Fun fact: whenever I design a quilt made from precuts, I always make sure it works to pull out one of the colors, just in case you want to use that same fabric for background. For me, designing quilts is (almost) as much fun as making them!
I love seeing how the same design looks in different colorways, don’t you? If you make this one, be sure to share pics with me as I love seeing your progress. You can share using #streamersquilt on social media, or post your pics and questions over in my ChristaQuilts group on Facebook.
I love traveling the world and teaching my machine quilting techniques. I have gigs coming up this year from coast to coast and I can’t wait. But for those of you who can’t come see me in person, QuiltCon is offering something new this year. You can purchase a virtual lecture pass to see them all! Even if you *are* attending in person, this is something you won’t want to miss, especially if you are in class during any of the lectures.
Streaming Lecture presales close on February 15, 2024.
You have until March 4th to watch the replays
My in-person workshops sold out the day that registration opened, but I’m also giving 2 live lectures. So if you are going to be attending, be sure to catch those. The auditoriums are large and can accommodate hundreds of attendees so they don’t usually sell out.
If you do plan to attend in person, please let me know. I won’t be having a booth this year, but I plan to do special events in some of the vendors booths, so that should be fun. I hope to see you there in person, or online!
I’m really excited about quilting this year. It’s the first year in awhile that I actually sat down and made some goals for what I want to accomplish in quilting *and* in my business. In my personal quilting I want to push the boundaries more when it comes to modern quilting, and be okay with creating original quilts that don’t need to be patternable. These will be just for fun and will give me more permission to play. I’ve already started creating some improv pieces that have no rhyme or reason to them and it has been very joyful thus far.
Improv color blocks made from scraps of my fabric collections over the last few years.
In my business I want to be a bit more organized. I’ve had ideas for big projects I’ve wanted to execute for *years* and this is finally the year to do it! For starters, I’m committing to creating and sharing new YouTube videos each and every week.
Would you believe I have hours and hours of raw video that’s just waiting to be edited? So starting next week, I’ll be releasing a machine quilting video for each and every quilt that I made from my new Dazzle Dots fabric. These will focus mainly on the machine quilting, with a few bonus tips thrown in just for fun!
Another big project I’m excited about is hosting another quilt along and that’s where I need your help. I put a call out on social media and wanted to drop it here on the blog, too. I’m deciding between 2 quilts I want to make: below is a recolored version of my Color Weave quilt made from Dazzle Dots. See pattern covers above for my 2nd choice of Ticker Tape.
Both are jelly-roll friendly. Leave a comment and let me know which you prefer. The one that gets the most votes will be announced on January 16, and the QAL will begin on Feb 6.
Finally, for years and years, ever since my book 99 Machine Quilting Designs came out, I’ve wanted to do a video series showing how to quilt all 99 designs in the book! My biggest stumbling block was figuring out how to manage that, but I’ve finally got a winning idea.
Starting in May (once I wrap up all of the Dazzle Dots videos I’m planning), I’ll kick off a 16-week video series going over about 5-7 designs each week. Yes, you’ll need a copy of the book to follow along, and I promise that your skills *will* improve if you practice each week. So stay tuned for more details on that front.
By the time we reach September, if I’m not too exhausted, I may even through in another quilt along to wrap up the year. I just may have some new patterns by then, along with perhaps some (cough cough) new fabric. But I’m getting ahead of myself for now. Just know that this is going to be an amazing quilty year for me and I hope it will be for you, too!
Now I want to know – what are *your* quilty goals for the new year?
I hope your holiday was fabulous and you are off to a great start this new year! To kick things off, I’m excited to announce that Dazzle Dots has now officially arrived at quilt shops around the US. For folks that can’t find it locally, I also offer it in my online shop. I created a video showing me unboxing my shipment of fabric and it was quite the fun mess to make. Be sure to take a look below:
Although this is my 9th fabric line with Benartex it’s the first time I’ve made an unboxing video. Let me know what you think and I’ll consider doing this each time I release a new group. It was a little more scrappy than my usual videos but still fun to make.
Well this fall/winter has been a busy time to say the least. I went to market and festival in October, went on vacation in November, and then promptly got sick in December. But the good thing is that I don’t teach in December so I had plenty of time to recover, LOL! (Just a bad cold, nothing serious!) Now that I’m coming up for air, I edited a fun video for you to watch. It’s all about my experiences at market and festival. It runs about 20 minutes, so feel free to click play below to watch!
Dazzle Dots is Here!!
And in case I haven’t shouted it from the rooftop yet, my new Dazzle Dots collection has arrived, whoo hoo!! You can ask for it at your local quilt shop, or get it from me.
I recently updated my free patterns page and realized I’ve written 7 – count ’em 7!! free patterns over the years to promote my fabric lines. I got organized and corralled them in one easy place for you to download below. Now here’s the catch, you’ll need to enter your email to get them but that’s only so my system can automatically send them to you with no further involvement by me. You’ll only be added to my email list once, not seven times, so no worries there, LOL!
So take a look below and snag any that you don’t already have. Some of them even come with bonus videos!! My goal is to help you with every step of the quilt making process – I just love it!
I’m so pleased to introduce you to my brand new fabric collection called Dazzle Dots from Benartex. It will be shipping to shops hopefully by the end of the year. But you can get a sneak peek of the entire line and preorder it now! Click below to see all the fun things I’m making from it!
You can get all your favorite precuts: Fat Quarters, 10″ Squares, 5″ Squares, and 2 1/2″ Strip-pies. I’m also offering 1/2 yard and full yard bundles by colorway. If there’s a particular color you just can’t get enough of, you can get it by the yard, too! Aren’t they so yummy?
I’m excited to be adding 4 new patterns to my lineup. These were super fun to make! Over the next few weeks and months I’ll be sharing more videos showing how I quilted them, so stay tuned!
Fat Quarterly Magazine – an Exclusive from Benartex!
Did you know that Benartex publishes a quarterly magazine? It features patterns to make from their current and upcoming fabric lines, plus a sample swatch pack of a new collection with each issue. I’m thrilled that Dazzle Dots will be featured in the Winter 2023 edition with my pattern “Fancy Gifts” shown below. Isn’t it cute?
One of the quilts that I’m super excited to remake is from my Color Weave quilt pattern. Originally made from an earlier fabric line, I’m planning to whip this one up early next year, but the pattern is available now. It’s made from 1 strip roll of Dazzle Dots plus the light and dark gray backgrounds.
The pattern cover features similar colors and it’s going to be so fun to make. I’ll include a video showing how I quilted it, so stay tuned!
I’m thrilled to be returning to Houston, Texas later this month for International Quilt Market and Festival. Market is the trade show that takes place a week before Festival, which is the consumer show. At market I’ll be sharing my latest and greatest fabrics and patterns with quilt shops. At Festival, I’ll be lecturing and teaching about my favorite subject – domestic machine quilting!
Schedule of Quilting Classes and Events
I’m excited to try something new to me, which is called the Machine Quilting Forum. Amazing insructor & quilter Jenny Lyon has rounded up a bunch of us to present short format presentations and demos on our area of expertise. Participants will get time with each instructor in a small group setting. It will be like a crash course in domestic machine quilting in 3 hours. You don’t want to miss this one!
In addition to the group event, I’m offering 2 lectures and 2 workshops. My complete schedule is below:
As of this writing there are only a few spots left in my hands on classes so be sure to register now if you plan to attend! And let me know if you are coming. It’s always fun to meet with online friends in real life!
I’m super excited for the video I just released over on my YouTube channel. It was a year in the making. I originally wanted to finish this quilt last fall, but you know how life can get in the way sometimes! But I finally moved it up on the to do list and now I finally have a quilt that will fit my bed. Click below to watch how I quilted each area of this quilt with custom quilting:
Interlinked Beauty Shots
This quilt is so big that I haven’t even been able to photgraph the whole thing, LOL! But I did get a really great detail shot where you can see all of that gorgeous custom quilting. If you want to make the throw or double sized version of this quilt, you can grab a quilt kit while supplies last.
Don’t you love all that yummy texture? It may look complicated but it’s really not. It’s all about making a quilting plan to break down the process step by step. Below the original version of the quilt that I originally made in neutrals.
I’m so excited I can hardly stand it. My next fabric line called Dazzle Dots from Benartex makes its way to shops later this winter. So to celebrate I have a brand new free pattern to share! It’s called Streamers and is made from 5″ squares plus background.
Isn’t this a fun design? And it’s full of crinkly goodness if you quilt it the way I did. I’ve included machine quilting suggestions and of course I’ll be sharing a new video showing how I quilted it very soon. I actually created several different colorings of this design, all with different Dazzle Dots backgrounds, just to see how fun and different they would look. Take a look below:
More Fun Background Colors for Streamers
Which one of these would YOU love to make?
Dazzle Dots Fabric Coming Soon!
Dazzle Dots will start shipping to stores in December of this year (2023). If you have a local quilt shop near you be sure to ask them to carry it. If you don’t have a shop nearby, I’ll be opening up preorders on my website starting on October 11th. Based on the buzz so far, I think it will be my most popular line yet. After all, who doesn’t love a good rainbow of colorful dots???
Christa Quilts 