Square in a Square is my second favorite quilt from my book Machine Quilting with Style. (Click here to find out which one is my favorite.) I really tried to play with alternate grids and negative space when I designed this quilt. I combined two of my go-to motifs when quilting it: free-motion boxes and walking foot square spirals. I love that it includes a bit of both methods I teach in the book.
Square in a Square is currently being exhibited in the modern category of the Pacific International Quilt Festival and it hung at Road to California earlier in the year. I love entering my quilts into shows so they can be seen by a wider audience. 🙂
Square in a Square 60″ x 60″ by Christa Watson. Photography by Brent Kane for Martingale.
Imagine the Possibilities
My BQF (Best Quilting Friend) Stacy from Farm Road Quilts made this fun version which is is just perfect for Halloween! During the original blog hop a year ago, a bunch of my friends each remade one of the quilts from the book. Click here to see all of the variations – they are so fun!
Square in a Square made by Stacy Cooper of Farm Road Quilts.
I design all of my quilts in EQ7 and I have embraced my inner control freak that needs to know exactly what it’s going to look like even before I begin, LOL!! So here are a couple more fun variations that I came up with, using Amanda Murphy’s playful Sewing Room collection for Benartex.
I think using the light gray background is probably more my style, but I wanted to push the envelope and see how fun and it would look using the sewing machine fabric as the background combined with funky bright solids.
Click here to get some of this fun fabric!!
Do you recognize what kind of sewing machine that is? Amanda is a BERNINA ambassador just like me, so I’m sure that influenced her artwork. Hmmm. maybe a smaller version of this would make a perfect sewing machine cover for my BERNINA!! 🙂
Giveaway Time! Win EQ Mini!!
Speaking of designing in EQ7, my good friends at The Electric Quilt Company recently released their latest software, EQ Mini. It’s a scaled down, less expensive version of EQ. It’s perfect for anyone who wants to get their feet wet designing their own quilts, but isn’t sure where to start.
One winner will receive either a boxed physical copy or an email code to download directly from the website, so that means this giveaway is open to everyone! To enter, leave a comment letting me know if you’ve ever designed your own quilt. For a bonus entry, share a picture of it in my Facebook group at Quilt with Christa.
And now it’s time to congratulate last week’s winner’s, Bec B. and Sharon T. who each won a copy of 180 Doodle Quilting Designs. It’s been so fun to read all of your comments each week and see the quilts you are making!
Click here to purchase a signed copy of Machine Quilting with Style.
Click here to see all of the quilts from the book.
Christa Quilts 
The Best Way to Use a Sewing Machine Cover, odds are it is a clear plastic cover made with vinyl. It is designed to protect the machine from dust but sometimes it is not very pretty.
I have never designed my own quilt, but I would love to give a try in EQ mini!
I have never designed my own quilts. If I did, I would probably quilt more.
I’ve never intentionally designed my own quilt but I often change some features in the process. The thought of designing scares me somewhat but each time I see a “new” block I am surprised at how simply moving a line or rotating a block can change the entire look of the block/quilt. I would love to have some software to play around with!
I love designing quilts. It is fun to get an idea and watch it turn into a beautiful quilt. Thank you for this chance.
Yes, I have tried designing my own quilt. i think i would have better success using EQ Mini since it uses better “tools” than the pencil and paper than I used!
Yes, I have tried designing my own quilt! I think EQ mini would give me better success with more “tools” than pencil and paper!
I’ve never designed my own quilt. I would love to try it. I’ve always just used patterns made by other designers.
I’d love to try out EQ mini! I’ve designed my own quilts using graph paper and using Excel (I know, but it’s what I have at work) and would love to try using proper quilt software.