Snuggle Saturday – Cuddle Cakes and Kits from Shannon Fabrics

December 19, 2015December 17, 20158 Comments

At the most recent quilt market, Jason and I decided to take the plunge and expand our offerings. We met with the wonderful folks from Shannon Fabrics and bought two of all their Cuddle Kits and precuts. If it sells well – we’ll stock more!

elephant_quilt

I love this quilt kit – it comes in pink and blue!

Cuddle cloth, is Shannon Fabrics’ brand name for minky fabrics. These are super soft and plush fabrics that are softer and thicker than fleece, and they make the most adorable baby quilts and blankies!!

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All of Shannon Cuddle Kits are simply adorable!!

Right now, you can purchase Cuddle Cakes (10″ squares), Cuddle Charms (5″ squares), Scarf kits, and the most adorable baby quilt kits I’ve seen. The charms and squares come in sets of 20 and the kits include fabrics for the quilt top, applique and binding.

cuddle_cakes

When we first got these, my kids begged me to make them some quilts because they are so soft and cozy!! The nice thing about the charms and cakes is that you can easily mix and match them to make a bigger project (though one set of Cuddle Cakes will make a nice sized-patchwork throw).

cuddle_charms

The cuddle is easy enough to sew through, especially with a walking foot and you can add some basic quilting on top with no problems. In fact, depending on how bulky or lightweight you want your project to be, you can even skip the batting if desired!

Click here to see our entire line of Cuddle precuts.

I’m curious – have you ever sewn with minky before?

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)!

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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!

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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.

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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!

Fabric Friday – Angela Walters’ Drawn and Rhoda Ruth by Elizabeth Hartman

October 16, 2015October 12, 20158 Comments

Don’t you just love it when some of your favorite quilt designers become fabric designers, too? This week I want to share two new colorful collections from Angela Walters and Elizabeth Hartman, both of whom design fabrics for Robert Kaufman.

Drawn in Sorbet with coordinating Kona Solids.

Drawn – Water colorway with coordinating Kona Solids.

Drawn Pewter with coordinating Kona Solids.

Angela Walters’ Drawn collection features luscious bundles in warm Sorbet, cool Water, and neutral Pewter. I also think it’s genius that you can get several of her designs in extra wide fabrics, too – perfect for backings. Either use them as stand alone backings, or quilt on the lines with the quilt upside-down to add incredible texture to your quilts.

The wide bundles come in a 3 yard x 108″ wide piece – perfect for backings!

Rhoda Ruth by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman

Rhoda Ruth is named for Elizabeth’s grandmother who must have had a great sense of color and style. I think these prints answer the call for smaller scale prints that will look perfect in modern quilts!

I know that both Angela and Elizabeth will be debuting their new lines at fall quilt market and I can hardly wait to get my hands on them!

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 10 – Lightning

September 24, 2015September 24, 20152 Comments

Today’s stop on the Machine Quilting With Style book tour is full of inspiration and giveaways! Be sure to stop by all of the blogs listed below to get in on the prizes. And be sure to go back and visit the earlier stops you may have missed. Many of those giveaways are still open. 🙂

Lightning – The Background Story

Lightning 72″ x 96″ by Christa Watson. Photograpy by Brent Kane.

I love taking traditional design ideas and then tweaking them with a bit of the unexpected. You may recognize Lightning as a simple rail fence variation, but with a modern twist! I’m realizing I love to do scrappy, but with more of a “controlled scrappy” look. As I have said before, why choose one fabric when 20 will do! And why cut straight strips when you can make them a bit wonky instead, right? I decided that the ziz-zag streaks looked like they were piercing through a cloudy sky, hence the name Lightning!

Have sewing machine – will travel and quilt, even while on vacation!

I actually pieced this quilt last summer while on vacation. I brought along my Singer Featherweight and was able to set up a makeshift sewing area in a small space. I used the hotel floor as a design wall and took pictures with my phone so I could keep the layout oriented correctly.

Quilting in progress – you gotta love a good stipple!

This quilt is rather large, but I had no problems quilting it on my BERNINA. In the book, I share my best tips and tricks for how to deal with the bulk of the quilt when quilting on a sit-down machine. Just remember, you only need to deal with a small amount of the quilt under the needle at any time. 🙂

A Bit More

Backing in progress – a great way to use up fat quarters!

As I love to do, I made a scrappy backing for Lightning from my fat quarter stash of black and white prints, with some pops of green. I had originally wanted this included in the book, but was sad when it had to be cut for length. However, the folks at Martingale have generously decided to include it as a free pieced backing tutorial on their site – so yay! (See more below.)

What makes this quilt modern – graphic color scheme, wonky blocks based on tradition, zig-zags create a focal point with a bright pop of color, block design goes all the way to the edges.

Time for me to complete – 44 hours from start to finish, including the pieced backing.

More from She Can Quilt, Martingale, and Riley Blake

Leanne Chahley from She Can Quilt is one of those people whose work is easy to admire! I fell in love with an award winning quilt of hers at the first QuiltCon and I’ve been her ~~stalker~~ friend ever since! I love her take on Lightning done with scrappy pinks and scrappy quilting. She used the designs from the book as sort of a sampler for machine quilting. Leanne quilted her version of Lightning on her long-arm, showing how versatile these designs can be!

Head to Leann’s site to see her fabulous version of Lightning and enter her giveaway!

Martingale/That Patchwork Place is simply the best publisher anyone could ask for! Yes, I may be a bit biased, but writing this book has been a fabulous experience from start to finish (just like making a quilt)! After writing this book, I would definitely partner with them again! When you purchase your copy of Machine Quilting With Style from the Martingale site, they’ll throw in the ebook for free. Double bonus!!

Martingale has a lot of content on their site today: you can see more quilty photos from the book, check out a little video from my quilt market demonstration last spring, and enter for your chance to visit their giveaway. (When you watch the video, you’ll get to see how fast I really talk in person!)

Go to Stitch This – the Martingale blog to get the free backing tutorial and enter their giveaway!

Riley Blake Designs has been a terrific partner. Not only did they provide me with fabrics used in some of the quilts in the book, they are offering a fantastic giveaway to go along with the hop!

Pop on over to the Riley Blake blog and enter for your chance to win!

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

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

Fabric Friday – Michael Miller Modern Basics

September 4, 2015September 2, 2015Leave a comment

The good news today is that I’m going to share some pretty pictures of mouthwatering precuts from Michael Miller. That bad news is, these are a limited run. Back when Jason and I decided to focus on selling precuts, patterns, and thread, we knew that meant we wouldn’t be able to carry all fabric brands. So we met with all of our vendors to let them know we were eager to carry whatever precuts they had to offer.

Recently, Michael Miller produced a fabulous line of Modern Basics precuts, but then decided they weren’t going to stay in the precut business. I hope they change their mind in the future, but for now, consider these as hard to find and gobble them up while you can:

Modern Basics – Bloom includes 45 graphic prints in juicy shades of pink, purple, and orange. Precut bundles come in fat quarters, charm packs, strip rolls, and 10″ squares.

Modern Basics – Ocean, in cool shades of blues and greens, is available in 45 piece fat quarter bundles and 10″ precut squares. Aren’t they refreshing?

Modern basics – Neutral also comes in a 45 pack in your choice of fat quarters, charm packs, strip rolls, and 10″ squares. You gotta have plenty of neutrals in your stash!

Modern Basics – crayon box is just as colorful as the name implies! These graphic bundles are available as charm packs, precut strips, and 10″ squares.

Click here for more details on all Michael Miller Modern Basics.

Fabric Friday – A Little Cotton and Steel Love

August 21, 2015August 20, 20153 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that I carry Cotton and Steel bundles in my precut store. Today I’d like to give them some love and also let you know that I also decided to get the double gauze bundle, too. Now, I’m not a garment sewer so I’m not really sure what to do with double gauze, but it looked so pretty, I couldn’t resist!

Double gauze – 15 half yard cuts – what would you make?

Other luscious bundles include Kim Kight’s Cookie Book (my favorite):

And Mesa by Alexia Abegg – I just can’t resist graphic, southwest designs!

Now here’s the best news, several of the older bundles that haven’t sold out are now on sale! Be sure to scoop them up before they are gone.

Click here for all Cotton and Steel precut bundles and happy shopping!

Fabric Friday – Lecien Precuts (and a new link to share)

August 14, 2015August 11, 20157 Comments

Today I’m sharing a new-to-me brand that we just started carrying in our precut store. But before we get to that, I wanted to announce that my brilliant husband Jason has purchased the domain name The Precut Store. It will remain under the Christa Quilts brand, but instead of having to get there from my blog, or trying to remember how to find it on Amazon, you can just google The Precut Store or Precut Store, or bookmark this link in your browser: http://theprecutstore.com/

Cool, huh? He and our oldest son are also currently working on a behind the scenes project to create a storefront shell which will make it easier to browse and search for our precuts on Amazon. I don’t have a date yet on when that will be finished, but I’ll keep you all in the loop when it occurs.

And now, check out these gorgeous new precuts from Lecien:

Lecien precut strips are called Sushi Rolls – isn’t that cute? This is Child Smile, a retro 30’s group.

I love their modern basics in charm squares and strips. This is the cool colorway.

You can’t go wrong with Quilter’s Basics – in 2 colorways.

Or try a pack of shabby chic charms which they call “Origami Squares.”

Have you heard of this brand before? If so what do you think?

Click here to view all Lecien precuts.

New Work in Progress – Feathered Chevrons

July 29, 2015July 25, 201510 Comments

I’m super excited to start working with my Kona Cotton designer palette from Robert Kaufman. I’m revisiting my Charming Chevrons design in a new way, something that has been on my to-do list for awhile.

Christa Watson designer palette plus Kona solids in Coal

I’m going to turn the precuts above into the quilt below and I can’t wait to get started! I’m using 4 charm packs of my designer palette along with 4 charm packs of Kona Coal to make a nice throw-sized quilt measuring 64″ x 80″.

Feathered Chevrons Layout from my Charming Chevrons Pattern.

I just love how the bright citrus colors pop against the dark grey background – don’t you? My designer palette will be available this October in quilt shops everywhere. 🙂

Introducing My Very Own Kona Designer Palette

July 24, 2015July 24, 201529 Comments

I have exciting news to share today! I’ve been working with Robert Kaufman to curate my very own Kona Cotton designer palette in my favorite shades of red, orange, yellow and green.

Christa Watson Designer Palette – Kona Solid Precuts Coming Soon!

I chose these fabrics for the Facets quilt from my book Machine Quilting With Style. You can see a sneak peek of the quilt in the photo above.

I never thought I would see my name on precuts – such a dream come true!!

My precut palette will include 5″ charm squares, 10″ ten squares, 2 1/2″ wide roll ups and a 28 piece fat quarter bundle. They will be available for purchase in quilt shops everywhere this fall, including my precut store.

Probably one of the best things about having my own precut bundle is being able to explore the possibilities. I already have two additional quilts I will be making, and I will share my progress with you – so stay tuned!