Cover Girl!

October 15, 2013January 6, 2014150 Comments

I am over the moon about this. I am a cover girl. Well, really my quilt is, and it looks much better closely cropped than I do. 🙂 My Chevrons quilt is on the cover of the Nov./Dec. 2013 issue of Quilty Magazine.

I was beside myself when the folks at Quilty accepted my submission many months ago. I set to work diligently cutting and piecing this labor of love and giving little hints whenever I could. I was thrilled that someone wanted to publish it. Not that I don’t take pride in my work. It’s just that seeing it in print is somehow a validation of everything I work for.

I pieced it on my older Bernina 1630 and quilted it on my brand new Bernina 710 . (Buying a new machine mid-deadline can be a pretty stressful experience, LOL!)

I practiced on a bunch of scrap pieces before I was happy with the quilt design. I basted my quilt with lots of pins and anchored the rows by stitching in the ditch. I quilted straight lines about 1/4 away from the seams, using painter’s tape to help keep them straight.

Here’s a closeup of the back after all the rows were quilted. This is technically enough quilting for this quilt, but since I tend to go a little crazy when it comes to machine quilting, I decided to add quite a bit more.

I filled in all the Chevrons with straight lines using a blending thread. I added pebbles and echoed lines in the background, leaving some un-quilted areas to create a textural “relief”.

I was unsure how this would turn out, but once I flipped the quilt over to the back side, I was happy with how the texture was looking.

I’m still learning how to photograph my quilts so that the quilting can show, but it’s a work in progress. For some reason, I get better details when the quilt is flat on a table rather than a straight shot. I know it has something to do with the lighting.

The down side is that since I can’t get a straight on shot, you get to see my messy sewing room with ugly chairs, plastic bins, and cords sticking out everywhere, LOL!

Chevrons Front

It took me several years to get the quilting part down. It may be several more before my photography skills catch up to my quilting skills. Be sure to pick up your copy of Quilty so you can see it professionally patterned, styled, and photographed. 🙂

I almost forgot – I owe a huge thanks to the folks over at Micheal Miller who supplied their gorgeous Cotton Couture Solids to me to make this quilt. I simply adore solids!

Chevrons Back

Here’s a shot of the back. I’ve written up a separate tutorial on how to make your own colorful strippy backing here.

Free Ebooks From Fave Quilts Including my FMQ Primer

September 9, 2013September 9, 201311 Comments

Fave Quilts is a fun website that features literally hundreds of free quilting patterns from dozens of different bloggers and designers. From time to time they have featured many of my blog tutorials both on their website and in their free eBooks.

The newest eBook they’ve published is called 17 Quilting Tutorials: Quilting for Beginners and Top Tips for How to Quilt. It includes my Intro to Free-Motion Quilting Tutorial along with tips on basting, applique, binding and more.

I was honored to be selected for inclusion in this eBook along with several other bloggers whom I’m sure you’ll recognize.

I was previously published in American Quilting Traditions: 11 Free Quilt Designs, Quilt Blocks and More Americana. My project in this compilation was my American Rails quilt tutorial, made for our wounded warriors.

You can get free downloads of both these eBooks along with links to hundreds, perhaps thousands of other fantastic quilting tutorials from FaveQuilts.com. Just beware of inspiration overload! 🙂

Martha Stewart’s Got Nothing on Me!

June 25, 2013June 25, 201323 Comments

Well… actually she does. 🙂 I just found out my Charming Chevrons quilt (which I thought I was done blogging about yesterday) was seen in a current issue of Martha Stewart Living Magazine (July/August 2013 p. 4). How cool is that?

It’s a small picture, and I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t credit me, but they did mention QuiltCon. I think that’s a picture of Denyse Schmidt’s quilt below mine – so still pretty cool!

Martha Stewart is advertising her contest called American Made, so after seeing a snippet of my quilt in the magazine, I decided to enter.

You can see my American Made profile here, and voting begins August 24th if you are so inclined. I’m not expecting much from it, but if it can get my name and blog out there, then it was worth the effort. (And I’ll forgive the editors for not mentioning my name in the magazine, LOL!)

In other magazine news, I was pretty excited that I was quoted in an article about QuiltCon by none other than modern quilting goddess, Jacquie Gering. She borrowed a picture of mine that I took at QuiltCon showing the adorable hand-made ribbons. Jacquie’s article was titled, “Modern Moments” and appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of Quilting Quarterly put out by The National Quilting Association.

Yes, I’m a self-proclaimed public relations nerd and I have both copies of these magazines now. But hey, I used to pay good money for publicity like this and now I’m getting it for free. That’s a win-win in my book! 🙂

Hey Quilty! New Project Start with Cotton Couture Solids

May 6, 2013May 4, 201334 Comments

I am so thrilled I could hardly keep this to myself!

This bundle of gorgeous Cotton Couture solids just arrived in the mail from Michael Miller. I am going to turn them into an original quilt which will be featured in an upcoming issue of Quilty magazine!

Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids

Have you seen Quilty yet? Edited by Mary Fons, it’s an amazing new magazine geared toward beginning contemporary and modern quilters which has quickly become one of my favorites. (Be sure to catch her fabulous QuiltCon lecture for free on Craftsy!)

When I first met New Track Media publisher Kristi Loeffelholz at QuiltCon back in February, I immediately knew I wanted to work with them. While I’m chatting with Kristi, who walks up to us but none other than Mary Fons? So of course I quickly got a picture with my camera phone, even though it was pretty dark in the room. (Sorry for the fuzzy pics!)

Mary Fons, Christa Watson, Kristi Loeffelholz (New Track Media Publisher)

The next day at QuiltCon, I ran into Mary’s mom Marianne Fons checking out the quilts! We had a fun little conversation where I was able to tell her what an influence she and Liz Porter have been on my quilting over the years. Their book, The Quilter’s Complete Guide was the first quilting book I ever purchased way back in 1995!

Marianne Fons and Christa Watson at QuiltCon

Now, some 18 years later as I am ready to take my quilting to the next level, I think it’s wonderful kharma that it’s Marianne’s daughter’s magazine that will have my first published quilt. Hmmm, I wonder if it’s too late to be adopted into the Fons quilt mafia family???

Stay tuned for updates on this quilt!

Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids

Modern Dresden Block – Paper Pieced Pattern

January 31, 2013October 13, 202393 Comments

Pattern Update

I have now turned this block tutorial into a full-fledged foundation paper pieced pattern called Party Time. It includes multiple sizes, the foundation pattern to photocopy & quilting suggestions.

Click here to purchase the Paper Pieced PDF Download.

Original Design Idea – Modern Dresden

This my contemporary interpretation of a Dresden Plate block.

I started with the idea of “plates” or “wedges” radiating out from a center. But instead of classic curves, I wanted to keep my design straight and angular. So I played around with lines and angles in EQ and this is what I came up with.