99 Machine Quilting Designs #40 – Decorative Stitch Grids

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This week we are practicing more decorative stitches with our walking foot. Any traditional “straight line” design be modified for this technique. Watch and learn below:

Quilt This Design on a Real Quilt!

Practice quilting decorative stitches on Ticker Tape! I have several colorways of this kit available (while supplies last). It’s made from one jelly roll of Dazzle Dots with a colorful background.

Click Here to view all Quilt Kits
Click Here to grab the Ticker Tape Quilt Pattern – PDF Download

I even used decorative stitches on the binding, too! It’s a fast way to finish and the binding stitches become part of the overall quilting design. I love paring decorative stitches with other walking foot designs like wavy lines.

Bonus Video – Watch Me Quilt 2 Versions of Ticker Tape

I put together a video showing how I quilted two different colorways of Ticker Tape. I will usually make the same quilt more than once, just to try out different machine quilting ideas.

Here’s my recoloring of Ticker Tape in 4 different colorways. Which is your fave??
Click here to grab the Ticker Tape Quilt Kit – while Supplies last!

Walking Foot Quilting with Decorative Stitches – Machine Quilting Tutorial #39

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99 Designs Episode 39 – Decorative Stitches

Did you know that any walking foot design can be quilted with decorative stitches? It’s a great way to add incredible texture to your quilts! Check out my latest free video tutorial below and give it a try! 

After practicing on smaller samples, it’s time to try these designs on real quilts! Below are two bonus videos to watch for free. First, try out those decorative stitches I’ve shown above on my Bling quilt made from Stitchy fabrics:

While supplies last, you can grab the kit to make Bling from either my Stitchy fabrics as shown in the first and second videos above, or Dazzle Dots, shown in the bonus video below.

Click here to grab the Bling Quilt Kit, While Supplies last
Click here to grab the Bling Quilt Pattern

Here’s another bonus video, showing how I quilted Bling using other walking foot quilting designs I’ve shared in previous tutorials. And don’t forget to checkout my playlist showing how I quilted these designs on real, full sized quilts!

Click here to see all “How I Quilted It” video tutorials. They are free to watch as many times as you want!

99 Designs Episode #38 – Quilting Wavy Chevrons!

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Did you know that one of the easiest ways to change up your free-motion quilting is to stitch the design with wavy lines? That’s what I’m showing in my latest video. Watch and learn below:

If you are looking for fun quilt patterns to practice your quilting skills, check out my printed patterns. They are all on sale now for way less than the regular price.

Click here to view all quilt patterns on sale.

Let me know how your free-motion practice is coming along. I still have many more videos to share! I’ve you want to see them all, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. It’s totally free to watch! Then catch up on my 99 Machine Quilting Designs play list while you are there!

99 Machine Quilting Designs

Free-Motion Quilting Chevrons – 99 Designs Video #37

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This week I’m back with a fun geometric design for you to stitch – Chevrons. Try out 2 different variations which are perfect for modern or traditional quilts. Watch and learn for free below:

If you are looking for fabric to practice these fun designs, be sure to check out my fabric sale over on my website at Shop.ChristaQuilts.com. I’m always adding new things to the mix! While supplies last, I’m clearing out my older 10″ square and 2 1/2″ strips from earlier fabric collections. This is to make room for my next fabric collection I’m working on now!

Click here to grab all fabrics on sale.

Chista Watson fabric precuts

The regular price of these precuts range from $40-$45 but you can grab them for just $35 each – no minimum. And I’m happy to ship worldwide. So stock up now, while they last!

View all precuts on sale.

How to Free-Motion Quilt Ribbon Candy Variations – 99 Designs Episodes 35 & 36

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I have two videos to share with you this week, covering 4 designs that are all closely related! These are fantastic for quilting strip quilts, or other linear areas of your quilt like borders and sashing. First take a look at my quilting tutorial for Cursive L’s and Double L’s below:

I used the Cursive L’s design when quilting an earlier version of my Beaded Lanterns quilt. The free pattern includes a step by step quilting plan which breaks down how to quilt it, step by step.

If you’d like to stitch out a more intricate design, take a look at Ribbon Candy and Crazy 8’s. All of these designs require a little more thinking and planning to execute, but once you have them down, they’ll really punch up your quilts! Watch and learn even more below:

If you haven’t already grabbed a copy of my book, 99 Machine Quilting Designs, it’s a great companion to my free YouTube series. I promise, if you quilt out just one practice sandwich a day, you’ll vastly improve your domestic machine quilting skills in no time!

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for easy access to these videos, and check out my 99 Designs Machine Quilting Playlist to catch up on previous tutorials. They’ll stay up indefinitely so you can refer back to them any time you wish!

99 Machine Quilting Designs

Walking Foot Square Spirals – 99 Designs Episode 34

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Are you still watching and practicing your domestic machine quilting? This week I’m excited to share one of my favorite designs of the series! Walking Foot Square Spirals are fun, fast & forgiving to stitch – check it out by clicking play below:

Quilt These Designs on Bling!

I quilted the wavy spiral maze variation on my Bling quilt along with regular round spirals. I also made a video to go along with it showing you how I did it. Grab the pattern and then watch the bonus video below!

Free-Motion Quilting Tutorial: Geometric Shapes, 99 Designs Episode 33

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In this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs, practice free motion quilting more “shapes on a stick” like Balloon Shapes and Shish Kebabs. Click below to watch and learn:

Quilt These Designs on Block Chain

I made this quilt before I started making video tutorials, but it’s a great one to practice these designs! The Block Chain quilt pattern includes a quilting plan showing you how and it’s perfect for your favorite charm packs!

Block Chain by Christa Watson

Huge Fabric Clearance

Right now, my Gridwork charm packs shown in the quilt above are on sale for way below the retail price. I’ve also reduced the price of many of my earlier fabric lines, and they are only available while supplies last!

Gridwork Charmpack

Sharing is Caring!

As you practice your machine quilting designs on samples, or real quilts, be sure to share what you’ve made over in my Christa Quilts Group on Facebook. Fellow members and I would love to cheer you on!!

Learn to Free-Motion Quilt Hearts and Triangles: 99 Designs Episode 32

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In my latest episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs, practice more geometric shapes on a stick with Hearts and Triangles. Watch and learn below:

Quilt This Design on a Real Quilt!

Block Chain is the name of the quilt behind me shown in the video tutorial above. The pattern includes 4 sizes + detailed machine quilting suggestions. After all, I want you to actually finish your quilts, so you’ll never see “quilt as desired” in any of my pattern instructions! 

Block Chain Quilt Pattern

When My Quilting Inspires My Fabric Design

Did you know that one of the fabric prints in my Stitchy fabric line was inspired by these quilting motifs? The print below is called “Stitches” and would make a great practice sample for these fun designs. The full collection includes 5 fun prints in 5 different colorway, so be sure to stock up on your faves, while they last!

Beaded Lanterns QAL Part 3 – Sewing the Quilt Top

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How are your Beaded Lanterns quilt blocks coming along? It’s time to sew them together to create the quilt top! If you are just now finding the quilt along, be sure to grab the Beaded Lanterns free quilt pattern to join the fun!

To start things off, I like to lay out my blocks on a design wall. Then I’ll spend time arranging them into a pleasing order. I usually take a picture with my camera phone to refer to while sewing.

Once that’s done, I’ll make a stack of blocks to sew in order and then chain piece, or assembly line sew them all at once. I always start sewing with a leader/ender piece of scrap fabric to catch my threads. This prevents them from knotting up when I start and stop.

It makes a beautiful mess and I love the feeling of accomplishment!

I’ll sew all of the blocks together into rows and then continue using my design wall to lay it out as I join the rows together. I press after every round of sewing to keep things nice and flat.

As you can sew I prefer to press all my seams open. This ensures flat blocks, flat rows, and a very flat quilt top which will make machine quilting so much easier! I sew with a short stitch length (2.0) so that nothing comes apart while handling.

I pin generously as I sew to keep things from shifting. Because my seams are pressed open, I’m not pinning right into the intersection. Instead I will pin on either side of the seams I want to match up and I get really clean joins and matching points this way.

Finally, I add the borders and give the quilt top a final press! Notice the bit of patchwork on the design wall below. I sewed together some leftovers into strip units and I’ll start using those on the back.

Coming up next: I’ll need to piece the quilt backing, baste the layers and quilt the quilt, so stay tuned for more! Click the links below to catch up on any of the previous steps:

99 Designs Episode 31 – 3 FMQ Chain Designs

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In this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs learn to quilt 3 versions of Geometric Chains, or what I lovingly refer to as “Shapes on a Stick.” Click play below to watch:

The featured quilt on the wall behind me is called Plumb Lines and the pattern can be found in my book with Angela Walters called, the Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting. I was so pleased when I entered it into a machine quilting show and it won a ribbon!

Click here to get the PDF download of our book, The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting.

Are you continuing to practice these designs? We are more than half-way through the series, and I can’t wait to show you more!