For this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs learn to quilt one of my favorite walking foot quilting designs: Continuous Wavy Spiral. Watch the full video by clicking play below:
Get the Sparkling Stars Quilt Kit
While supplies last, I still have a few Sparkling Stars kits made from Stitchy fabric. Grab one now and start practicing your wavy spirals!
Bonus Video: How to Quilt Wavy Spiral on Sparkling Stars:
I made this video in response to everyone saying, “sure I can quilt that on a small sample, but it must be hard to quilt that on a larger quilt!” My answer is that it’s super simple to do! Watch and learn below:
If you’d rather choose your own fabrics in similar colors, you can grab the Sparkling Stars quilt pattern and get started making this quilt right away! The full color pattern incudes color charts so it’s easy to follow. It’s available both as a PDF instant download, or I’m happy to snail mail you the physical hardcopy. Choose your favorite format below:
I named this pattern “Bling” because the main part of the design is an abstract representation of a sparkly ring. Can you see it?? Last week we cut out our fabrics and this week it’s time to sew them together to make Bling blocks! I like to lay out all of my pieces stacked up in order next to my sewing machine.
I’m making the scrappy background version, so as long as there’s good contrast between my lights and darks, these are going to look great! You can also use all of one background fabric for a more consistent, cleaner look.
In the Bling quilt pattern, I give you a couple of options for arranging each Bling block. You can use all of the same fabric for each Bling like I did above. Or you can use more than one fabric for a bit of a scrappy look. It’s totally up to you!
I like to press my seams open so the blocks will lie super flat. I sew with a shorter stitch length (2.0 instead of 2.5) to add more thread to each seam for extra strength. Click the image above to watch a short video of me sewing the units together using pins to line everything up. I assembly line sew, aka “chain piecing” to make this process faster.
The pattern tells how many blocks you need to make for each size. So your homework this week is to follow the diagrams and instructions in the pattern on pages 2-3 to make your blocks. The be sure to share pics of your progress in my Christa Quilts group on Facebook!
If you are just joining us, you can grab a copy of the Bling quilt pattern and choose your own fabrics. Or you can grab one of the optional kits if you want to make one just like mine!
I’m back with more fun free motion designs for you to try! Whenever I teach in person, I emphasize the importance of sketching out your design, quilting it on a practice sample, then making a quilting plan to quilt an entire quilt. Watch my latest tutorial below, and then give it a go!
Quilt These Designs on Surplus Strips!
Now, I invite you to try quilting these designs on a real, full sized quilt. I Stitched out the Spiral flowers on the soft, pastel version of Surplus Strips, and a secondary design on the gray version. While supplies last, you can grab the kit to make either of these quilts. They are made from precut strips + background, so you can whip up the quilt top in no time!
The fastest way to finish a quilt is to assembly line all of the steps. That means I like to cut out all of the pieces first, then sew as much as I can until I need to stop and press. I test out of all of my patterns by following my own directions while making the quilt, and I tend to make my quilts several times so you can rest assured the instructions will be correct.
So this week it’s time to dive in and cut into your luscious fabrics to make *your* version of Bling! Depending on which fabrics you’ve chosen, you can use fat quarters, half yards, or even scraps! I’m making my version from Dazzle Dots 1 & 2 Fat Quarters.
The darker, more saturated prints will be for the main block design, while the lighter, pastel prints will be for my backgrounds. I took out the light and dark grey from the original Dazzle Dots since I only need 20 fabrics (not 22).
If you’d like to make this quilt exactly as I’m showing here, you can grab the Bling Quilt Kit, while supplies last. I also have a few made up in my Stitchy fabrics, too! This is my 5th time making Bling (see the other color ways below). If you can’t already tell, I really like making this quilt!
Follow the pattern instructions on page 2 to cut out all of your units. For faster cutting, I like to cut my fabrics into strips, then subcut them into the unit sizes listed in the pattern. I’ll usually stack 4 layers of fabric to make this go faster. So that’s either 4 fat quarters stacked on top, or if I’m cutting double folded yardage, it’s usually 2 fabrics at a time.
Because I’m cutting 4 at a time, there may be some leftovers at the end, but I’ll just set those aside for something else, or piece them into the backing. If you are cutting your units from fat quarters like I did, you’ll have some of each fat quarter left over. I’ll include those on the back, too!
I will also cut the binding out ahead of time and in this case it will be scrappy, too! Bling includes an optional scrappy border, but I’m not adding that in this version like I have in previous versions. For some reason, I really like how the blocks go all the way to the edges this time.
I love getting a shot of all my pieces, cut, organized and ready to sew!! If you want to get a leg up on next week’s piecing, you can lay out all of your units in order right next to your sewing machine.
I prefer to cut out all of my pieces to the correct size ahead of time, and then sew them together, rather than strip piecing. So it may seem like a lot of cutting at the beginning. But once the pieces are stacked and ready to sew, they go together super fast!!
For this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs learn my basic free-motion swirl motif, then see how I can easily change it up to create several different variations. Click play below to watch:
With every episode I like to include bonus tips and tricks for quilting these designs on a real, full sized quilt. And I like to share a different quilt for my backdrop each time. This week I’m talking about Terrace Tiles which is literally one of the fastest and easiest quilts you can make. In fact, I love it so much I’ve made it 6 different times, each with a different quilting plan, LOL!
Grab the Terrace Tiles quilt pattern (if you don’t already own it). And then watch this bonus video below, showing how I quilted 3 of them. I always say the best way to practice is to quilt an entire quilt with one motif; you’l be an expert at that design by the time you finish the quilt!
How are you doing with each of the designs? If you practice quilting about 10-15 minutes a day, you’ll see an improvement in no time! Be sure to share your practice samples over in my Christa Quilts Group on Facebook, and ask any questions you have!
Who’s excited to join me for the Bling quilt along which begins next week? All you need is a copy of the Bling quilt pattern to follow along, and each week’s assignment will be posted right here on the blog. But just remember, you can totally quilt along at your own pace!
Which colorway do you prefer? The Bling quilt pattern itself comes in multiple sizes and you can choose to include the floater border as shown in my Stitchy version above, or leave it off like I did with the Dazzle Dots variation
As you gather your supplies, I’d love to see which fabrics *you* choose! You can post pics of your fabric pull over in my Christa Quilts Group on Facebook, or feel free to email me directly: christa@christaquilts.com. You can also tag me on social media @christaquilts or use #blingquilt on instagram. I’m excited to cheer you on every step of the way!
For this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs I’m showing how to use your walking foot or dual fee to quilt two spiral spiral variations: continuous Round Spirals and Overlapping Spirals. Watch the full video on my YouTube channel below:
Get the Kits!
While supplies last, I still have Sparkling Stars kits made from Stitchy and Optical Illusion kits in black and white. I quilted wavy spirals on Sparkling Stars and Overlapping Spirals on Optical Illusion. I think this was the perfect design for both of these quilts! You’ll use the same technique that I show you in the video above, but you’ll just keep turning the quilt round and round until it’s done.
Although I enjoy offering kits as a convenience, it’s also very easy to grab my quilt patterns and then select your own fabrics in similar colors. My Optical Illusion pattern is such a crowd pleaser and it looks great in any fabrics. The secret is choosing light, medium, and dark fabrics to create contrast which forms the illusion.
I asked followers amongst all of my social media channels if they wanted to create Bling or Beaded Lanterns for our next Quilt Along, and the majority voted for Bling, but not by much. So guess what?? I’m actually going to make both!! We will kick off with Bling then follow up with Beaded Lanterns after. See below for details and QAL schedule….
Bling Quilt Along Schedule Begins July 17!
Week 1 July 17 – Cutting
Week 2 July 24 – Making the Blocks
Week 3 July 31 – Quilt Top Assembly
Week 4 Aug 7 – Catch up & Basting
Week 5 Aug 14 – Quilting and Finishing
Each week I will guide you through each step of making the quilt. I will be making the Dazzle Dots version shown above with the scrappy Hashtags layout. All you need is a copy of the quilt pattern, or the optional kit to follow along. There are so many different ways to lay out this fat quarter friendly quilt!
Each week of the quilt along, I will be sharing tips and tricks right here on my blog and will include a bonus video during the quilting and finishing week. Just remember, you can work at your own pace, and the quilt along will stay up indefinitely so you can refer to it again and again, any time you wish!
Beaded Lanterns Quilt Along Starts Aug 28!
Beaded Lanterns will follow a similar format and will begin about a week after we finish up Bling. So you can make either quilt, both quilts, or neither – it’s totally up to you. I’ll follow up with a reminder once it gets closer, but as long as you read my blog updates, you’ll be all set!
When practicing your free-motion quilting, I recommend trying a variety of curvy and geometric designs. You may decide you like one style over another! In this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs you can practice both techniques when you stitch up Ribbon Loops or Harlequin! Click play below to watch:
Bonus Video – Quilting Ticker Tape
My Ticker Tape quilt shown behind me in the video, is quilted using single ribbon loops. I love making the same quilt multiple times to try out different fabric combinations and quilting plans. Check out my bonus video below, showing I quilted Ticker Tape using 2 different quilting plans:
Get the Ticker Tape Quilt Kit!
If you’d like to take your quilting practice to the next level, grab my Ticker Tape kit while supplies last. It comes in 4 different colorways, all made from my Dazzle Dots fabrics.
Which color way is *your* favorite??
YouTube Play Lists
Let me know how you are liking this video series, and if you have any special requests of designs I haven’t covered yet. You can watch the entire machine quilting designs series as much as you like, and also check out my other playlist showing how I quilted these designs on real, full sized quilts!
Are you keeping up withy my 99 Machine Quilting Designs Series? If so, what are some of your favorite designs so far? I have another fun one for you to try this week. Click the image below to watch me quilt a fun, whimsical design called “Clouds.”
Practice quilting this design (and many more) on my Swanky Spirals quilt pattern!
If you’d like more ideas for making and quilting this quilt, check out my bonus video below. It’s part of my “How I Quilted It” video series where I show how to quilt real, full sized quilts on a domestic machine. Happy watching!!
Christa Quilts 