Aligning Designs

One of the most critical part of digital quilting is guaranteeing your designs line up from row to row and block to block. Not too fret, we have tips to make this element smooth.

Closing Gaps

Designs sold as edge-to-edge, or e2e designs, are created to link with each other once in your robotic system software. Depending on your brand, you’ll either “snap” the designs together or simply close the gap between repeating instances to make the designs link together.  Shorten the distance in between rows to properly align the design and nest edge-to-edge elements.

Close Gap | Quiltable

Aligning Rows

This tip can be applied as you are advancing a quilt on the longarm quilting frame. Your robotics system may vary, but look for a nudge feature. This will allow you to compensate for any tiny amount of stretch or distortion as the quilt is stitched. Nudging a design is particularly useful with something like a clamshell or grid that needs to perfectly touch the previous row of stitching.

This is the goal as it is laid out:

Perfect Repeating Pattern | Quiltable

As the quilt advances, you may find slight the gaps in the design when it stitches onto your quilt:

Perfect Repeating Pattern | Quiltable

To avoid gaps, follow these steps:

  1. Advance the quilt normally.
  2. Double check the digital design placement by hovering your needle over the previous row on the quilt and making sure it aligns with the previous row in your quilting system display.
  3. Take the time to nudge the digital design in place by fractions of an inch for perfect placement.
  4. Continue stitching on the next row, as normal.

Aligning Blocks

Aligning blocks is a wonderful option on many robotic quilting systems. Be advised, when laying out a quilt, digitally, everything is perfect. The align function for computers is created to use nodes and points to make a flawless arrangement.

Perfect Block Alignment | Quiltable

When actual applying designs to a quilt, however, the blocks should align with the space in which they are quilted. In many cases, blocks are not going to be 100% perfectly aligned. Take the time to place each quilting design within the block/fabric, one at a time.



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