Craftsy Class Review and a Free Class – Creative Quilt Backs

September 22, 2014September 22, 20146 Comments

I’m so excited to partner with Craftsy and kick off my fall roundup of online classes to share with you. For starters, why don’t we start with a free class? As of this writing, I counted 35 free “mini” classes offered by Craftsy and my favorite has to be Creative Quilt Backs by Elizabeth Hartman.

This class was the first one I watched when I first discovered all that Craftsy has to offer and I became a huge Craftsy fan right away!

In Creative Quilt Backs, Elizabeth walks you through the basics of how to calculate the size needed for various types of pieced backings. She includes very detailed step by step directions that help you get comfortable with the dreaded “quilt math!”

She also gives great tips on how to use large scale prints, and how to use up those leftovers by making a secondary composition on the back. I love making scrappy back art, and here are just a few of the fun quilt backs I’ve made since watching this class:

The Back of Modern Logs

The back of Colorful Chevrons

The back of String of Pearls

Craftsy’s free mini classes are very similar to the regular paid classes with well produced step-by-step videos from some of your favorite teachers. They are just a tad shorter and don’t include the back and forth teacher communication, but they are a great way to check out the Craftsy Platform.

Be sure to check out Creative Quilt Backs with Elizabeth Hartman and jazz up your finishes!

New Precuts in the House (er, Warehouse that is!)

September 20, 20142 Comments

Since I missed Fabric Friday, I want to share a few of my newest precuts with you on Showcase Saturday! Cheezy, yes I know, but what can I say, I love alliteration!

I also love the bundles of Windham fat quarters we are starting to accumulate. At last count we had 15 different collections. Here are three of my favorites:

Mormor by Lotta Jansdotter is an ecletic mix of colorful modern florals and geometrics. The bundle includes 20 prints and 3 solids in shades of eggplant, coral, grey, teal, blue, and citron.

I’ve recently become a fan of Sarah Fielke and her whimsical, colorful style. Enchanted is a 17 piece bundle that includes 13 prints and 4 solids. Don’t you just love that peacock print?

The story of Emma and Bobby deciding what to play is the subject of this delightful collection of storybook prints. With classic 30’s colors and inspired playful images of bears, ducks, dolls and other toys, plus beautiful florals, Storybook Playtime by Whistler Studios is sure to inspire your next retro quilt.

Click here to see all Windham Fat Quarter Bundles. Enjoy the eye candy!!

Giveaway Featuring Kona Solids and Abacus Quilt Along Schedule

September 18, 2014July 1, 2015366 Comments

Thanks to my fabulous friends at Robert Kaufman for donating this lovely bundle of Kona Solids for one of you to win!

This is to get you guys jazzed about my upcoming Quilt Along which starts next week!

Included in the bundle are 8 fat quarters of the exact same colors I am using in my version of Abacus. They are: Navy, Turquoise, Baby Blue, Jade Green, Berry, Cerise, Petunia and Pomegranate. Also included is a nice sized chunk of Medium Grey which is what I picked for my background and binding.

Now, you don’t have to quilt along to enter and win, and what you make from these fabrics is entirely up to you! The contest is open to everyone through next Tuesday at noon.

To enter, just leave a comment below telling me which is your favorite quilt along that I’ve offered (or one you’d love for me to do in the future).

Click here to see all of my quilt alongs.

I know we don’t all have time to do every quilt along, but isn’t it fun to dream, or follow along virtually?

Abacus Quilt Along Schedule, Posted Each Wednesday:

Week 1 – Fusing & Cutting (September 24)
Week 2 – Machine Applique (October 1)
Week 3 – Sewing the Top (October 8)
Week 4 – Backing and Basting (October 15)
Week 5 – Machine Quilting (October 22)
Week 6 – Binding to Finish (October 29)
Parade of Quilts – November 12

New this year – a parade of quilts! If you finish your quilt by November 10th, email me a picture and I’ll feature it on my blog on November 12th!

Click here for the Abacus Quilt Along supply list.

Start gathering (or winning) your fabrics and I’ll see you next week!

P.S. I’ve also made Abacus available as a free EQ7 download. Click here to import it into your Electric Quilt software.

P.P.S. For a bonus entry, please share my Quilt Along logo on your blog, instagram, flickr, facebook, or social media of choice. #abacusqal

<div align="center"><a href="http://christasquiltalong.com" title="Christa's Quilt Along" target="_blank"><img src="https://christaquilts.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/christas-quilt-along-175-2.png" alt="Christa's Quilt Along" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

September 16, 20143 Comments

Better late than never, I’m happy to announce the winner of last week’s Sizzix Die Cutter giveaway!

Congratulations to Elizabeth M. aka catskillquilter who said,

“Amazing! Circles take a LONG time to cut correctly with scissors! I am following Sizzix on Facebook. Thanks for the chance!”

I agree – it was such a breeze to cut all of my circles with the Sizzix circle die!

Watch out for the next giveaway coming up on Thursday for your chance to win another fabulous prize! (Hint: look at the picture above – what other goodies do you see?)

Christa’s Soap Box – More Thoughts on Machine Quilting

September 15, 2014September 15, 201433 Comments

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful comments on last week’s Soap Box. I love that we can have conversations about hot-button quilting issues in such a respectful manner, even if we differ in our opinions.

Thanks to the online quilting community, I know I have become more open-minded, even though I am still passionate about my ideas. I actually wrote the essay below several months ago, but didn’t have a chance to share it. Now is the time, and I’d love to know your thoughts about it, as I continue to explore my own feelings on the subject.

From the archives – a baby quilt I made for a friend several years ago.

You Can Be the Quilter

I am constantly inspired by attending and entering quilts into shows, both locally and nationally. I learn so much from the judges’ comments and after I show them, I love to use them!

When I first began sharing my quilts locally, I lamented that there weren’t more quilters entering their own completed quilts for judging. It seemed like a majority of the quilt entries were quilted by the one or two professional quilters in the area.

While it was wonderful to see Teri Topper’s beautiful blocks, and Patty Piecer’s perfect points, Lucy Longarmer’s gorgeous quilting always stole the show, yet she seldom got the credit for her work. Nowadays, I’m happy to see more quilt shows sponsoring separate categories for individual entrants, and it warms my heart to see professional machine quilters earning ribbons for their beautiful work.

Over the years I’ve tried to do my part to encourage others to learn and enjoy the machine quilting process, whether their machine of choice is a long arm, short arm, or somewhere in between. This is so that when others look at their beautiful quilts and ask who the “quilter” is, they can say, “I am!”

Fabric Friday – What’s Trending

September 12, 2014September 9, 20148 Comments

For this week’s Fabric Friday, I thought I would share with you what have been some of our top sellers. I know other shops follow my blog so I don’t mind sharing what is working well. Plus, isn’t it fun to know what your fellow quilters are trending towards? Maybe you will see a bundle of yummy color you didn’t notice before!

Some of my own personal Aurifil collection – I love color!!

First up – Aurifil Thread!! My goodness, adding Aurifil thread to our lineup has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. The colors are so vibrant, the thread is such high quality, and it’s perfect for both piecing and machine quilting.

Seascape collection by Sheena Norquay – one of our best sellers!

I love the smaller thread kits for machine applique, bindings, or when I’m just using a small amount of a particular color on my quilt. The larger spools are perfect for lots of custom quilting or when I want to quilt the heck out of anything! 🙂

Forver Amy Fat Quarter Bundle – Love It!!

Next – anything from Westminster and FreeSpirit.

Kaffe Fassett fat quarters, Amy Butler design rolls, Anna Maria Horner precuts – I cold go on and on. The bold contemporary prints are a perfect choice, every time!

True Colors by Anna Maria – I recently made a quilt from some of these.

Finally, solids, solids, solids! When I first started carrying solid precuts it was mainly for selfish reasons. But I think they have been so popular because they are so versatile.

Kona Solids Classic Palette by Robert Kaufman – Yum!

We sell a lot of solid charm packs along with print bundles and I think people are mixing them together to make a larger quilt. Also the Jelly Rolls and Rollups are perfect for sashings and bindings, and you just can’t go wrong with a stack of colorful fat quarters, arranged in rainbow order!

Elizabeth Hartman Designer Bundle

What do you have your eye on?

Sizzix Fabric Cutter Tutorial

September 11, 2014September 23, 2014331 Comments

This summer I had fun playing around with a Sizzix Fabi Personal Die Cutter.

Here’s what I did to test it out:

To use the die, you simply fold the fabric and place it on top of the cutting pad, then sandwich it between the two plastic safety plates.

Hand crank it through the machine and voila! Perfect shapes every time!

Comfortable that I knew how this machine worked, I was ready to try it out on some circles backed with fusible web. (This is for my upcoming Abacus Quilt Along which I mentioned in yesterday’s post.) I thought, if this can work for machine applique, I may never go back to using scissors!

To make the job easier, I ironed strips of paper backed fusible web to the back of my chosen fabrics. I cut each strip about an inch wider than the die. I then rough cut them into squares before running them through the machine. There seemed to be less waste cutting this way.

I stacked 3-4 layers of fusible backed squares and fed them through the machine. Oh. My. Gosh. That was so fast!

Now I have a pile of perfect circles, all ready to be made into a quilt!

Try It Out

If you would like to use the Fabi Personal Fabric Cutters to make my Abacus quilt, click here for the tutorials.

Announcing My Fall 2014 Quilt Along: Abacus

September 10, 2014September 16, 201420 Comments

Ok guys, I’m super excited to bring you another fun quilt along! With my new quilting schedule, I’ve decided I can still fit in a couple of quilt alongs twice a year – one in the fall and another in the spring. As with all of my Quilt Alongs, I will post tutorials for each step of the quilt-making process from start to finish. Abacus features simple machine applique and fun machine quilting that anyone can do!

Abacus, designed in EQ7 by Christa Watson – 32″ x 32″

Below I have listed the supply list, and I’ll post the full quilt along schedule next week.

I’ve also lined up a few sponsors who are going to give away some fabulous prizes. But don’t worry – you don’t have to quilt along to enter the giveaways – they will be open to all followers of my blog. 🙂 Check back tomorrow for the first one!

I will officially launch the quilt along on Wednesday, September 24th, so that should give you plenty of time to start planning your colors and fabrics. If you’d like to help spread the word, please grab the quilt along button below and share it on your blog!

<div align="center"><a href="http://christasquiltalong.com" title="Christa's Quilt Along" target="_blank"><img src="https://christaquilts.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/christas-quilt-along-175-2.png" alt="Christa's Quilt Along" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Abacus Supply List

1 – 5″ x 40″ strip of 4 different fabrics (solids 1-4 above, blue through teal)
1 – 5″ x 20″ strip of 4 different fabrics (solids 5-8 above, burgundy to pink)
1 3/8 yard background fabric (grey above)
3/8 yard fabric for binding (I will probably use the same grey)
1 1/8 yard of fabric for backing
36″ x 36″ square of batting
Thread for machine quilting (I recommend Aurifil 50 weight cotton)
2 yards of 17″ wide light paper backed fusible web. Note: you can use (9) – 9″ x 11″ sheets instead, but there will be a lot of waste.
Sharp Scissors for cutting through paper and fabric
Optional: 4″ circle die cutter (only if you have one – otherwise you will trace and cut out the circles by hand)

Fabrics and Threads Used

Because I know some of you are going to ask, these are the Kona Solids fabrics and Aurifil 50 weight cotton threads I will be working with (going left to right from blue to pink):

Kona Solid 1243 Navy; Aurifil #2785
Kona Solid 1376 Turquoise; Aurifil #2810
Kona Solid 1010 Baby Blue; Aurifil #5007
Kona Solid 1183 Jade Green, Aurifil #4093
Kona Solid 1016 Berry, Aurifil #4030
Kona Solid 1066 Cerise, Aurifil #2535
Kona Solid 24 Petunia, Aurifil #2560
Kona solid 1295 Pomegranate #Aurifil #1100
And the grey background is Kona Solid 1223 Medium grey, with Aurifil #2610

Who’s ready to have some fun?

Christa’s Soap Box – More Thoughts on Modern Quilting

September 8, 2014September 7, 201435 Comments

I just finished the biggest WIP of my life – my first manuscript, and the quilts are on their way to the publisher this week. So hopefully I’ll be back to a more regular blogging and sewing schedule.

I’ve been thinking a lot about modern quilting lately, why I love it so much and why it’s having such an influence in the quilting community. So here are a few of my random thoughts on the subject. I’d love to know what your thoughts are too – even if you agree or not. It’s always fun to discuss quilting, isn’t it?

A new design I am just itching to start, now that I have a little more free time!

The Influence of Modern Quilting

I think modern quilting is gaining in popularity partly as a pushback to what I call the “fast-food-ization” of quilting. Although it’s fun to finish a quick project, many who embrace modern quilting seem to enjoy the process of slowing down, taking it one step at a time, and completing the entire project from start to finish.

On the other end of the spectrum, modern quilting’s influence could also be a response to the abundance of bedazzled perfectionist quilts that may take hundreds or thousands of hours to complete and, although beautiful, are usually not allowed to be touched. Many modern quilters embrace utility along with creativity, and feel that a quilt from the heart doesn’t have to be computer-perfect to be both functional and beautiful.

The current modern quilting movement was born online out of a need to share one’s own work and be inspired by the artistry of others, whether they live around the corner or across the globe. It has enabled quilters to break down communication barriers as well as redefine what constitutes a quilting bee or sewing guild. I’m excited to be a part of this growing community and I’m excited to see where the future of modern quilting is headed!

Quiltique Fall Teaching Schedule – More Modern Classes Coming Up!

September 3, 2014August 27, 20145 Comments

I’m excited to announce my fall teaching schedule at Quiltique in Las Vegas. Based on the the popular response from last trimester, I will once again be teaching Modern Logs and Modern Machine Quilting. Check out the pictures below from last season’s classes – my students had a great time and made some gorgeous modern quilts!

Modern Logs looks great in blues and purples with a pop of green!

Here are the dates and times if you’d like to learn with me:

Modern Logs – Saturday October 4, 11, 18 from 2-5 PM
Modern Machine Quilting – Thursday, December 4, & 11 from 6-9 PM

Yes, you can quilt it yourself, and I’ll teach you how!

If you are in or near the Local Las Vegas area, I invite you to stop by to Quiltique’s Back to School Carnival on September 5th from 5-8 PM to check out the projects and sign up for classes! You can also sign up online after Sept 6th.

For even more variety – you can fussy cut your centers!