How to Free-Motion Bricks – 99 Designs Episode #44

For this week’s episode of 99 Designs, I have a very dense motif that works well to make a quilt more modern. As the design is rows and rows of little bricks, it could also work well to add realistic texture to a landscape or art quilt. To learn how to quilt this design, check out the video below:

Interlinked Quilt Pattern

The sample quilt used in the video is called Interlinked. It’s one of the quilts I’ve made several different variations of, from one that uses a monochromatic color scheme to one that uses a vibrant and saturated palette. Any choice of fabric will work! I also quilted it using a different but related design to Bricks, so even though it’s not exactly what’s shown in this week’s tutorial, the techniques used are the same. If you want to try out this quilt for yourself, be sure to grab my quilt pattern!

Here’s a detail shot showing off the custom quilting of the colorful version of Interlinked. And since I’m using gray thread on busy gray fabric, you can see how it blends in and you can hardly notice any mistakes. Instead, you can only see the delicious texture!

Bonus Video – How to Machine Quilt a King Sized Quilt

In addition to the pattern, I’ve provided a longer tutorial that teaches you how to quilt Interlinked. It’s a great in-depth guide that really breaks everything down step by step, in case you need some extra tips. You can do a quilt this large with just your domestic machine. Also, if you want to quilt a different design from what is shown in the video, you can chose any design from this series to incorporate into the quilting plan. What will you quilt?

How to Quilt Decorative Stitch Shattered Lines – 99 Designs Episode 43

If you remember shattered lines all the way back in episode 7? We’re bringing it back this week and teaching you how to do a version with decorative stitching! Like all decorative stitch designs, you can change which settings you use for endless combinations and variety. Check out the video below to learn more:

Shattered Lines on Little Man’s Fancy

In the video I showed you how I quilted regular shattered lines on Little Man’s Fancy. This quilt actually comes from the first book I ever wrote, Machine Quilting With Style. It’s also the first time I quilted shattered lines on a full-sized quilt! If you want to learn how to make this quilt, check out the link below to get the PDF for Machine Quilting With Style:

Click Here to Grab the Machine Quilting With Style PDF

Here’s a closeup of the quilting. You can use decorative stitch shattered lines or any of the variants of this design on this quilt.

Bonus Video – How to Machine Quilt Shattered Lines on Bling

Another quilt I’ve stitched this design on is Bling. Like Little Man’s Fancy, you can replace the regular shattered lines with decorative stitching ones to give it a more elegant and traditional look. I’ve provided a tutorial below that gives an in-depth explanation on how I made this quilt from start to finish:

Grab the Bling Quilt Kit

Want to try making this quilt yourself? You can pick up a kit of the latest version of this quilt on my shop. Let me know how you chose to quilt it!

I hope you enjoyed this week’s video! Join us next week for another machine quilting tutorial!

How to Free-Motion Quilt Rainbows & Crescents – 99 Designs Episode #42

In this week’s tutorial, I’m continuing with more densely textured free motion quilting designs: Rainbows and Crescents. If you like last week’s tutorial, these two designs use the same concept. They are also very similar, so try quilting them together as part of the same motif. Check it out below!

The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting

The quilt featured in this tutorial is Quattrefoil, from my book The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting. Both Rainbows and Crescents are featured in this quilt, as I made to be a “sampler” quilt with many different designs. If you want to practice these designs on a real quilt, and learn how to make Quattrefoil or any of the other ten quilt patterns featured in this book, check out the link below

Click Here to Grab The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting PDF

In this detail shot, you can see where I quilted Rainbows (plus a few other designs from the rest of my 99 Videos series). On my Quattrefoil quilt, instead of using contrasting thread, I’m using a pink thread on dark pink fabric, which causes the stitches to blend in more and mistakes aren’t as noticeable. I think it shows off more of the wonderful texture of the quilting!

Bonus Video – Setting Yourself Up for Machine Quilting Success

Getting into this series a little bit later? If you missed the first few episodes, make sure to check out this introductory video I made at the beginning of the series that goes over preparing your samples and setting up your machine for both walking foot and free motion quilting.

If you have any questions for me, always feel free to leave a comment or what you think of the series so far!

99 Machine Quilting Designs #41 – FMQ Hears and Geometrics

We’re back to free-motion quilting this week with two dense designs that will add lots of texture to a full-sized quilt: Echoed Hearts and Geometrics. If you want to learn more about these designs, click on the video below.

Try these designs on Surplus Strips!

Want to try one or both of these designs on a real quilt? Check out Surplus Strips, a beginner-friendly design made from just one Jelly Roll and background fabric. You can get the kit (while supplies last) or pattern below. You can also take a look at all my Jelly Rolls to assemble your own custom kit.

Here’s a detail shot of two different quilting designs used on this quilt. I love making different iterations of my quilts, as I’ve actually made Surplus Strips four times! There are endless opportunities to vary this quilt from fabric choice to what designs you quilt on it.

Bonus Video – Free Motion Quilting on Surplus Strips

This is a how-to video on how I quilted different dense FMQ designs on Surplus Strips. If you want a deep dive into making the quilting plan for this quilt, check out the video below.

I hope you’re enjoying this series! Leave a comment to let me know what you think!

Black Friday Sale Starts Now: All Fabric on Sale for $9.95 or less.

The holiday season is here! I hope everyone is looking forwards to spending time with family and eating lots of good food and treats (I know I am). This week is Thanksgiving, so to celebrate I’m starting my Black Friday sale today! All fabric by the yard is $9.95 or less. Check out the links to my shop to see more deals and discounts.

Click Here to Shop Fabric Yardage Sale

Dazze Dots I and II and Stitchy on Sale

Fabric by the yard from Dazzle Dots I & II and Stitchy are on sale now. Pick up these fabrics for some early Christmas shopping, to use in any quilting project, or to add to your personal stash.

Precuts are on Sale!

Most of my 10 inch Layer Cakes, 2 1/2″ precut jelly roll strips, or 5″ charm packs are on sale. These work with many of my patterns, so be sure to check the links for all of those below.

Happy Holidays!

99 Machine Quilting Designs #40 – Decorative Stitch Grids

This week we are practicing more decorative stitches with our walking foot. Any traditional “straight line” design be modified for this technique. Watch and learn below:

Quilt This Design on a Real Quilt!

Practice quilting decorative stitches on Ticker Tape! I have several colorways of this kit available (while supplies last). It’s made from one jelly roll of Dazzle Dots with a colorful background.

Click Here to view all Quilt Kits
Click Here to grab the Ticker Tape Quilt Pattern – PDF Download

I even used decorative stitches on the binding, too! It’s a fast way to finish and the binding stitches become part of the overall quilting design. I love paring decorative stitches with other walking foot designs like wavy lines.

Bonus Video – Watch Me Quilt 2 Versions of Ticker Tape

I put together a video showing how I quilted two different colorways of Ticker Tape. I will usually make the same quilt more than once, just to try out different machine quilting ideas.

Here’s my recoloring of Ticker Tape in 4 different colorways. Which is your fave??
Click here to grab the Ticker Tape Quilt Kit – while Supplies last!

Free-Motion Quilting Chevrons – 99 Designs Video #37

This week I’m back with a fun geometric design for you to stitch – Chevrons. Try out 2 different variations which are perfect for modern or traditional quilts. Watch and learn for free below:

If you are looking for fabric to practice these fun designs, be sure to check out my fabric sale over on my website at Shop.ChristaQuilts.com. I’m always adding new things to the mix! While supplies last, I’m clearing out my older 10″ square and 2 1/2″ strips from earlier fabric collections. This is to make room for my next fabric collection I’m working on now!

Click here to grab all fabrics on sale.

Chista Watson fabric precuts

The regular price of these precuts range from $40-$45 but you can grab them for just $35 each – no minimum. And I’m happy to ship worldwide. So stock up now, while they last!

View all precuts on sale.

Free-Motion Quilting Tutorial: Geometric Shapes, 99 Designs Episode 33

In this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs, practice free motion quilting more “shapes on a stick” like Balloon Shapes and Shish Kebabs. Click below to watch and learn:

Quilt These Designs on Block Chain

I made this quilt before I started making video tutorials, but it’s a great one to practice these designs! The Block Chain quilt pattern includes a quilting plan showing you how and it’s perfect for your favorite charm packs!

Block Chain by Christa Watson

Huge Fabric Clearance

Right now, my Gridwork charm packs shown in the quilt above are on sale for way below the retail price. I’ve also reduced the price of many of my earlier fabric lines, and they are only available while supplies last!

Gridwork Charmpack

Sharing is Caring!

As you practice your machine quilting designs on samples, or real quilts, be sure to share what you’ve made over in my Christa Quilts Group on Facebook. Fellow members and I would love to cheer you on!!

Learn to Free-Motion Quilt Hearts and Triangles: 99 Designs Episode 32

In my latest episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs, practice more geometric shapes on a stick with Hearts and Triangles. Watch and learn below:

Quilt This Design on a Real Quilt!

Block Chain is the name of the quilt behind me shown in the video tutorial above. The pattern includes 4 sizes + detailed machine quilting suggestions. After all, I want you to actually finish your quilts, so you’ll never see “quilt as desired” in any of my pattern instructions! 

Block Chain Quilt Pattern

When My Quilting Inspires My Fabric Design

Did you know that one of the fabric prints in my Stitchy fabric line was inspired by these quilting motifs? The print below is called “Stitches” and would make a great practice sample for these fun designs. The full collection includes 5 fun prints in 5 different colorway, so be sure to stock up on your faves, while they last!

Beaded Lanterns QAL Part 3 – Sewing the Quilt Top

How are your Beaded Lanterns quilt blocks coming along? It’s time to sew them together to create the quilt top! If you are just now finding the quilt along, be sure to grab the Beaded Lanterns free quilt pattern to join the fun!

To start things off, I like to lay out my blocks on a design wall. Then I’ll spend time arranging them into a pleasing order. I usually take a picture with my camera phone to refer to while sewing.

Once that’s done, I’ll make a stack of blocks to sew in order and then chain piece, or assembly line sew them all at once. I always start sewing with a leader/ender piece of scrap fabric to catch my threads. This prevents them from knotting up when I start and stop.

It makes a beautiful mess and I love the feeling of accomplishment!

I’ll sew all of the blocks together into rows and then continue using my design wall to lay it out as I join the rows together. I press after every round of sewing to keep things nice and flat.

As you can sew I prefer to press all my seams open. This ensures flat blocks, flat rows, and a very flat quilt top which will make machine quilting so much easier! I sew with a short stitch length (2.0) so that nothing comes apart while handling.

I pin generously as I sew to keep things from shifting. Because my seams are pressed open, I’m not pinning right into the intersection. Instead I will pin on either side of the seams I want to match up and I get really clean joins and matching points this way.

Finally, I add the borders and give the quilt top a final press! Notice the bit of patchwork on the design wall below. I sewed together some leftovers into strip units and I’ll start using those on the back.

Coming up next: I’ll need to piece the quilt backing, baste the layers and quilt the quilt, so stay tuned for more! Click the links below to catch up on any of the previous steps: