Ardelle’s Panto Preview/organization System

   

Shortly after I started quilting Customer Quilts, I felt the need to come up with a way to show customers what a Pantograph would look like on their quilt.  I had heard about drawing a Panto out on plastic so it could be layed out on a quilt to see how that Panto will look.

So I went shopping looking for plastic, not sure how I was going to organize things, and was having no luck finding plastic that I felt was the right weight and was affordable in the bulk I would need.  Then I found legal size page protectors! 

 
  

I start by cutting off the bottom of the page protector.

  

  

Then I open up the side of the page protector with a pair of scissors. Now the page protector can be unfolded to a large piece of plastic with binder holes still attached. Next I lay this over the Panto and trace with a Sharpie Permanent Marker. I then organize these pages in categories in a binder.

   

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I made title pages for each category and also put a price list on each of these.  Each pattern had the Panto name, a price category and an number.  Each Panto has the corresponding number written on them, and they are organized in a drawer in order by number.
   
Then I made another binder with paper copies of the pantos in the same order as the binder with the traced pantos.  This paper binder is easier to see, as the customer is not looking through layers of clear plastic and many tracings!  The customer looks through this binder, giving me page numbers of Pantos she/he may be interested in, and I get those Pantos out of the traced binder and lay them on the quilt.  Next the customer starts eliminating until she/he has chosen the Panto she wishes.  

 

I then write the Panto number and name on the intake sheet.  When it is time to quilt the quilt, I find the correct number from the Panto drawer, and I am ready to start!

This system works very well for me.

Till next Tuesday,……

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