Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild Show and Tell – July 2013

July 26, 2013July 26, 20138 Comments

Last night I attended the monthly meeting of the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild, and it was so fun to meet face to face with like-minded gals and discuss quilts!

Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild Banner Finished

I only joined a few months ago and it has been so great getting to know these terrific gals. We had some fun show and tell which is always inspiring…

Marjorie’s Apron

Such Cute Fabric!

Tracy E.’s Blue Quilt, Quilted by Linda N.

Valerie K.’s Hawaiian Quilt for Honokaa Hospital
Hand Appliqued & Hand Quited – Gorgeous!

Valerie’s Grape Vine Embroidery/Colored Runner

One of our founding members, Carolina, focused more on the “telling” part. She gave us a wrap up of an industry craft trade show she recently attended and handed out a few freebies that she picked up along the way.

Carolina the Crafter – speaking in front of some gorgeous modern quilt shop samples!

Carolina is quite a crafty blogger and you can see some of her clever crafty ideas on her blog 30 Minute Crafts. She’ll also be teaching at the Riley Blake Fabric Fest here in Vegas this fall. Too cool (well actually, still pretty darn hot)!

X Plus Blocks for Charity Quilt

Here are a few X Plus blocks I stitched up that will go into a charity quilt for the Candle Lighters in a couple of weeks. (Thanks to Patti for cutting and pre-sewing many of the pieces ahead of time and for coordinating the whole affair).

Reading with Rover Quilts

And finally, a few of the gals were able to finish off some more “Reading with Rover” quilts from leftover Madrona Road fabric. These will be given to a local program coordinated by one of our members that pairs up kids needing extra reading practice with dogs to sit and read to (and cuddle with I’m sure).

We also discussed a little bit about whether or not to become members of The Modern Quilt Guild now that they have “officially” opened up for national membership. Hopefully we’ll make a final decision about that by next month because my vote is definitely yes!!

You can read about the last LVMQG meeting I attended here. It was a fun night and I can’t wait for the next one!

Angela Walters Textures Fabric and a Winning Quilt

July 8, 2013July 6, 20138 Comments

One of my quilting heroes, Angela Walters, recently launched her own line of fabulous fabrics modern fabrics. When I met her at QuiltCon I told her that I planned to carry them in my store.

Now that plan has become a reality. I just received the wonderful 10 piece collection of Textures, her debut line from Art Gallery Fabrics.

The modern textural look of these prints really appeals to me. I especially love the panel print which was recently featured in a contest sponsored by Art Gallery fabrics.

In fact, my friend Kelli from Seriously I Think it Needs Stitches won the contest with her fabulous Mod Geocruiser Quilt. Isn’t it great? You can read about her inspiration here.

Mod Geocruiser by Kelli Fannin
Make it Right Winner

I think Kelli did such a fabulous job with the textural quilting, too. 🙂 You can find more inspiration here to see how others creatively used the Right Angles Panel.

I’m way excited because I also preordered Angela Walters’ next collection, Legacy, due out later this fall. Here’s Angela’s Legacy Quilt, shown at market this past spring. Fabulous!

Angela Walters’ Legacy Quilt

Let’s Get Aquainted Blog Hop Hosted by Plum and June

July 5, 2013July 4, 201370 Comments

Hi all! Welcome to my stop on the blog hop tour hosted by Beth of Plum and June. I’m Christa and I have to say I’m committing modern quilt blasphemy by stating that I don’t like making hexagon quilts!

Oh, no! Why not, you say?? Well I have a good reason. Nearly 17 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child and experiencing horrible morning sickness, I tried to take my mind off things by cutting out hundreds of hexagons for a hand pieced grandmother’s flower garden quilt.

I ended up getting an aversion to hexagons and even had to throw away all the fabric I had used to cut them out or it would make me sick just looking at it. Now, whenever I even think about touching this shape, it reminds me of morning sickness. How unfair is that??I was able to make my son’s baby quilt shown above once I felt better. (He’s now 16 and just got his driver’s license – boy how time flies!)

This was one of my very early quilts and I learned a lot from it. I learned that I love applique – but not by hand! I also learned that I love tons of quilting on a quilt, though this one was all straight line quilted because that’s all I knew how to do at the time.

I’ve come a long way since then! I’ve recently celebrated a finish, only the back of which I can share now. For the full reveal, be sure to subscribe to Quilty magazine in time to receive the November/December issue. 🙂

I love tons of quilting on a quilt and this one took a whopping 38 hours just for the quilting. But machine quilting this baby was pure zen for me, every moment of it!

I really like the negative space on the back and may play around with this design a bit more for a future quilt… Sometimes the backs of my quilts are more interesting than the fronts, LOL!

I do all my own quilting and my machine of choice is a Bernina which I blogged about recently. My mom calls my new machine the “Klingon Battle Cruiser.” 🙂

This was about 5 hours into quilting and I knew I had bought the right machine for the job. I love all the extra throat space!

My current project is my String of Pearls Quilt. This just may be my favorite modern quilt. I love the strong bold colors and graphic design of modern quilting. I realized I’m not into embellishing or working with lots of tiny fussy pieces so modern quilting suits me to a “T”!

I usually try to host a quilt along when I want to make a new quilt because it forces me to plan ahead and keeps me on schedule. Plus it’s fun to see how everyone else interprets my design.

Coming up later this fall I plan on attending Sewing Summit so I look forward to getting to know more bloggers and making new friends. 🙂

Here are this week’s blog hop stops:

ChristaQuiltsBlog.com – You are here!

wonderlandbyalyce.blogspot.com

the-crooked-banana.blogspot.com

www.rachelboothhappilyeverafter.blogspot.com

quarterincher.blogspot.com

www.sassafras-lane.com

www.carolinescraftiness.blogspot.com

http://hilltophousecreativeworks.blogspot.com/

Happy hopping!

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

I Won a Viewers’ Choice Award – Thank You All So Much For Your Support!

June 2, 201330 Comments

I just found out the great news – my Charming Chevrons quilt won one of the viewer’s choice prizes from the Blogger’s Quit Festival for Spring 2013. Click below to enlarge:

Viewer’s Choice – Charming Chevrons

Charming Chevrons Backing

This is beyond surreal! Words cannot begin to express the appreciation I feel not only for all those who liked my quilt enough to vote for it, but the generous sponsors, Amy Ellis for organizing the event, and the hundreds of other fabulous bloggers who participated.

Viewer’s Choice – Together in a Friendship World
By Geta from Romania

There were a total of 3 viewer’s choice winners (out of nearly 700 total entries!) with some fabulous prizes. I won a $100 Gift Certificate to Shop Martingale! Just in time, too, as I need to stock up on some quilt books that are on my list!

Geta from Romania won a $75 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop for her gorgeous 3-D looking quilt above, Together in a Friendship World. Fabulous, indeed!

Viewers Choice
Daisy a Day by Di from Snippets ‘n Scraps

And Di who blogs at Snippets ‘n Scraps won a Stash Pack of hand-dyed fabrics from Vicki Welsh and a large pack of Mystyfuse. Isn’t her photography lovely, too?

Of course there were a total of 15 other winners who also won fabulous prizes from a variety of generous sponsors. You can see pictures of all of the winning quilts here.

I’m sending out virtual hugs to all who entered and all who were inspired by such lovely quilts!

Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild Meeting – May 2013

May 31, 2013May 31, 20137 Comments

Last night I attended a meeting of the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. I joined in February, as soon as I returned home from QuiltCon and was inspired to find my local group of modern quilters. I’m sure glad I did, because even though it’s a small group, they have quite a bit of fun! (You can read my previous blog entry about them here.)

Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild

To start off the evening we worked on a couple of charity projects. There’s a program called Reading for Rover which pairs up kids who need extra reading practice with a cuddly pup to read to. They sit on a quilt at a local library together for some quality reading and pet time.

Regina and Christa sewing a charity quilt top.

Here’s one of the member’s finished quilts that she made to donate to the cause. Isn’t it the cutest?

Reading for Rover Quilt

Another ongoing project the group is doing is making these adorable “Plus X” blocks which will be donated as a raffle quilt to the Candlelighter’s association. I took home a few extra block kits to work on myself. I love these colors! Patti, the organizer, found a wonderful pieced block tutorial from Amy Badskirt’s blog here.

Japanese Plus X Blocks

The group is also participating in a mug rug swap with the Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild. Here are a few of our completed mug rugs. It will be fun to see what we receive in return!

Mug Rug Swap

Part of every meeting features fantastic show and tell. Sandy shared a colorful Jelly Roll quilt she made.

Jelly Roll Quilt Front

I like the backing just as much as the front. The quilting adds such great texture!

Jelly Roll Quilt Back

I met Nichol for the first time as she debuted this extra large colorful star quilt that she’s going to quilt on her long-arm. As we chatted, we found out that we are close in age and have a couple of boys the same age, too! (Minus the baby so she’s ahead of me there!!)

Nichol’s Star Top

I also met Carolina who’s recently joined the Art Gallery fat quarter gang (can we say – jealous)! She has a “squishable fabric blocks” tutorial up on the Art Gallery Blog that is terrific. I also love her Urban Sprawl quilt she’s working on right now:

Carolina’s Quilt

Here are a couple of other beauties that were shown last night. I love how everyone tried to hide behind their quilts for photos. 🙂 Now I better get crackin’ so I’ll have something to share for show and tell next month!

Hope and Strength back – I missed the front!

Patti’s Baby Girl Quilt

Pink and Black Rag Quilt

There were a few more lovelies that I missed getting pictures of, but the gals in charge will be sure to post more photos on the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild Blog.

Charming Chevrons Nominated for Viewer’s Choice – Please Vote

May 29, 2013May 30, 20138 Comments

I just found out Charming Chevrons was nominated for viewer’s choice for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival!

Out of 670 entries, only 24 were selected as viewer’s choice finalists and voting ends May 30th!

You can vote for Viewer’s Choice here.

I am beyond excited for this unexpected honor.

Just entering was thrilling enough and all of the kind words from those who have participated so far have really given me a boost of confidence!

There are a total of 15 different categories in the festival and there will be a winner from each category along with 3 overall viewer’s choice winners.

You can also vote for both of my quilts in their respective categories here:

Charming Chevrons #7 in the Home Machine Category

Roses for Katelyn #3 in the Applique Category

Thanks to all of those that have voted so far. It’s been such a blast to participate myself and see all of the gorgeous inspiring quilts!

My Modern Crafty Friend – and a Fabulous Herringbone Quilt

May 28, 2013May 27, 201321 Comments

I just had to share some sew and tell today from my friend Alexis who blogs over at Persia Lou. (Pictures re-posted with permission.) She made these 2 lovely modern herringbone quilts for her kids’ room. Aren’t they fabulous?

She’s going with a vintage Disney theme for their room and the quilts will be a focal point.

I’m so proud of Alexis because she took the plunge and quilted them herself on her not-too fancy Singer sewing machine. If she can do it, so can you!

Here’s a great closeup diagram that Alexis made, detailing her stitching plan:

Alexis got some solid fabric from me and used my Charming Chevrons quilt along as a guide. She enlarged the design by cutting 8″ squares instead of 5″. By simplifying the color palette and tweaking the blocks a little, she really made them her own.

Isn’t it amazing how a quilt design can evolve just by changing the colors and rotation of the blocks? Nice job, Alexis!!

Laura Wasilowski Workshops and a Craftsy Class Discount

May 21, 2013May 21, 201312 Comments

I had the pleasure of meeting quilt artist Laura Wasilowski this weekend. She came to teach a couple of workshops on applique for one of the quilting guilds I belong to, Desert Quilters of Nevada.

Christa and Laura Wasilowski During Class

Let me tell you, she was extremely entertaining. She told us her story of how she got into quilting and gave us the history of how she founded her “infamous” Chicago School of Fusing, complete with song and dance, literally!

Those who attended the workshops got to have a “graduation ceremony” where we ll became “iron – maidens” (get it??)

Fowl Play – Birds Wiith No Egrets Workshop

On Friday, we used one of her bird patterns to create a pictorial scene. Each of the students created a unique piece of art as we learned her methods of fusing and selecting designs.

On Saturday, Laura taught us how to combine shapes and free-form drawing to create our own zen-like quilts. This was definitely appealing to me and I’m going to try to develop a larger applique quilt based upon my fabric sketch I made.

My Zen-Doodle Quilt – “Modern Art”

Laura was so pleasant to be around and very inspiring with her encouraging attitude. She even gave me a special Craftsy offer to share with those of you who are interested in taking the online version of her workshop. Use this link to sign up for Hand-Stitched Collage Quilts and get 50% off the class registration fee. How cool is that??

Here are a few of the beautiful pieces from the rest of the class:

Artwork on Display

Like many class projects, these will probably sit around as UFO’s for awhile, but the hours of classes this weekend were definitely time well spent!

Yvonne’s Aztec Piece

Cactus Doodle

Blogger’s Quilt Festival Spring 2013 – Roses for Katelyn

May 17, 2013May 17, 201313 Comments

I am entering my quilt, Roses for Katelyn, into the bloggers’ quilt festival this spring. I was excited to read that you can enter two categories! (See my other entry here.)

Roses for Katelyn was completely made by me and it measures 36″ x 43″. I used soft edge applique techniques and machine quilted it on my old Bernina 1630.

I am entering it into the applique quilt category and would love your vote!

This is my first time entering something into the festival but after reading more about it in the latest issue of Modern Patchwork magazine I decided to give it a try.

This quilt is very special to me because I made it for my brand-new niece Katelyn.

Roses for Katelyn

My older sister and I have always been very close. When I had children she was such a terrific aunt and I felt so sad for her when she was not able to have children. After several years of trying she finally adopted her first baby boy, who’s now almost 8!

Ethan’s Alphabet Applique

Jacob’s Monkeys

Then she adopted her second sweet son who’s nearly two. Finally, she adopted her little girl just two months ago. I’ve made quilts for all of 3 them and it makes me very happy to visit and watch these little quilts get used and loved. 🙂

Original Quilting Plan

I blogged about Roses for Katelyn as I was making it, so I was able to show a lot of the in-progress work while I appliqued the blocks and decided how to machine quilt it. You can read the last blog entry here which gives links to all of the previous WIP posts.

Actual Quilting

I loved every stitch that went into this quilt and I’m especially pleased that both mom and baby are happy with the quilt and are doing well. 🙂

Roses for Katelyn, by Christa Watson

Blogger’s Quilt Festival hosted by Amy Ellis

May 17 – 24 – Linkys Open & Nominate for Viewer’s Choice

May 24 – 30 – Vote for favorites in each of the categories

May 31 – Winners announced

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!