Christa’s Quilt Links – Linky Parties and Blog Hop Giveaways

November 30, 2012March 19, 20132 Comments

I’ve been having so much fun surfing the web and discovering so many fantastic quilting blogs! Did you know that many bloggers have fun linky parties where you can share your work and be inspired by others?

The Free Motion Quilting Project – Leah Day offers a chance to bust through your pile of UFO’s with her linkup every Sunday.

Each Wednesday she demonstrates a new free-motion quilting design along with a link-up party for that, too.

Plum and June – On Mondays, Beth asks a fun question each week.

You get to answer with a linkup to any sewing project you are currently working on.

Canoe Ridge Creations – Also on Mondays, Megan inspires us with Sew Modern Monday, a chance for you to show off your modern creations.

Her style is bright and clear and she serves up plenty of hand-made inspiration.

Quilt Story – Each week, sisters Heather and Megan host Fabric Tuesday, a fun linkup where you can share your projects.

It’s not just limited to quilts, and the work they do is fantastic!

Freshly Pieced – WIP Wednesdays are the focus of Lee’s fresh, fun and colorful blog.

She occasionally features guest posters with lots of great inspiration, too.

Please leave me a comment and let me know about any other linky parties that you participate in so we can share more of the fun!

While you are surfing around, be sure to mark your calendars so you can participate in these fun giveaway hops in the next couple of weeks:

Sew Mama Sew launches their giveaway day this coming Monday, December 3rd. Lots of blogs will be participating and will give away fun handmade items along with sewing and craft supplies. Can you say free fabric??? It should be fun!

The Quilting Gallery will be hosting their 5th anniversary blog hop party beginning Monday, December 10. Hundreds of different blogs will be hosting giveaways all at the same time. What a great chance to find some new fun blogs and win cool “quilty” prizes!

Christa’s Quilt Links – Help for Sandy Storm Victims

November 10, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

I wanted to focus on how we as quilters can help victims of Hurricane Sandy. Donated quilts will not solve all the problems of those who’ve been impacted, but they can help keep them warm through the cold winter and provide a warm “hug” to let them know someone cares!

The American Quilter’s Society has teamed up with Project Linus in New Jersey to collect and distribute quilts to those in need. Project Linus usually focuses on giving quilts as a hug to children who have suffered trauma due to illness or loss.

However, when disaster strikes, they are more than willing to expand their scope to reach as many people as possible. You can get the shipping address for quilt donations as well as needed quilt specifications here.

EQuilter and Timeless Treasures Fabrics have also joined forces. They have set a goal of collecting 5000 quilts to distribute to storm victims.

Timeless Treasures has generously donated warehouse space to receive the quilts. Click here for the shipping address and detailed instructions on how to donate your quilt.

The quilt at left was photographed at the Houston Quilt Festival and was made by Marianne Williamson.

The Quilting Gallery is doing their part to help by hosting a quilt block drive. They will be matching up those who want to sew blocks with those who would be willing to assemble the completed quilts. You can register here to participate. There is even a free tutorial on how to make scrappy wonky log cabin blocks for this heroic project.

I know my local guild plans on coordinating efforts of our members as well, so I will be sure to donate a quilt and some supplies. Please check with your local guild, too!

Charming Chevrons Followup #3

November 8, 2012March 19, 2013Leave a comment

I’m getting a great response from my Charming Chevrons quilt tutorial. With the easy to piece blocks they are going together very quickly. Several blog readers are making it in alternate sizes, too.

I was very happy to find a larger seam roller to use in pressing my blocks. I started off using a narrow roller. But when I took Deb Karasik’s workshop she recommended using one with a wider roll, sort of like a wallpaper roller.

You can order one directly from Deb’s store.

I hope to carry them too!

By the way, here’s a picture of Kathie’s quilt in progress using coordinated fabrics and larger blocks cut 8.5 inches instead of 5 inches. The graphic colorscheme is rockin’!!

Kathie is thinking of using Minkee on the back. I think that would be fabulous and she could even skip the batting if she wants!

You’ll notice that Kathie folded and pressed her blocks to get the diagonal registration lines rather than marking them with a pen. This works, too!

The beauty of this pattern is that it will work in ANY size because the blocks are all the same size. You can also use fewer blocks or make your quilt larger by adding borders. Remember, this is YOUR quilt so I give you blanket permission to change it any way YOU want! Now, wasn’t that fun??

Christa’s Quilt Links: Time to Vote and Share

November 2, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

In light of the storm devastation this week, Jennifer from Knotted-Thread is collecting donations of quilt blocks that she will use to make quilts that she will personally deliver to one of the affected areas in December. Please click the link above and send a block or two if you can. I’m sure there will be tons more quilters and sewists banding together to help out during this time of need.

There are lots of things to vote about this time of the year, and fortunately many of them have to do with quilts! Below are fun links to explore from my web travels this week:

The 2012 Blogger’s Quilt Festival is now underway. Nominate your favorite quilts in 15 categories through November 4. (I am sponsoring the winner for the Home Machine Quilted category). Vote for your favorite quilts in these categories November 5-8. Winners will be announced November 9. As of this writing there are over 600 entries to choose from!

Alyssa at Pile O’Fabric has lots of fun stuff going on, too. You can vote for your favorite finalist quilt in her Totally Groovy Quilt Along. This original pattern was designed by Emily Cier and was used as the basis for the QAL.

Curves not your thing? Then how about triangles? Check out Alyssa’s Triangle Wheel Quilt Block Tutorial. I’ve never seen a block like this before. She recommends using Kona Cotton Charm Squares for ease of construction.

Speaking of tutorials, I have another fun one I want to share with you courtesy of Elizabeth from Don’t Call Me Betsy.

Elizabeth is taking part in a Cathedral Windows Quilt-Along series.

She chose Summersville fabric to make a very modern version of her Cathedral Star Block.

Very cute Betsy — I mean Elizabeth!

Finally I wanted to end with this fun quilt by Jacquie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio. It’s her nod to the 80’s – complete with neon fabrics, musical notes and yes, that’s a cassette tape! Remember those??

Here’s the disclaimer: I’m blogging about what interests me and I in no way receive any compensation for endorsing anything I write about. These are strictly my opinions. I’ve gotten blanket permission from individual blog owners ahead of time to share photos.

And the Winner is… (with another chance to win fabric!)

September 4, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

Thanks so much to all of you who participated in my blog hop party and fabric giveaway hosted by the Quilting Gallery. Make sure you visit their website for more upcoming fun – I’m sponsoring a few of their weekly contests and their fall block party so check it out!

It was such fun to read everyone’s comments and see what they would buy if they won. It also gave me a good idea of what fabrics are most popular among my blog readers. I randomly chose one winner from all of the posts I received. And the winner is……..

Tanya H. who said, “I like American Jane. Thanks for chance to win.”

Congratulations, Tanya! You have won a $20 gift certificate to my online fabric store, ChristaQuilts.com. You can spend this gift certificate however you choose! I will be contacting you separately via email on how to redeem your prize.

Now, for all of you who did not win, guess what – there’s still hope! I sponsor a couple of crafty/quilting blogs out there and 2 of them are featuring my shop on their blogs with another giveaway this week!

For details, please visit PileoFabric.com or PlumandJune.blogspot.com. These contests end soon, so hurry on over for you next chance to win!

Blog Hop Party and Fabric Giveaway!

August 25, 2012March 19, 2013123 Comments

I have jumped on the blog hop party wagon! I’ve been reading lots of quilting blogs recently and have discovered this fascinating world of tutorials, inspiration, freebies and giveaways. (I know many of you have known about these for years – I’m a little late to the party!)

Anyway, you’ll notice I have implemented many of those ideas here on my blog like my Jolly Jelly Roll quilt tutorial, with a new tutorial starting next week.

To keep the inspiration coming, I decided to join up with the Quilting Gallery and participate in their Blog Hop Party. From August 26th – September 3rd you can check out the hundreds of participating blogs with a chance to win something from each host!

For my giveaway, I will be offering a $20 gift certificate to spend on fabric or anything else that catches your eye at ChristaQuilts.com. Here’s how to enter:

Go to my website and sign up for my newsletter. Quickly browse around to see what I have to offer. Then come back here and leave a comment on this post telling me what you would buy if you win! I will randomly select one person from all the comments as my winner.

This contest is open to everyone; I am happy to ship worldwide. I’ll announce the winner here on my blog on September 4th. Happy hopping!

And the Winner is….

August 18, 2012March 19, 20135 Comments

Loralie’s Sew Creative!!

Thanks to all of you who participated in my first fabric survey – that was fun! I gave you the choice of four new and re-released Loralie Harris fabric lines to choose from: Cool Cats, Nurse Central, Sew Creative or Fast Women.

Sew Creative won the survey with 44% of the votes so I am definitely going to order that one now. Cool Cats was a close second with 37% of the votes, Fast Women got 12% and Nurse Central received 7%. This was a very helpful survey because without it, I probably would have just ordered Nurse Central, which was actually the least popular group.

If I have enough budget left, I will also order Cool Cats since that one also received a lot of votes and comments here on my blog. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you’ll get an email when these fabulous fabrics arrive.

Now, for the 2 winners who will get a ChristaQuilts.com $10 gift certificate:

I used a random number generator based on all of the comments received. I did not include my own comments. The winners are:

Comments number 14 and 24!! That would be

Joyce Ellis: “I voted, it was hard to choose, they’re all cute. Decided on the cats.”

and

Heather: “I voted too.”

Congratulations to these lovely ladies. I will email each of you your gift certificates now.

This giveaway was so much fun – I think I will have to do this again in the near future!

Don’t Forget to Vote – Includes Fabric Giveaway!

August 16, 2012March 19, 201335 Comments

Don’t worry, I’m not trying to be political. This is just a reminder to vote in my fabric survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FDV57YC, if you haven’t done so already.

I am collecting votes to find out which fabric line to order next from designer Loralie Harris. The choices are: Cool Cats, Nurse Central, Sew Creative, or Fast Women.

So now for the giveaway:

I am all for incentives to get you to participate! I am pleased with the response I’ve gotten so far with the survey but want to “sweeten the pot” as they say.

Two lucky winners will each win a $10 gift certificate to my fabric store at ChristaQuilts.com. You can use this to buy a yard of the winning Loralie fabric collection when it arrives, or you can select anything else in the store – your choice!

Here’s how you get your chance to win:

Vote in my survey and then come back here and leave a comment telling me you voted. If you voted previously that’s fine – just leave a comment here indicating you did so.

On Saturday morning, August 18 at 10 am Pacific time, I’ll cut off the voting and will choose 2 winners at random. I’ll then announce which fabric collection won and will be on its way.

Happy voting and good luck!

Moda Charm Packs Galore

September 9, 2011March 19, 20131 Comment

I hope you aren’t getting tired of reading about charm packs because I am certainly not tired of writing about them and sewing with them – they are just “sew” addicting!

Here’s a recent pile of charm packs and jelly rolls that arrived from Moda, waiting to be labeled and bagged for shipping.

Here’s my current charm pack quilt project that I’m working on. It uses two packs of charms cut in half. I chose Lily Ashbury’s Summer House but think this will look great in any charm pack color combo.

As I wrote in the last post, my new thing is designing quilts in EQ7. As soon as this one is finished, I plan on kitting it and making a pattern from it. It’s super easy yet very striking, especially in colorful modern fabrics!

Here are the next few Moda charm packs that I would like to do something with:

Nature's Gift

Terrain

Lil' Rascals

One Person’s Trash is Another Quilter’s Treasure

August 15, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

A pattern designer friend of mine recently cleaned out her sewing room and gave me hundreds of stacks of paper and pictures for patterns she used to sell in the late 80’s and early 90’s. She said she was done with it and wanted it to be gone!

Never one to turn down such a treasure as this, I eagerly accepted her gift.

Whenever someone orders $25 or more worth of quilt fabric from my on-line quilt shop, they are entitled to a free gift.

If they forget to add it to their order, I will throw in a little fabric treat or free pattern for them. I call these goodies “Christa’s Candy”, and I think these cute patterns will make such wonderful freebies!