Positive Direction Quilt Remake Part 2

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I am enjoying sharing the making of this quilt in real time with no strict deadlines. If you’d like to follow along as I make this quilt, click here to read about Positive Direction Part 1.

Once I sewed the blocks together, I quickly got them up on my design wall following the quilt pattern layout. This wasn’t the final arrangement, but it let me see at a glance what it was going to look like.

Next, I spent a bit of time rearranging all of my blocks in a pleasing order. I wanted to keep the colors in the same position, but balance them out so you could start seeing the diagonal rows emerging. I purposefully made a few blocks that were a little lighter or darker to give the quilt some depth and sparkle.

I took a picture with my phone so that I could gather up each row of blocks and sew them all together, assemby-line style. I placed each row of blocks in a stack next to my sewing machine in order. I oriented them so that each pair of blocks is right sides together and the right hand side of the block closest to the machine is the side I’m sewing on.

I press all of my seams open so that the blocks lie super flat and I pin next to each intersection so that my points and corners wil match. I place my pins perpendicular so I can quickly grab them before sewing over them.

Each row had an odd number of blocks, so I left the odd block on the design wall. I can refer to my layout image and match up with each row with the missing block to keep things organized while I’m sewing.

As each row was completed, I started laying them out in order on my cutting table. This is so that I could press each row flat before adding it to the design wall to check the overall layout.

I put together a little video montage showing how it was starting to look as I sewed each row together. It’s fun to see the quilt shrink and the design to appear more prominent. Click the image below to watch. It’s only 20 seconds long, but of course took much longer in reality!

I’m really happy with how the finished quilt top turned out.

My Positive Direction quilt pattern is available as a PDF download and includes instructions for 4 sizes, including the one seen here.

Click here to get your copy of my Positive Direction quilt pattern.

Next up, I need to make the backing, then baste & quilt it. Those will all be separate posts, so stay tuned for more behind the scenes as I continue to make this quilt!

California Teachin’!

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I love traveling all over the country teaching my machine quilting methods and I pretty much say yes to any group who invites me. Over the next few months I’ll be traversing California at a couple of big shows. Next up is 4 days of workshops at Pacific International Quilt Festival, July 24-27, 2024. As of this writing one of my workshops is full, but there are still a couple spots left in 3 of them.

Click here for the most updated list of my workshops and to register for what’s still available.

Road to California Schedule – January 2025

I’ll be heading back to Road to California for the 3rd time in January. This is one of my favorite shows to go to both as an attendee and as a teacher. Registration opens July 1, 2024, and workshops usually sell out pretty quickly at this show. So take a look at I’ll be teaching below, and plan your schedule accordingly.

3008C – Walking Foot Bootcamp
Wednesday, January 22nd 2025
From 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM

4005C – Free Motion Bootcamp
Thursday, January 23rd 2025
From 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM

5005C – Machine Quilting Spirals & Swirls
Friday, January 24th 2025
From 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM

6006C – Free Motion Mashup: Combine & Design
Saturday, January 25th 2025
From 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM

Will I see you at either of these events? Although I love sharing online via my blog, social media, and YouTube channel, nothing beats taking a class from me live and in person!

Click here for my updated teaching schedule to see where else I’m traveling.

Sending Good Vibes & Free Quilt Patterns!

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It’s fun to share some of the reasoning behind the fabrics I’ve designed. With my Good Vibes collection, I wanted to create a group of fabrics with an equal number of lights and darks so that they’d work well in lots of precut friendly patterns.

Click here to view all Good Vibes fabrics.

Good Vibes by Christa Watson for Benartex

Speaking of precut friendly patterns made from light and dark, have you downloaded my FREE Puzzle Box quilt pattern? It’s made from 2 sets of 2 1/2″ wide strip rolls – half light and half dark! The picture below was taken at our favorite summer spot – Hermosa Beach in California.

Click here to get my free Puzzle Box quilt pattern emailed to you.

Puzzle Box Quilt Made from Good Vibes

Gotta Love Precuts!

Of course this quilt would look fabulous in any fabrics, but I just love the way it looks in the summery, citrus hues of my Good Vibes collection. You can grab 2 jelly rolls to make the quilt exactly as I did. Or, change things up and pair 1 jelly roll with a highly contrasting light or dark fabric that’s all the same. No matter what you do, it’s going to look great!!

Click here to get 1-2 jelly rolls to make this quilt.

Free Companion Video – Learn to Quilt Simple Wavy Lines

Nowadays, I can’t even make a quilt without recording a video while I’m machine quilting it. Nothing pleases me more than sharing my super simple domestic machine quilting techniques with all of you! Click the image below to watch my video tutorial and add this one to your quilty bucket list!

Have You Seen My Black, White & Bright Fabrics?

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I have a little secret to share. I’m currently working on a followup to my popular Dazzle Dots fabric collection. But in the meantime, while I can’t share what’s new, I can revisit some of my earlier fabric collections, just in case you missed them the first time around!

Click here to view my Black, White & Bright collection.

I designed this grouping to add to my stash of black & white prints, but then threw in a few bright colors and fun backgrounds. In fact, the four prints shown below – called “Crackle” are my absolute favorites from the group.

You can use the front side shown below for a “low volume” background with a pop of color. Or turn them over and use the back side of the print to tone it down a bit. These are such high quality that they look great on either side!!

Click here to view all of my designer fabrics by the yard.

Fun Machine Quilting Video Tutorials!

And in case you missed them, I shared 2 fun videos showing how to make a couple of quilts using this collection including the machine quilting.

Click here to get the Bling quilt pattern that includes my “Hashtag” layout shown in the video below. (Click the image below to play.)

The other quilt I made from this grouping is called Blooming Wallflowers, a quilt that I’ve made in several different collections. This time around I made a scrappy version and I recorded a longer video sharing cutting tips and tricks, too!

Click here to grab my Blooming Wallflowers quilt pattern.
The click the image below to watch the companion video.

If you make either of these quilts, do let me know! I always love to see how you guys change them up and make them your own!

Arrow Sewing Chair Giveaway!! The Best Chair Ever!

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Update: the giveaway is now over. Congrats to Cheryl C. from New York who won and picked the Duchess Blue chair. I’m sure it will look great in her sewing space!!

I’ve been thrilled that so many of you love my Christa Cabinet from Arrow Sewing. Once I started using the cabinet, I needed a chair to go along with it! So I picked out their hydraulic sewing chair in grey. I’m telling you, this is hands down the most comfortable chair for sewing I’ve ever tried!

Actual view of my sewing table with hydraulic chair. Off to my left is the Tasmanian table which is height adjustable and perfect for cutting!

In fact, I love this chair “sew” much that I got a 2nd one in blue for my computer desk which is along an opposite wall. These chairs are so comfy and give lumbar support right where you need it. They are adjustable and even have a storage compartment hidden in the seat!

I chose the plain colored chairs to match my sewing room, but they come in lots of colorful prints, too!

Here’s How You Can Win One!

Just leave a comment on this post telling me where you sew! Whether it’s a dream studio, or a tiny corner in your home, you can make your space more comfy with one of these chairs.

Now the fine print: due to shipping restrictions this giveaway is open to US residents only. The giveaway will be open through the end of the day on Monday, May 27, 2024. I’ll choose a winner randomly from all the comments received and will contact them directly. The chair will ship directly from Arrow Sewing.

Good luck and happy sewing!!

Catch Me on Episode 3410 of The Quilt Show

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A couple of months ago I shared some sneak peeks of my time hanging out with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. (Click here to read my previous blog post.)

Now I’m excited to announce my episode of The Quilt Show has dropped and you can watch for free!! But first, check out this fun trailer they made below. (Click the image to start the video).

Alex and RIcky really leaned into the fact that I call myself a “cheerleader” for domestic machine quilting, LOL!!

Watch My Episode for Free!

You can watch this episode AND my previous episode #2409 that I filmed several years back.

Click here to get a free 7 Day trial to watch them both!

And just for fun – here’s an outtake of Justin who introduces many of the episodes. He likes to keep it fun so he ran around on set literally being MY cheerleader the entire time!! You HAVE to watch the show, just for his antics!!

If you get a chance to watch – let me know what you think. I think their show is fantastic “Edutainment” – it’s both educational AND entertaining!

Have You Seen My Stitchy Color Bundles?

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Stitchy is my fabric collection from Benartex that features 5 different geometric prints in 5 different colorways ranging from light to dark. I usually like to keep my fabric lines to about 20-25 prints so they don’t break the bank and that’s been working really great so far.

Click here to get your hands on Stitchy, my 8th fabric collection with Benartex.

I went with a “sewing & sharing” theme on this collection with fun names like Hashtags, Stitches, Sunny Day, Crossweave, and Threaded Lines. While supplies last, you can grab half yard bundles of any of the five colorways shown below: pink, orange, lime, turquoise and grey.

Stitchy in Pink

Click here to get the Stitchy color bundle in pink.

Stitchy in Orange

Click here to get the Stitchy color bundle in orange.

Stitchy in Green

Click here to get the Stitchy color bundle in green.

Stitchy in Turquoise

Click here to get the Stitchy color bundle in turquoise.

Stitchy in Grey

Click here to get the Stitchy color bundle in grey.

Stitchy fabrics are also available individually by the yard, or you can grab a fat quarter bundle of the entire group. Which colorway is *your* favorite??

Click here to view all Stitchy yardage, bundles, precuts and kits.

My Dazzle Dots Fabric is Back in Stock

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Have you added some of this bright colorful fabric to your stash yet? Dazzle Dots is my 9th collection so far with Benartex and it’s been the most popular one yet, which is super exciting! I guess folks love the rainbow colors and simple polka dot prints. Fawning over my fabric is like telling me my kids are cute – so I just eat it up!!

Dazzle Dots Yardage, Bundles and Kits

The exciting news is that Dazzle Dots is now on it’s 2nd printing and is ready to ship! Many of the colors, such as the neutrals and the navy blues sold out so fast it was hard to get ahold of them after the first print run sold out. I always order several of my bolts of fabric from the manufacturer but it was fun to see the demand for these.

So in case you missed them the first time around (or need more – that’s totall ok!) you can once again get any of the 22 prints by the yard. Or stock up on your favorite bundles such as fat quarters of the full line, or 1/2 yard bundles by colorway.

Click here to grab Dazzle Dots fabrics, bundles and kits!

Dazzle Dots Video Tutorials

And in case you missed it, I’ve created 7 different videos showing the 8 quilts I’ve made (so far) from Dazzle Dots. I made a play list of all of them on my YouTube channel. Click the icon or image to get started watching. (Depending on your browser you might NOT see a preview image, but it will play once you click on it.)

They videos will play continuously one right after the other, in order.

Sharing is Caring!

If you’ve made projects from Dazzle Dots, I’d love to see them. You can tag me on social media using #dazzledotsfabric and you can also share what you are doing (and get feedback if you’d like) on my ChristaQuilts Facebook Group.

Until next time, Happy Quilting!!

Show Report – My Trip to Paducah 2024

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If you haven’t had a chance to travel to Paducah, KY for the AQS quilt show, I thought it would be fun to share a few highlights from my week of teaching there. It was my first trip to this amazing show and it certainly won’t be my last!

From Las Vegas, I flew to Charlotte, NC and then took a smaller commuter plane to the Paducah regional airport. Once there, we were greeted by the Paducah ambassadors and then taken over to the host hotel to settle in. The next day kicked off a 4 day frenzy of lectures, workshops, food, friends and fun!

Here’s a short little clip of excited students eagerly awaiting my first lecture. There’s nothing like a room full of quilters to get me all amped up!! Click the image below to play.

I taught a total of 5 machine quilting workshops, demonstrating a variety of walking foot and free motion techniques. At a large show like this, the students don’t even have to bring in machines because each room was sponsored by a different sewing machine manufacturer which is really nice.

Pro tip- the best place to test drive a new machine is in a workshop at a major quilt show – and that’s usually the best way to get a great deal on a new machine!

Above is a few images of the practice samples that students created in class. In between trying out the different motifs from my books, I sprinkled in plenty of ideas showing how students could apply these designs to actual, full sized quilts.

During the break in between classes, I was able to squeeze in a few minutes each day to see the quilts at the show and they did not disappoint! Of course, I’m partial to the modern quilts, so I put together a little montage below, showing just a few of my faves. I took a photo of each artist credit as well. Click the image below to play.

On the last day of teaching which was Saturday, I finally had time to head over to the National Quilt Museum which was in walking distance of my hotel. The whole downtown area is adorable and there’s even a scenic river walk which adds to the charm!

I ran across a time capsule on the front lawn of the museum which was placed back in 1993. That’s just 2 years before I made my first quilt in 1995 at the ripe young age of 22!! The time capsule will be unearthed in April of 2043, 50 years later. I realized I will be 70 years old at that time, so I decided right then and there, if I’m (hopefully) still around, I’ll make plans to be there for the opening. How fun will that be???

The museum hosts a collection of over 600 quilts they’ve acquired over the years, and they just have a partial display of quilts on display at any one time. While I was there, they had several curated exhibitions, including a fun display of 1920’s themed Art Deco quilts, along with several quilts shown from teachers and other notable attendees who were there at the show. How fun would it be to walk into the museum and see your quilt hanging there. (I may need to add this honor to my bucket list of goals….)

Here’s a short 2 minute video showing a quick overview of 2 of the exhibit rooms along with some of my personal faves. Click play below to watch:

Seeing all of the beautiful quilts at the show, and also at the museum has caused me to reflect deeply upon my current work. While I love all of the quilts I make for patterns, books and to promote my fabrics, I’ve realized it’s been awhile since I’ve made a quilt specifically to enter into a quilt show. So I plan to set aside more time to do that in the future. Of course I’ll continue to share my journey and I hope you’ll continue along for the ride!

Will I See You at PIQF in 2024?

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I’m just got back from teaching in Paducah, Kentucky and had an amazing time. One thing that the pandemic made me realize is how much I love teaching live and in person. When I wasn’t able to do that, it truly felt like something was missing. If you missed seeing me last week, your next opportunity to do so will be at Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, California, July 24-27, 2024.

I’m excited to be teaching a full slate of workshops, including two of my signature full-day classes: Walking Foot Bootcamp & Free Motion Bootcamp. Taken together, these two will basically teach you everything you need to know to have a successful experience quilting on a domestic machine.

Whether you are a newbie to machine quilting or have been around the block a few times, it’s fun to share my best tips and tricks while guiding you through a series of exercises based on my latest 2 books: 99 Machine Quilting Designs & How Do I Quilt It?

Along with the bootcamp workshops, I’m offering a super fun class called Machine Quilting Fun with Spirals and Swirls. This is another all-day class that will go in depth with tons of cool ideas you can do with a walking foot OR free-motion. I enjoy teaching both techniques in the same class and especially love that “a-ha!” moment that students experience when everything clicks!

Domestic Machine Quilting is My Favorite Thing to Teach

Finally I will be teaching a 1/2 day class called Free-Motion Mashup. This is where you get to take a whole bunch of your favorite motifs and learn how to mix them up in a fun way. I often refer to this technique as “free-motion improv” or “improvisational machine quilting” because that’s exactly what it is. The cool thing about this technique is that it’s a completely unique design, each time you stitch it!

Just one of the infinite possibilities you can create with Free-Motion Mashup

PIQF Registration Info

I sure hope you can make it to this amazing show. Click here for my PIQF class listings.
Or you can register for any of them by clicking on each individual workshop below:

I really enjoying teaching at lots of different venues, so if you are unable to travel to me, I’m always happy to come to you! Feel free to pass along my name to the program coordinator of your local quilting group or guild. I pretty much say yes to wherever I’m invited to go. I’m always up for the next quilty adventure!