The Early Days… My First Quilt!

June 30, 2014June 26, 201432 Comments

Today I have to blame Kristy Daum from St. Louis Folk Victorian for inspiring me to write this. She wrote a post awhile back showing her first quilt from back in 1994. Well, here’s mine in all it’s flannel and polyester glory:

My First Quilt

My First Quilt – It was love at first stitch!

I also started quilting in ’94 and finished my first full-size quilt in ’95 at the ripe young age of 22 (feel free to do the math now). I was so glad to be sewing that I didn’t even care how the end result turned out – it was just a thrill to create. I remember making each 9 patch block, one at a time and I felt so proud of myself each time a new one came off the machine.

Trends cycle every 20 years right? Deer fabrics have been hot again this year, LOL!!

I used a bunch of flannels I got for cheap at the discount store and knew nothing about seam allowances. I wanted 4″ squares so I cut a bunch of 4″ squares, not realizing they’d shrink up after sewing, LOL!

tied blocks

I was able to “hide” the seam intersections by tying at the corners. I don’t know what possessed me to think that sports fabric & flowers went together??

I hadn’t tried machine quilting yet so I just tied it together with yarn using a flannel sheet for the backing. From the get-go I was determined to finish my quilts myself! I had no clue how to bind so I just folded over the back to the front and sewed it down with WHITE thread and felt a grand sense of accomplishment.

I put the label on the back at the TOP of the quilt, even! My title was very original, too – “Jason’s Quilt.” It’s worn and faded over time, but every stitch was made with love.

I gave this first (ghastly) quilt to my husband, and he’s been a great supporter of my hobby ever since. We still use the quilt to this day and it’s held up pretty well. 🙂

When did you make your first quilt? I’d love to hear all about it!

Quilt Stats:

Size: 62″ x 82″
Block Design: 10 1/2″ nine-patches set 6 x 8
Materials: cotton flannel, polyester flannel, polyester batting, flannel sheet for the back
Finishing touches: tied with yarn, machine binding

A Sizzix Product Review, WIP, and a Giveaway!

June 13, 2014June 11, 201432 Comments

Today I want to give a quick plug for a new toy I just got – the Sizzix Fabi cutter. This came to me courtesy of Sizzix and FaveQuilts.com. They gave me a startup kit in exhange for a review of the product which you can read here.

They didn’t ask me to post about it on my own blog, but I had so much fun playing with it that I couldn’t help but share what I’m currently doing with it!

The Giveaway

But first things first – the folks over at FaveQuilts are giving away a starter kit which includes the cutter and 3 flower templates. The other dies shown in the picture above are available separately. They sent me a few extras to play around with. 🙂

Click here to enter.

The deadline to enter is June 15th at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time on their website, not mine.

My WIP

I chose to design a modern wall quilt based on the circle die they sent. (I may turn this into a quilt along in the fall once I finish up my summer sewing deadlines – so stay tuned!)

Abacus by Christa Watson, designed in EQ7

I’m happy to cut squares and rectangles the old fashioned way, but the Fabi die cutter sliced through circles like they were nothing! They were super fast and accurate, too!

I was able to back each piece of fabric with fusible adhesive and run it through the machine with no problems. The cuttings are even fun, too!

Here are my precut circles pinned to my design wall. The paper backed adhesive doesn’t stick to flannel, so I had to use pins to hang them up. This is my first experience ever with a die cutter, but so far I’m loving what I’m seeing!

How about you? Have you ever used a die cutter before? What do you think of them? I’d love to know!

Blogger’s Quilt Festival – Voting Begins Today!

May 23, 2014May 22, 20149 Comments

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite quilts in the Spring 2014 Blogger’s Quilt Festival!

Spiraling out of Control is in the Original Design category and Modern Trees is listed in the Home Machine Quilted category. You can vote for one quilt per category, and there are a total of 11 categories in which to vote.

Spiraling out of Control by Christa Watson, 70″ x 70″

You can vote for Spiraling Out of Control here.

Modern Trees by Christa Watson 43″ x 50″

You can vote for Modern Trees here.

Have fun and good luck to all who entered!

Blogger’s Quilt Fest Entry – Modern Trees (Home Machine Quilted)

May 16, 2014May 16, 201439 Comments

I’m excited to share another entry into the online Blogger’s Quilt Festival. It’s called Modern Trees. I finished it in December of 2013, and I’ve entered it into the Home Machine Quilted category.

You can view my other entry here.

Modern Trees, 43″ x 50″ by Christa Watson, Home Machine Quilted

Modern Trees was made as one of my free quilt alongs and you can still access all of the tutorials to make your own version of this quilt here.

Because I love to encourage and teach others how to free-motion quilt on their home machines, I’ll tell you a little bit more about the machine quilting on this quilt.

I think free-motion quilting on a domestic machine is super fun and relaxing!

I knew that I wanted to evoke the feeling of snow, but wanted to mix up the background quilting to make it a little more modern. I usually have better results if I plan out my quilting first. Rather than sticking with one motif, I roughly divided the quilt into 3 sections as shown in my diagram below:

The swirls in the top section represent the sky full of billowing clouds ready to burst! The middle section shows snowflakes and snow clusters gently falling to the ground; and the bottom section evokes snowdrifts piling up on the ground. I also decided to throw in a few words just for a touch of holiday whimsy – it’s fun to doodle!

I don’t always stick exactly to the plan, but sketching out my quilting designs gives me a rough guideline to follow.

As you can see, I used a washable blue marker to write the words, and to draw the larger snowflakes and the star. I quilted the rest of it without marking, adding lots of yummy texture and varying the size of the motifs for interest.

Quilting the swirls was definitely my favorite part – they are so fun and forgiving! It’s interesting to see how much “poof” is created when quilting so densely.

Another fun part of any quilt is picking out matching threads for each section. After a couple of years of trial and error and testing on numerous quilts, Aurifil has become my go-to thread for piecing and quilting.

I like to match my threads as closely as possible so you see the texture of the quilting rather than the thread. 🙂 I tried to quilt each tree with a different motif to “decorate” it.

Here’s a closeup of the quilting after the blue marks have been removed – so yummy! (Forgive the lighting – this was taken before I got better lighting in my sewing room!)

And one more, just for fun… (with more bad lighting….)

The quilting on this piece actually went very quickly. It took a total of 13 hours and I only worked on it for a couple of hours a day. I think that’s a reasonable amount of time, considering the density of the quilting and customization of the designs. Can’t you just imagine how tactile all this texture feels?

If you like Modern Trees, you can vote for it in the Home Machine Quilted category, starting May 23rd. Entries will appear randomly each time, so you may need to scroll through to find the picture of Modern Trees.

You can also click here to get all the free tutorials to make your own version! 🙂

Modern Trees by Christa Watson 43″ x 50″

Thanks for stopping by!

Blogger’s Quilt Fest Entry – Spiraling Out of Control (Original Design)

May 16, 2014May 16, 201417 Comments

I’m excited to participate in the Blogger’s Online Quilt Festival with my first of two entries, Spiraling Out of Control. I am entering it into the Original Design category and voting begins May 23rd.

You can view my other entry here.

Spiraling Out of Control, 70″ x 70″ by Christa Watson, Original Design

Those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis will have seen this quilt before. However since I’m entering it into the Original Design category, I thought I’d share with you a little bit about the design process that went into making this quilt.

Parallel Lines

I started with this block I had created in EQ7 for a modern design competition. After being selected as a finalist, I held onto the design for a bit, thinking I might do something more with it later. When the MQG’s first fabric challenge of 2014 was announced, I started playing around with my design again, seeing how it could evolve by changing a few lines.

Improv String Block I kept the light background, added more lines, and drew them at odd angles rather than parallel. I digitally colored the strips using the challenge fabric we were to work with. I liked where this was going, but thought it needed something more dramatic.

So I pieced two sample blocks using two different backgrounds – dark and medium grey. I wanted to see which colorway would provide the most visual impact.

I used the lighter grey block as a sample to test various machine quilting designs.

At this point my gut was telling me to go with the darker background fabric, but just to be sure, I started recoloring my original digital layout. Once I got this far with the coloring, I knew the darker fabric was the right choice. 🙂

Since I knew I wanted each block to be different, I had to figure out a way to sew the blocks without using traditional paper-foundation piecing methods. I solved the problem by cutting long strips of fabric in various widths and lengths, and sewing them together improvisationally, keeping the overall diagonal line intact. I then trimmed up the blocks using a large square ruler so they were all the same size.

The hardest part was making sure the shorter strips were longer than the ruler!

So that’s how this quilt design came to be. In addition to design, machine quilting is one of my favorite steps of the quilt-making process. Here are some detailed shots of the machine quilting and thread choices:

Yummy Aurifil threads in matching colors!

Straight-Line Quilting in the Negative Space

Quilting zig-zags in matching thread colors – lots of threads to tie off later!

Colorful Thread-play on the Back

Quilting Detail – Front

Spiraling Out of Control measures 70″ x 70″ and it has been one of my most fun quilts to make! You can vote for it as your favorite in the Original Design category of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival starting May 23, 2014.

Please note: quilts will show up randomly in each festival category, and they will not be numbered or named. You may need to scroll through to find my quilt on the category page. 🙂

As always, thanks for your support!

Herringbone Finish and Tips for Better Binding

May 8, 2014May 8, 201432 Comments

Today I get to share the big reveal: Herringbone is finished!

Herringbone, 63″ x 73″ designed and made by Christa Watson for Camelot Fabrics

You can click the links below to read my WIP process posts as I worked on this quilt:

Herringbone took a total of 25 hours to complete (13 hours to cut, sew and press the top; 12 hours to baste, quilt and bind by hand.)

I wanted to share a few tips for better binding that I practiced while finishing this quilt:

When attaching the binding, I marked my stopping point with a water soluble pen so that I know exactly where to stop stitching at the corners. Whenever I “fudge” this part of the process, it always gives me problems.

After the binding is attached by machine, I will iron it away from the quilt so that it’s easier to pull over to the back for hand sewing. (By the way, this is another reason I prefer to quilt with cotton thread and natural fiber batting, so I don’t have to worry about melting anything with the iron!)

When I get to the corners, I fold them so that they match up evenly and use Clover Wonder Clips to secure the binding in place. I fold over the corners opposite from how they are folded on the front to reduce bulk. I also prefer to add clips so that the clear side of the clip is showing on the back. It seems less bumpy that way.

I use a liberal amount of clips and space them pretty close together. So far, I’ve invested in two 100 clip packs and am ready to order another set. I prefer to clip all the way around the perimeter of my quilt so that I can sew continuously without having to adjust the clips!

For more step by step pictures, click here for my indepth tutorial on binding by hand.

Herringbone is on it’s way to the Camelot Fabrics quilt booth at Spring Market. I won’t be there, so if any of you go – be sure to snap a picture of it for me, will you?

Modern Logs Quilt Finish

May 2, 2014May 4, 201453 Comments

Presenting my latest finish: Modern Logs!

Modern Logs by Christa Watson, 48″ x 54″

Modern Logs was one of my fastest finishes ever! From picking out the fabrics, to stitching down the binding, I finished in just under a week. The folks at Quiltique were kind enough to order the Petal Pinwheels line from Michael Miller for this quilt. It’s the same fabric being used in the Modern Quilt Guild’s fabric challenge. I chose coordinating solids and I was off and running (or should I say sewing)!

Probably the hardest part of the whole quilt was deciding on which fabrics to put together, but of course, that’s also the most rewarding part when it all comes together. I made test blocks, wrote copious pattern notes, and practiced quilting on a sample block so that I could test the thread and batting.

I prefer natural batting when quilting on my home machine – it doesn’t pucker!

I went with Aurifil Dove grey 50Wt. cotton for the quilting (in both top and bobbin) with Quilter’s Dream Cotton in the select loft thickness. I used an elongated ziz-zag stitch – #16 on my Bernina model 710. I adjusted the length and width of the stitch until I was happy with the result.

This is the fourth quilt I’ve made using 505 basting spray and I’m just in love with it! It sticks every square inch of the top to every square inch of the batting and backing – so important to keep things from shifting and bunching while quilting!

This time I put a sheet under my layers as I sprayed and did it indoors with the windows open. My room is large and well ventilated so fumes were not a problem. I sprayed the backing and top, rather than the batting. I also ironed the whole thing when finished to set the adhesive, a tip I learned from machine quilter extraordinaire Ann Petersen.

I created the backing on my design wall by covering up the top with yardage and leftover scraps. I kept going until the backing was big enough. I love fun pieced backs, don’t you?

Here’s a nice angled shot where you can really see the quilting:

Zig zag quilting was super easy and fast to do!

And the back:

I think quilt backs should be as interesting as the fronts!

Modern Logs finishes at 48″ x 54″ and took a total of 24 hours to complete, including binding by hand. Not bad for a week’s work, and much faster than my last MQG challenge!

Modern Logs – designed, pieced and quilted by Christa Watson, 2014

For those of you outside the local area, I will be teaching this quilt as a week-long retreat class at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, March 8-14, 2015.

I’ll update my teaching schedule when Folk School registration opens later this spring.

Project Linus Charity Drive and Free Quilt Tutorials

April 29, 2014April 28, 20149 Comments

I’d like to help spread the word about the the Project Linus Charity Drive being coordinated by Fave Quilts and Leisure Arts. They are requesting quilts and blankets to be donated to the Chicago, Illinois chapter of Project Linus.

If you are able to send in a quilt or blanket, they are giving away some pretty nice prize packs sponsored by Leisure Arts books. The drive runs through June 23rd, 2014. For complete details and where to send, please click here.

Fave Quilts has been very supportive of my efforts to share my love of quilting with as many people as possible. They routinely feature my free quilt alongs on their website, along with hundreds (possibly thousands) of other free patterns and tutorials. You can check out my profile here and literally spend hours on their site, combing through all the inspiration!

Baby Bricks Quilts by Christa Watson

For the charity drive, I’m sending them the Baby Boy Blue version of my Baby Bricks quilts shown above. I made two versions of Baby Bricks to illustrate how different a pattern can look, depending on the fabrics. I knew I wanted to donate them both, and I was able to give away the pink version to a brand new mom earlier this year. However, I held onto the blue one until just the right opportunity came along. Now I’m glad it’s going to the right place! 🙂

Here’s a full shot of just the blue version:

As you can see, I added more straight line quilting to the original quilt. Here’s a closeup so that you can see that straight lines don’t need to be perfectly straight or evenly spaced! The trick is to add enough lines so that your eye takes in the overall effect of the added texture.

When I quilted this quilt, I marked all of the original straight lines, about 2″ apart. Then I filled in the rows of quilting between the lines using the edge of my foot as a guide. It’s totally not perfect, but I love it and hope it will go to a good home. 🙂

Click here to get the free tutorials for Baby Bricks and whip up your own version for someone you love, or for someone in need!

And remember, pieced quilt backs are a great place to use up all those leftovers, whether they match perfectly or not. 🙂

I love the yummy crinkly texture all that straight line quilting provides!

My Cup Runneth Over…

April 23, 2014April 22, 201470 Comments

I just found out two very exciting pieces of news today, and forgive me if I can’t help but put them out there for all the world to see!

Excitement #1 – Colorful Chevrons Takes 3rd at Paducah!

Thanks to my friend Linda H. for sending me this phone pic. She just happens to be there covering the story for AQ magazine and was able to show me the good news. The funny thing is, I couldn’t remember when QuiltWeek started and had my dates confused. I was thinking I wouldn’t hear anything about it until at least next week!

Colorful Chevrons won 3rd place in the Large Wall Quilts – Modern category.
Click here for a list of all the winners.

Excitement #2 – I’ve Been Nominated for Teacher of the Year!

I’ve been nominated for 2014 Teacher of The Year, presented by the International Association of Creative Arts Professionals. Although I didn’t win, I’m in total agreement with who was chosen. In fact, after reading the email announcing the 8 nominees and the winner, I’m completely awed and humbled to be among those who made the final list.

No, I’m not going to spill the beans and spoil any surprises yet. The winner and all of the finalists will be given coverage in the Spring Issue of The Professional Quilter, and it will be up to any of them if they want to announce it publicly first. 🙂

My cup truly runneth over….

Free EQ7 Downloads – Including Many of My Designs

April 21, 2014April 19, 201415 Comments

One of the things I love about Electric Quilt software is being able to share some of my designs with others that use the program. Recently, I added two more of my designs to EQ’s Projects Download page.

Be sure to check out my Jolly Jelly Roll quilt (which was my first-ever quilt along):

and my Ultra Modern Dresden paper pieced block: (which I haven’t made… yet!)