My latest episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs covers three variations of one of my staple designs: Pebbles. This is one of my favorite designs to use in my quilts, as it’s easy to quilt once you get the hang of it and endlessly versatile. Check out the video below if you want to give it a try:
Featured Quilt: Beaded Lanterns
This week’s featured quilt comes from one of my free quilt patterns, titled “Beaded Lanterns.” I originally made it in solid fabrics to really show off my free motion quilting. I quilted pebbles in the background which really gave this piece so much texture!
I’ve updated the pattern to feature my newest fabric, Dazzle Dots 2. And the best part is, it includes the step-by-step quilting plan showing how you can combine pebbles with loopy L’s for amazing results!
While supplies last, I’m offering 3 variations of this kit with 3 different background fabrics. Which background do you prefer – Tan, White, or Ice?
Tired of stitching in the ditch? Try out these three variations of straight line quilting from my youtube series, 99 Machine Quilting Designs! Don’t be deceived by their simplicity–these designs are easy to stitch with a Walking Foot but they add a lot of complexity to your quilt. Check out how to do it below:
Featured Quilt: Rain
The quilt behind me in the video is titled “Rain, from my first book, Machine Quilting With Style. This book includes 12 quilt patterns as well as how-to instructions on how to quilt them! You can purchase the PDF version or a physical copy from my online store.
I also feature “Geese in the Garden,” a versatile quilt that can be done in a variety of sizes and colors. You get the pattern on my Etsy shop as a PDF or a physical copy on my online store. Try making and quilting this quilt with straight lines, or any of the 99 Designs we’ve gone over in the series so far. The possibilities are endless!!
This week for 99 Machine Quilting Designs I’m showing how to free-motion quilt a dense design called Leaves. Take a look by clicking below:
Watch the Entire Series over on My YouTube Channel!
Each week when I share a new video tutorial, it gets added to my playlist. As you can see, I’ve shared 14 videos so far, and there will be 60 of them in all. Click below to start at the beginning and watch them all in order. The videos will stay up indefinitely so you can watch the over and over again, as much as you want!
I’m so excited to check something off of my bucket list! I’ve been wanting to teach at Empty Spools Seminars in Asilomar, CA for as long as I’ve been a quilter and 2026 will finally be the year, whoo hoo!!
Normally when I travel and teach I give a one hour lecture and 1-2 days of machine quilting workshops. I love it, but all we have time for in that short period of time is to quilt out a bunch of practice samples. I also discuss how students can apply what they’ve learned to an actual quilt but of course, they’ll need to go home and do that on their own time.
Well, I’m bursting with excitement to let you know that my week long workshop at Empty Spools takes it to the next level. In this class, you’ll get to bring in a real, basted quilt (or 2) and learn how to actually quilt it all week in class! We will go through a series of exercises to get you comfortable with the process and then I’ll guide you step-by-step to quilt and finish your own quilt. Won’t that be fun??
Take a look below at the schedule for the week. Click on the image to enlarge it if needed:
I will be teaching this in-depth workshop, called “Quilt That Quilt!” during Session 1 which runs from Sunday, March 1 through Friday, March 6 of 2026. This gives you plenty of time to gather supplies and make arrangements for your visit. Registration includes alls meals and you can either stay on campus, or make your own accommodations.
Click the image below to enlarge for details on costs:
This workshop/retreat is a chance for you to go through the entire process of making a quilt from start to finish. Once you sign up, I’ll be in touch with students so that they can prepare a quilt of their choice so it’s all ready to quilt once they arrive to class next year. I can’t wait to see what quilts students choose to make, and I’m so excited to help them experience the joy of making their own quilts.
This is a big event and commitment but I promise its worth it to set aside the time and money to attend. Do you have any questions? Please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them ASAP!
Looking for a free-motion quilting design that can add dense texture to your quilt? Check out the latest from this week’s episode of my “Year of Machine Quilting,” where we will be learning to quilt Broken Feathers and Echoed Paisleys, two designs from my book, 99 Machine Quilting Designs:
Quatrefoil Quilt From The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting
I used both of these designs on “Quatrefoil,” a quilt from my second book, The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting. This book was a collaboration with Angela Walters, featuring 10 quilt patterns with instructions to quilt them using either a longarm or domestic sewing machine. If you want to learn a variety of versatile approaches to quilting entire quilts, then this is the book for you!
Are you enjoying watching my new machine quilting videos each week? I’ll be sharing a total of 60 when all is said and done. You can watch them as much as you like and go back and bookmark your faves. To catch up on any prior episodes you have missed, be sure to watch the playlist for the entire series. Start by clicking play below to catch them all:
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be teaching at Quilt Festival in Houston, TX this fall! This will be the third time I’ve taught at Festival, so I’m really excited to be returning again this year!
Class Registration begins in June. Classes usually fill up fairly quickly, so I’m going to share the schedule of which classes I’ll be teaching and when, so you can be ready once registration opens:
Sketch It, Then Quilt It Tuesday, October 7: 2-5 PM
Learn how to create a quilting plan for your quilt! This hands-on workshop will allow students to create their own original designs using printed images of their quilts as well as how to create specific plans for a variety of different quilts.
Walking Foot Bootcamp Wednesday, October 8th: 9AM-5PM
In this full day session, students will learn how to quilt a variety of walking foot quilting designs on their domestic sewing machine. I’ll also go over how you would apply these designs to actual, full sized quilts. Whether you are a beginner or want to learn a few extra tips and tricks, this is the class for you!
Improv Free Motion Quilting Thursday, October 9: 9-Noon
This jam-packed class will teach how to combine and design two or more filler motifs into something entirely new. Students will practice drawing the designs on paper, then apply what they’ve learned to sample swatches or orphan blocks.
Modern Machine Quilting Lecture Thursday October 9: 12:45-1:45 PM
This informative lecture demonstrates how the modern aesthetic applies to the machine quilting process. Learn how negative space, minimalism, graphic geometry, improvisation and other hallmarks of the modern aesthetic can be incorporated into your machine quilting work.
Free Motion Bootcamp Friday, October 10: 9AM-5PM
In this full day class, learn the basics of free-motion quilting! We’ll explore a wide range of motifs that will look good on any quilt from modern to traditional. You’ll leave class armed with the confidence that yes, you can quilt your own quilts!
Modern Free Motion Feathers Saturday, October 11: 9AM-12PM
This is a brand new class that I’m so excited to debut at Festival! Students will learn basic feather plume shapes, then build upon those shapes to create entirely new designs. They’ll explore a variety of options such as echo feathers, swirl feathers, “broken” feathers, and many more!
Perfectly Imperfect Free-Motion Swirls Saturday, October 11: 2-5PM
In this class, students will learn how to form the basic swirl shape, then branch off in many different directions as they discover their own signature swirl! Ideas to explore include the wonky swirl, the flower swirl, the elongated swirl, the packed swirl, and many more.
I sure hope I’ll be able to see you at the show. If you can’t catch me in Houston, here’s a link to my traveling and teaching schedule! I love traveling and teaching all over the world and would love to come to a location near you!
Want to practice your free-motion quilting this week? Join me for the latest video of my “Year of Machine Quilting” tutorial series, where we will be quilting two designs from 99 Machine Quilting Designs: Landscape Lines and Partial Waves.
Featured Book: Piece and Quilt with Precuts
The quilt showcased in this week’s video is called Spools, which comes from my book Piece and Quilt with Precuts. This book features 11 quilt patterns as well as step-by step instructions on how to quilt them all! I used Partial Waves on Spools to separate the colorful parts of the quilt from the background, but this book will show you all different kinds of quilting plans and strategies for both walking foot quilting and free-motion!
Bonus Video: Setting Yourself up for Machine Quilting Success
Want to learn more about how to setup you machine for walking foot and free-motion quilting? Check out the series intro, where I give the best tips and tricks for setting yourself up for sewing success!
How Will You Use These Designs?
There are endless possibilities for Landscape Lines and Partial Waves. Try echoing them, combining them together, or experiment with other designs for different textures. Let me know how you are using them in your quilts! You can even share pics of your progress over in my Facebook group. Until next time, Happy Quilting!!
We’re back to Walking Foot quilting this week for 99 Machine Quilting Designs! Wavy Zigzags is a great design to add some quick texture to a small or full-sized quilt. Try quilting it once, twice, or combining it with regular zigzags for endless variety! If you want to learn how-to, check out the video below:
Get the Ticker Tape Quilt Pattern or Kit
Each week I try to feature one of my patterns where I’ve used the design I’m showing you. That way you can actually practice this design on a full sized kit! I quilted some fun wavy double zig-zags on the navy version of my Ticker Tape quilt. This is one of those designs that I’ve made several different versions of, just because it’s so darn fun to experiment!
For even more video fun this week, check out my bonus video showing how I quilted both versions of Ticker Tape shown above. Click the image below to watch:
Are you quilting along?
How are you doing on your machine quilting practice? Are you following along and making up the practice sandwiches? Please let me know how it’s going or if you have any questions that I can trouble shoot for you. My goal is to inspire you to quilt more of your own quilts and have fun doing it!
This week for 99 Machine Quilting Designs I’m showing how to free-motion quilt several loop variations. They are one of my go-to designs! Click below to watch:
These 3 designs all come from my book 99 Machine Quilting Designs. You can grab the instant PDF download of this book from my Etsy shop and follow along with each video that I’m sharing all year long!
After watching my video tutorials each week, I’m sure you’ll want to apply what you’ve learned on a real quilt. I’ve taken the basic loops I shared in this week’s tutorial and have modified it to include another design I recently shared – boxes – to create a fun and festive design that I quilted on my Fancy Gifts quilt!
I recently entered 2 quilts into my local quilt guild’s show and was pleased with both the feedback and the response they got, so I thought I would share more about that with you today!
Interlinked Wins 1st Place!!
First up is my Interlinked Quilt. This one is huge – King sized to be exact! I had finished nearly all of this quilt a couple years ago when my Stitchy fabric first came out. However, I dragged my feet on finishing the binding because I wanted it to match up perfectly with the offset borders. Once I finally did, I was pleased that it was able to be hung in the show and received a 1st place ribbon in the Modern Category.
Interlinked Custom Quilting Detail
The only bummer is that it was so huge that you can’t even see all of it in the picture, LOL! But I’m pleased that the judge liked it. Here are the comments I received on this quilt:
“Use and placement of neutrals and colors create great movement and keeps the eye moving. Piecing is good. Variety of quilting designs enhance your modern aesthetic. And the quilting technique is generally well done. Some buildup of threads in some backtracking areas should be avoided. Outer edges should be straight, and binding is well done.”
Just in case this is the first time you are seeing this quilt, I actually made a video showing how I managed such a large quilt on a regular sized sewing machine. Take a look below to watch:
Swanky Spirals Quilt
Next up, I entered my Swanky Spirals quilt made from my Dazzle Dots fabric. Originally I had planned to do a simpler quilting design since it’s such a busy quilt. However, once I started quilting different designs in each wedge of each block, I just couldn’t stop!
Here’s the judging feedback I received for this quilt:
“Successful modern esthetic. Grey neutral was a good choice for the balance of the brights. Pacing is generally good. Intersections should be precise. The variety of quilting designs greatly enhanced the piecing and the theme. Quilting should remain in the ditch. Back art is appreciated. Binding is generally good. Take care with miters.”
Swanky Spirals Quilting Detail
If you’d like more details on how I quilted each and every part of this quilt, take a look at the bonus video below:
Interlinked & Swanky Spirals Quilt Patterns
If you’d like to make either or both of these quilts, you can grab the patterns in print or PDF.
Christa Quilts 