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Facets – The Background Story
Facets 63″ x 70″ by Christa Watson. Photo courtesy of Robert Kaufman.
I love coordinated scrappy quilts and improvisational piecing, yet I’m more of a “structured improv” kind of gal. I like to randomly sew together a bunch of scrappy goodness, then create order and structure from the chaos. For Facets, I chose 28 Kona Cottons in warm reds, oranges, and yellows, with some green thrown in for good measure. The palette reminds me of crisp juicy apples!
It was such fun to cut up these fabrics into smaller chunks to play with!
It was very liberating to create my own crazy-pieced fabric to work with:
Randomly sewing bits of fabric together is very therapeutic!
I really went to town with the machine quilting on this one. I used both walking-foot quilting and free-motion techniques when quilting Facets. Whenever I quilt, I like to think about the logical sequence of steps I take before starting. That way, it doesn’t seem too overwhelming.
Using my “scrunch and smoosh” method for dealing with the bulk while quilting. There’s an extra table under there which helps hold up the weight of the quilt.
I love quilting swirls, and combining them with switchbacks really creates a lot of movement.
Photography by Brent Kane.
A Bit More – and a Bonus Giveaway!
I was stoked when Robert Kaufman decided to add this grouping to their designer palette series this fall. Coming in October, you’ll be able to get your hands on the Christa Watson Designer Palette in fat quarters, ten squares, charm squares, and roll-ups! You can create a quilt just like mine, but of course it will still be different because of the improv element. 🙂
What makes this quilt modern – offset grid layout, improvisational piecing, geometric design with high contrast and graphic impact, exclusive use of flat solids, bold, bright color palette, design goes all the way to the edges, organically quilted machine quilting.
Time for me to complete – 47 hours from start to finish, including the improv piecing.
How would you like to get your hands on a fat quarter bundle of my designer palette?
The Christa Watson Designer Palette – available at quilts shops everywhere in October!
To enter the giveaway for a 28 piece fat quarter bundle of my favorite Kona colors, just comment letting me know whether you’ve ever tried improv piecing and what you think about it. I’ll draw a winner at the end of the day on Sunday and announce their name on Monday, Sept. 28th.
And remember, don’t forget to vote for your favorite quilt for my QAL in January! Since I know you are dying to ask – yes, Facets is MY favorite quilt from the book. 🙂
Quilting Inspiration from kristy daum
I think my favorite part of this blog hop is seeing all of the amazing quilts from my talented friends! Kristy Daum from St. Louis Victorian and I have been online friends for awhile and finally got to meet up at QuiltCon earlier this year. You may remember Kristy’s amazing pixelated quilts featuring David Tennant as Dr. Who and the lovely Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock.
Now Kristy has knocked it out of the park with her version of Facets. I really love it when others really take an idea and make it their own! It was fun watching her instagram sneek peaks, and her final reveal today will take your breath away.
Pop on over to Kristy’s blog to see her version of Facets.
Teri’s Take
The amazing Teri Lucas from Terificreations shared a sneak peak of some Facets blocks on the Generation Q website earlier in the week. She chose to use solid pieces of fabric and did some killer quilting on them! Like me, she prefers to quilt on a home-sewing machine and she is one talented lady!! She’s one of those that I can talk quilting with all day long!
So far we’ve only met in person once, and I can’t wait to see her again at the next event. She’s always so thoughtful and encouraging – just the type of quilty friend you want in your corner. Teri is offering a book giveaway on her site. While you are there, be sure to browse around, and check out her amazing quilting!!
Head over to Teri’s blog to enter her giveaway.
Visit The Quilting Gallery
Michele Foster is the brilliant name and voice behind the highly popular website the Quilting Gallery. We first met online when I was an advertiser on her site, many moons ago. We have turned that business relationship into a really great friendship and I hope someday soon that we can meet up in person. I mean, if you are like me, you can always use another BQF (best quilting friend), right?
Michele blogs and shares so much inspiration about what’s happening in the quilting community, and she’s has written very nice things about my book over on her blog today. She even scored extra points with me by saying that Facets is her favorite quilt, too! In addition to being a prolific quilter, Michele is an amazing designer and hosts lots of fun clubs on her site. As part of her stop, she’s generously including a fun giveaway of her own. 🙂
Visit the Quilting Gallery blog and enter to win a membership to Michele’s mini quilting club!
Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.
Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.
Christa Quilts 
Have tried a little improv piecing and would like to do more.
That’s how I stared quilting. Just making it up as I went. My first quilt was very scrappy and turn out lovely!
Dmac5958ataoldotcom
I really enjoy improv piecing because it is so much fun to play with fabric patterns and colors. I started out with crazy quilting many years ago so I see improv quilts as a modern take on crazy quilting. Currently, I’m working on a quilt very similar to Lightning but my accent color is blue and is in the center of the block. Until I saw how you quilted Lightning from your book (received last week), that was the one question I had. “How am I going to quilt this?”
I love these colors, I havent done a improv quilt yet but yours is beautiful and i am all for something new..
I’ve never tried it but I’m inspired after seeing this post 🙂 Thank you!
I have tried but I wasn’t happy with my results. Yours turned out wonderful. I might do better now that I am a little bit older.
I keep thinking that it would be fun to complete an improv quilt but I’m not quite ready with my super-logical mindset. I’m trying to “forget all the rules” every so often so that I can eventually build myself up to breaking every rule out there and complete som improv.
I did a small piece of improv piecing for a fabric book and it was so fun! Ii love randomly hacking a few fabrics and then sewing them together. I am looking forward to trying more improv- probably on placemats next!
Gorgeous fabric! I have never tried “Improv Piecing” myself. Thanks and God bless!
Yes, I have made a few projects using improv piecing and I love it! The fact that there are no rules, no measuring, no color-coding, no matching up corners…what’s not to love. I agree that it is very therapeutic and stress-free. Plus, it helps to lower that scrap stash!
No I haven’t but it seems interesting
cauliflower rice
I have scraps saved for a someday scrappy improve quilt or maybe just start with a pillow.
I have never done it. It seems too far out of my comfort zone.
I like to use improv piecing on backgrounds – sky, water, etc.
I’ve never much liked it before now, but facets looks great so maybe I’ll give it a try.
I have never tried, but I do love it. It is on my list to try. Have a great day!
I have done a little improve piecing with leftover scraps…just some blocks, not a whole quilt YET.
improv
I have never tried to Improv – I am a pattern girl! thanks!
I have not tried improv piecing. I like some, but not others. Depends on what it looks like in the end.
I have done improv piecing on two quilts so far. I pieced the back of my zombie quilt using random scraps of different sizes. I also improved pieced the background of another quilt it represent a brick wall. Love you Facets quilt!