread.

Other Resources

• Longarm Prep Online Course- click here to learn more and join the wait list

• Should you buy a longarm? Click here to read my recommendations!

• Love this quilt? You can shop Star Island Quilt Panels and other items here!