Facets Quilt Along – Intro and Fabric Requirements

January 15, 2016April 8, 201619 Comments

I’m ready to start my next quilt along featuring Facets, from my book Machine Quilting With Style. This is the quilt you all voted that was your favorite, and I’m so excited because it’s my favorite, too!

Facets_Kona

Facets by Christa Watson 63″ x 70″

The quilt along is a little bit different than the other quilt alongs I have shared in the past. You will need a copy of my book to participate. But that’s no problem, because I know that many of you have purchased your copies already (or received them as Christmas gifts).

Where to Purchase My Book

Machine Quilting With Style

Those new to my blog can pick up a signed copy of Machine Quilting With Style directly from me, or grab it here on Amazon for a super low price! It’s starting to show up in many local quilt shops, too, so check yours for availability. If you’d like to get a combo e-book + hardcopy, my publisher has a great deal over on the Martingale website.

Materials Requirements

cwpalette_cropped

28 Fat Eighths of your favorite fabrics (or grab a fat quarter bundle of the Christa Watson palette if you want to make yours in the same colors as mine!). Or 3 1/2 yards of scraps.
2 7/8 yards of background fabric (white in my quilt)
1 1/8 yards for accent and binding (red in my quilt)
4 1/2 yards backing
Twin Size Batting
Your favorite thread for machine piecing and quilting (I prefer Aurifil 50 wt.)
Creative Grids Rulers – Triangle Squared and Perfect Rectangle rulers. (Be sure to get this brand as other rulers are not the right size.)

creative_grids The book includes templates if needed, but the rulers are easier to use!

Facets Quilt Along Schedule

Here’s how it will work: each Friday I will post an update with your “homework” here on the blog. You can share your progress anytime, in my Facebook group at Quilt With Christa. If you are not on Facebook but still want to share, you can email me a picture of your progress and I’ll share it in a roundup photo.

Because we are working through the book, no directions will be given here on the blog. However, I will share behind the scenes of the making of Facets and I’ll be your cheerleader to help you out as well as lay out your goals for completion week by week.

All links below will be clickable once that post has been published.

Week 1 – Gather and share your fabrics.
Week 2 – Make your own improv pieced fabric.
Week 3 – Cut the blocks (with tutorial on how to use the Creative Grids specialty rulers).
Week 4 – Sew the quilt top together.
Week 5 – Baste the quilt.
Week 6 – Straight Line Machine Quilting.
Week 7 – Free-Motion Machine Quilting.
Week 8 – Bind to Finish.

There Will be Prizes!

Each week you share your progress in my Fb group (or email pics to me), I’ll enter your name into one of three grand prize drawings at the end. So the more weeks you share, the more chances you have to win!

Three lucky participants will win the Grand Prize Pack – all three prizes per winner!

A signed copy of my next book, The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting, which releases April 19th. (And yes, I’ll get my co-author Angela Walters to sign it for you, too!)
A charm pack of my Kona Designer Palette.
A 1300 meter spool of Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread, in the color of your choice!

Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting

You don’t even have to finish your quilt to be entered into the grand prize. However, everyone who shares a picture of their finished quilt by March 31 will be entered to win the BONUS prize – a jelly roll of their choice from The Precut Store.

working

And because I don’t want to leave anyone out, all participants who share at least one picture will win a PDF pattern of their choice from my pattern shop!

Sharing is Caring

If you’d like, you can save and share this badge on your blog or other social media and spread the word about my quilt along! You can share the image only, or link it back to this post.

Share your work in progress on Instagram with the hashtag #facetsqal

FacetsQALbadge

So who’s ready to join the fun? Grab a copy of my book, your fabrics and start sharing your pics!

My MQG Fabric Challenge Quilt and Why It’s Important to go Out of Your Comfort Zone

December 8, 2015December 7, 201520 Comments

I recently finished “Fractured Puzzle” which was my Modern Quilt Guild fabric challenge entry. All contestants were given samples of Michael Miller Glitz fabrics and we could add in additional Michael Miller fabrics as desired. My quilt is based on my Puzzle Box quilt design that’s a free download for newsletter subscribers.

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Fractured Puzzle by Christa Watson, 56″ x 60″

This quilt was way, way out of my comfort zone for so many reasons! At first, I thought I would play it safe, and sew together the blocks in a standard, traditional grid format, shown below:

black_white_blocks

I really like the graphic quality of this layout, and the Glitz fabrics really play off of each other. Next, I thought it would be fun to add a pop of color with a red Cotton Couture solid:

with_red_sashing

By now, I’m really, really starting to like how this is turning out. I shared these pics in social media on instagram and facebook and received a lot of very positive feedback. But then a crazy idea popped into my head, and I couldn’t get rid of it:

What would happen if if I slashed up the quilt top and then sewed it back together??

first_cut

Getting ready to take the first cut – this was so scary!!

Going this route scared me so much because I thought people would really think I’d gone off the deep end. But something in me said I had to try, and that was truly exciting. After all, this WAS a quilt challenge. It’s not for publication, nor is it for a class sample, and I really didn’t need anyone else’s approval to do this. I finally decided to just dive in and see what happened. What a liberating feeling!!

slashed_blocks

Wanna go crazy? Slash up your quilt!!

After making the first cut, things got a little easier. Now I’m liking the fractured look and for a time, I considered adding white strips in between each of the sections, “slash-and-insert” style. I still may explore this idea in a future quilt. But with this one, I decided to sew the sections back together, creating a really fractured, disjointed look.

At this point I’m not quite sure if it’s a modern quilt, or really more of an art quilt, but I don’t care, as I’m truly loving the process!!

puzzle_pieced

Fractured Puzzle quilt top – a more dynamic design, don’t you think?

The hardest part was figuring how to sew the pieces back together. I felt like I was sewing a puzzle, joining sections back together to create larger units. I knew that I’d lose quite a bit around the edges once I squared it up, but that was totally okay with me.

quilting_in_progress

After the top came together, I had a really great vision for the quilting, even though I knew it would be a TON of work! With my new BERNINA 770 I quilted tons of straight lines, about 1/4″ apart in each of the fractured sections, following a different angle.

This meant lots of loose threads to tie off at the end, but it was important for me to go with what the quilt “wanted” rather than what was easy. After all, I realized this quilt was more about the process and the journey, rather than the finished product.

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Quilting Detail – it’s all about the angular texture!

I truly enjoyed making this quilt from start to finish. It really pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me the freedom to explore the boundaries beyond traditional design.

I entered it into QuiltCon for 2016 and statistically the odds are slim that it will get in: there were over 1800 entries and only around 325 are accepted. But I’m an optimist and I’ll keep my fingers crossed. 🙂 Besides, no matter what happens, this was a fabulous journey for me to complete, and I’m now emboldened to make other, “un-safe” choices when it comes to quilting!

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What’s the most interesting, unique, or non-traditional quilt you’ve ever made?
Let me know in the comments, or post pictures over on my Facebook Group: Quilt With Christa.

Fabric Friday – The Christa Watson Designer Palette

December 4, 2015December 1, 20158 Comments

My precuts are finally here! The Christa Watson Designer palette from Robert Kaufman comes in Fat Quarters, Ten Squares, Roll Ups and Charm packs.

Click here to purchase!

Christa Watson Designer Palette

Each bundle includes 28 shades of reds, orange, yellows, and greens. I chose these fresh citrus colors because they are warm and inviting. The pops of green cool it down a bit and the whole bundle sparks excitement (at least for me)!

christawatsonpalette_

Click here for a list of the color names that are included in my precut bundles.

I originally chose these colors to make Facets, my favorite quilt from my book Machine Quilting With Style. Just one fat quarter bundle will be plenty of fabric to make the quilt top. You can throw in an accent color like I did, or make all of the blocks from crazy pieced fabric. I used Kona Snow for the background, and it really sets off the bright colors!

Facets_Kona

Facets, from Machine Quilting With Style

Of course, I couldn’t just stop there! I really had an itch to tweak my Charming Chevrons pattern and see what it would look like with the new colors! All it takes is 4 charm packs (or one set of Ten-Squares) plus background fabric. This time I went darker with the background, opting for Kona Coal to make the colors pop.

feathered_chevrons_eq

I’m calling this version Feathered Chevrons – it’s my current WIP!

Finally, I thought it would be fun to design a quilt using nothing but roll-ups. Puzzle Box is available as a free PDF download when you sign up for my email newsletter. It uses just one roll-up of my designer palette, plus one roll up of background. Of course, it would look great in your favorite precuts, too!

Click here to join my newsletter list and get your free pattern!

Puzzle Box Pattern

Puzzle Box, a Free Pattern made from Roll Ups (Jelly Rolls)

When you purchase your precuts and start sewing with them, please share what you make in my Facebook Group: Quilt With Christa. You can also hashtag your work in progress on Instagram, using #christawatsonpalette. I love to see what you are making!

Fun News to Share – Quilt Show Quilts

November 19, 2015November 21, 201513 Comments

I’ve written extensively before about entering quilt shows, and I love discussing the topic with others. In a nutshell, I’m not a “show quilter” but rather consider myself a “quilt-show enterer.” I love entering modern categories of both local and national shows to help share my examples of the modern aesthetic.

Facets_Kona

Facets (my favorite quilt from Machine Quilting With Style) will be at AQS-Phoenix

I was pleased with fun news this week: 2 of the quilts from my book will be heading to Road to California in January, and a third will be off to AQS-Phoenix in February. A fourth quilt from the book will be judged in QuiltCon since it was pre-qualified by being part of the MQG showcase at International Quilt Festival. I’ve entered additional quilts into QuiltCon, but won’t find out those results until a bit later (keeping my fingers crossed.)

Finals B1324.indd

Square in a Square will be shown at Road to California in January.

Lightning

Lightning will also be shown at Road – entrants were allowed up to 2 modern quilts.

One of the hardest parts about making quilts ahead of time for my book was realizing they’d be out of commission for about a year. Most quilt shows give you 2 years from the time of completion to enter. Because of the writing deadlines, I have much less time to share my book quilts in shows, so I have to choose wisely on where they’ll go. The exception is QuiltCon which allows quilts up to 4 years old, so thank goodness for that!

rain-full

Rain is my second favorite book quilt and will be proudly on display at QuiltCon.

A good friend of mine says that entering quilt shows is like quilt-casino: you never know who the judges or competition will be. Every now and then I snag a ribbon, but most of the time I don’t and that’s okay. I’m just happy to share my quilts with a wider audience!

Will you be traveling to any quilt shows next year? If so, which ones?

Spiraling Out of Control Pattern Available in MQU Magazine

November 12, 2015January 27, 2016100 Comments

Here’s some great news for those of you who have been patiently waiting for the pattern for my quilt Spiraling Out of Control. It’s now available in the current issue of Modern Quilts Unlimited magazine (Fall, 2015).

Here’s a quick back-story of the quilt. I originally made it for the MQG/Riley Blake fabric challenge in 2014 and was thrilled when it was selected as one of the 10 finalists out of hundreds of quilts. It then went on to hang at AQS in July 2014 nd then at QuiltCon in 2015 where it caught the eye of the Modern Quilts Unlimited editors. (In fact, they also fell in love with another of my quilts at the show which will be patterned in a future issue, so be sure to subscribe!)

I used EQ7 to design Spiraling Out of Control.

Jason jokingly refers to this issue as “my” issue because in addition to featuring the pattern, they’ve also given my book a nice review, and I’m in an EQ ad, too!

Seeing reviews of my book in national magazines makes me giddy!

Spiraling Out of Control is in the Fall Issue of MQU

Paper Pieced Quilt Along #12 Machine Quilting Linear Echoes

October 31, 2015November 1, 20151 Comment

New to my site? Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter and get a free PDF pattern!

Today we are back to using the walking foot or integrated dual feed (IDF) to quilt straight lines of texture around the blocks. In my book Machine Quilting With Style, I call this quilting technique “Linear Echoes” because you are basically stitching echoing lines around the patchwork to help outline the piecing design and make it pop.

Start the first linear echo with the foot right next to the seam line. Vary the spacing if desired.

I did not mark the lines, but instead used the edge of my foot as a guideline when quilting each line. I was able to start and end each line of quilting off the edges of the quilt, in the batting, so I didn’t have to worry about burying my threads at either end.

Use the width of your foot as a guideline for spacing. Wider spacing means fewer lines to quilt.

You can quilt one or more lines around the blocks, depending on the type of look you want to achieve. So far I have quilted three lines around each row of blocks, each approximately 1/4″ apart. Rather than using a walking foot, I used my quarter inch foot for spacing, combined with the integrated dual feed on my BERNINA.

I’ll fill in the rest of the negative space with more lines, or a different FMQ design.

Here’s a tip – quilt a couple of stitches on a practice sandwich and measure them so you know how many stitches you are doing per inch. I only need to quilt about 2-3 stitches per quarter inch. That comes in handy when you need to echo quilt beyond the first line.

This is what the backing looks like so far. I love all that texture!!

So far I’m quilting my lines in black thread to match the background fabric on the top. I only want to see a little bit of the texture rather than the stitches so I’m ok if my quilting blends in at this point. I used an invisible thread from Aurifil for the bobbin so that the black thread wouldn’t be so stark on the lighter backing fabric.

For the next tutorial, I plan to add in a little more decorative free-motion quilting, probably with a contrasting thread. I’ll start on that now so I’m ready for the next QAL post!

Share your progress

Be sure to share your version in my Facebook group: Quilt With Christa.

Click here for all of the Paper Pieced Quilt Along Tutorials.

MQWS Blog Hop Wrap Up and Winners

September 28, 2015September 27, 201511 Comments

What a great blog hop this has been! Thanks to all of you who participated by leaving comments and voting for your favorite quilt. Also – huge hugs to those who participated on my blog hop and helped spread the word about my debut book, Machine Quilting With Style. And now, the results of the most popular quilt that will be my selected for my quilt along is January is…….

The Quilt Along Winner Is….

Facets! With Rain and Color Crystals coming in at 2nd and 3rd place. Be sure to stay tuned as I announce more details with the exact quilt along dates a little bit later. Now that I know the winner, I’ll start planning the quilt along.

Don’t forget to grab your copy of Machine Quilting With Style so you can join us in January!

Facets – Quilt Along coming in January 2016!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner…..

And now I owe you a couple of winners! Congratulations go to Debra R. from Kentucky who won the box of Aurifil Thread and Denise W. from Pennsylania who won my Fat Quarter designer bundle! Both of you have been emailed. Those of you who won ebooks will be notified by the publisher in the next week or so. Those than won additional sponsored prizes will be contacted by the bloggers directly for your prizes!

A few of the giveaways are still open – be sure to check the individual hop stops for details.

A Bit More…

And now for some exciting news – I’ve just finished writing my second book, with a very special co-author. I’m not going to say too much about it yet because I don’t want to overshadow the first one. But if you are so inclined, you can pop on over to Amazon for a sneak peek of the cover and place your pre-order. It’s due to be released in April of 2016.

Again, a huge thanks to all of you amazing readers for your continued support in this fun journey. Now – it’s onto the next quilt!

MQWS Blog Hop Day 12 – Focal Point

September 26, 2015September 26, 20156 Comments

I can’t believe today is the last day for my Machine Quilting With Style blog tour! When I finished up the book earlier this year, I went into withdrawals for a day or two, not quite knowing what to do with myself. Now I feel the same way, what will I share next?!

On Monday, I will do a quick recap of the tour and announce the winners of my 2 giveaways. I’ll also announce the results of the Quilt Along Survey. Plus, I’ll have an exciting new announcement to share, so stay tuned!

Focal Point – The Background Story

Focal Point 45″ x 45″ by Christa Watson. Photography by Brent Kane.

One of my modern quilting heroes, Jacquie Gering, gave me the best advice when I was trying to learn how to make my quilts look more modern. She told me I should always try and include a focal point in my quilts. So in a way, I named this quilt to honor her.

My continuous spiral is perfectly imperfect and adds just the right amount of texture to the quilt!

I love quilting large continuous spirals and think they look terrific on both modern and traditional quilts. They add incredible texture to a quilt. However, for many people, quilting a smooth center can be a little tricky. After a little bit of trial and error, I figured out a way to quilt the whole spiral with a walking foot, with a nicer looking center.

Just remember, don’t knock yourself out trying to achieve perfect quilting. Opt for perfectly imperfect quilting instead. Once you back away from your quilt, all you will notice is the allover texture, rather than the individual stitches!

A Bit More and a Bonus Giveaway

I took copious notes about what makes a quilt modern during a presentation from Heather Grant at QuiltCon 2013. It’s taken me a couple of years to let these design principles sink in, and I’m still discovering more of what I like about modern quilts. I remember Heather saying something along the lines of wanting to encourage more design that looks liked it’s been cropped from a larger piece. That’s sort of the look I was going for with this quilt, and I’m pleased with the results.

Focal point with swatches of Chic Neutrals by Amy Ellis for Moda

For my version of Focal Point, I used Amy Ellis’ Modern Neutrals fabric from Moda. Amy’s new line is called Chic Neutrals, so decided to play around in EQ7 and recolor it in the newer line. Isn’t it fun? Amy’s generously giving away a bundle of Chic Neutrals to make this quilt.

Pop on over to Amy’s Creative Side to see her fun things and enter to win!

Elements that make this quilt modern – neutral palette with high impact, hard edges that create high contrast between the pieces, off-center design, focal point, geometric quilting done with a walking foot.

Time for me to complete – 15 hours from start to finish.

More Inspiration from Amy garro!

Amy Garro from 13 Spools is another inspiring friend of mine. She recently wrote her first book, Paper Pieced Modern. It’s pretty awesome, and I’m so glad the timing of my book worked out for her to catch her breath, and then make another quilt! You’ve got to check out her version of Focal Point – it’s amazing. I always encourage everyone to change up my ideas to make it their own, and Amy did just that with her version. She includes lots of eye candy and some fun commentary so be sure to check it out!

Be sure to enter Amy’s giveaway to win an ebook of Machine Quilting With Style.

Giveaway from Pellon Products

Pellon was another great partner – they donated several battings for me to make some of the quilts in this book. One of the things I did was try to use a different batting for nearly every quilt, just to give them a try. My favorite? Hands down, it was the cotton/soy blend, which is the batting I chose to make Focal Point. The batting was soft and supple, drapes well, and hangs well with no creases after it’s been folded. It was easy to quilt through, and I’m going to be using this batting in a lot more of my quilts in the future.

Thanks to Pellon for sponsoring a generous giveaway for this hop. Head on over to the Pellon blog for your chance to win some of the same batting I used – I think you’ll love it!

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.

MQWS Blog Hop Day 11 – Facets

September 25, 2015September 25, 2015224 Comments

If you love the fabrics in Facets, be sure to sign up for my weekly email newsletter, and get a free pattern showing them in a different way. (Of course you can choose your own fabrics, too!)

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.

MQWS Blog Hop Day 9 – Rain

September 23, 2015September 23, 20158 Comments

As you are perusing the blog hop each day, don’t forget to vote for your favorite quilt over at Survey Monkey. (Yes, you can totally sneak peeks of all the designs from Machine Quilting With Stile on the Martingale site to help you choose!) Whichever quilt gets the most votes, is the quilt along I will lead next year.

Be sure to grab your copy of the book and join the QAL fun in January!

Rain – The Background Story

As I was contemplating designing a series of quilts for a book back in 2013, my husband thought he’d help me brainstorm a few ideas. So he whipped out is iPad and sketched out this design in about 5 minutes. I fell instantly in love (with him again, and this design)!

Jason’s original iPad doodle. I like his ideas!!

He originally called his design Meteor Shower, but for some reason, I wanted to call it Rain. I love the stark simplicity of this design, and tweaked it just a bit – making my lines completely straight and parallel for easier construction. I also added in 3 extra rain strips. Can you spot them?

Rain 60″ x 80″ by Christa Watson. Design inspiration by Jason Watson.

Rain is the only quilt in the book where I worked backwards to create the pattern. I estimated how long I wanted each piece to be and used a design wall to start laying out the pieces in order, filling in with background fabric to get the spacing just right. I sewed up the top first, then I went back and calculated all of the math afterward.

Working on Rain prompted me to build a larger design wall for my studio. And get better lighting.

The cool thing about this design, is that even though I’ve given exact pattern directions in the book, you really can change it up to make it your own by using thinner or thicker width strips, changing the number and length of the strips, and varying their placement.

I went out of my comfort zone, choosing highly contrasting thicker weight Aurifil thread to extend the streaks of rain in the colored strips.

Sometimes contrasting thread can be used as a design element to great effect.

A Bit more

I’m super excited that Rain was recently juried into the Modern Quilt Guild Exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this fall. This means it automatically gets entered into QuiltCon 2016 to hang with all of the other amazing quilts. I think Rain is the most modern quilt I’ve made and Jason is very proud – he’s always encouraging me to “go more modern!”

What makes this quilt modern – simplicity of form; lots of negative space; bold geometry, flat solid colors with high contrast; minimalist design; organic, imperfect machine quilting.

Time to complete – 29 hours from start to finish (including some thinking time…)

Optional Colorway from Cheryl Brickey

Cheryl from Meadow Mist Designs is another fantastic pattern designer and online friend. We met in person at QuiltCon in 20 15, starting off as roommates and becoming BQF’s (Best Quilting Friends) by the end of the show.

My deadline to get the last book edit in the mail was the Monday after QuiltCon, so Cheryl got to watch me frantically finish it up after show hours. This meant she also got an early sneak peek of the quilts, and right away, she knew she wanted to recreate Rain in her own way. I love the colors she chose, and her quilting is just too cool. She included a bit of hand quilting along with machine quilting for a stunning combination.

Head over to Cheryl’s Blog to see her awesome version and enter her giveaway.

More from Rebecca Bryan

Rebecca Bryan from Bryan House Quilts is another BQF who I keep running into! We first met at a Pile O’ Fabric meetup at QuiltCon 2013, got to hang out and have dinner again at QuiltCon 2015 and recently met up in Salt Lake City to film machine quilting segments for QNNtv. I told her each time we meet, there must be food involved! Becca (as I lovingly call her) released her first book, Modern Rainbow earlier this year, and I think it’s pretty fab.

Pop on over to Becca’s blog and she what she has to say about my book!

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.