i don't own a gammill,and unless i win the lottery (guess i'd better start playing ) will never own one, but that doesnt' keep me from dreaming. and while searching the web, i found some gammill patterns for sale.... so i pose this question to you gammill owners... are these patterns things that can be adapted to use for a regular machine quilting? i'm assuming they are like paper layout things that you trace with a light and your machine stitches it on the quilt.. right?!?!?

OR is there a better place out there to find some quilting patterns for my home machine (i got the sapphire 870 awhile back, and its got the 9" throat so i'm thinking i might be able to tackle a larger quilt then a wallhanging one of these days, and instead of meandering, i thought some patterns might be nice )

any advice you ladies can give me would be greatly appreciated!!!

Lisa...The pantos are usually on a 12 foot long piece of paper...I would think you could trace it onto your fabric and then quilt it...I am not certain how easy that would be.

There are also pattern packs that have block designs that would be easier to do that with.

You could google "Free Quilting Designs" and see what you find.

Here are a few that you can print off - I think they're mostly feathered wreaths.
http://www.forestquilting.com/index.html

I don't have a Gammill but I have a frame set up. I have a couple pantos that I've taken the thread out of my machine and stitched the lines with a large needle and then pounced on some powder and quilted it that way. To remove the chalk/powder, just use a piece of batting and rub it off.

Yup, that's right, that's what the "gammill patterns" are, also called pantographs. And yes, you roll this long scrolled page with the pattern out on the back of the table and follow it along with a laser light, and the machine stitches that pattern on the front of the quilt. If you Google pantographs, there are soooo many to choose from. I bought some when I first got my longarm, then I kept finding better and better ones. It think an average price would be about $15. each, new.

Have you looked at any of Laura Lee Fritz' books? She has several really good books on follow-the-line quilting designs, and good advice on marking methods. I have Mindfull Meandering and Creative Classics. They are really good for free motion on your domestic machine, which it sounds like you are interested in.

Good luck! Post photos

Pam

The best advice I could give is to doodle, doodle, doodle. All the free motion and longarm quilting is just practice and more practice. I keep a Magnadoodle in my car, so when I am at a traffic light or in line somewhere, I can practice!