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.
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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:
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!
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!
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!!
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!
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!
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:
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!
Read through the free quilt pattern for instructions on sewing everything together. To keep the blocks nice and straight I sewed with the light background fabric on top each time. I also sewed with a shorter stitch length (2.0) to strengthen the seams and then pressed them open for incredibly flat blocks.
I like to chain sew or assembly line stitch which means slipping each pair of units to sew under the machine and sewing continuously without breaking thread in between. Here’s my first run through after I added the lighter background to the sides of each lantern unit:
I sew as many units together as possible, then cut them all apart, press the units, then continue chain piecing until the entire block is sewn. It creates quite a beautiful mess by the time I’m done but it’s a quick and efficient way to sew!
This block is very simple because it’s two of the same halves sewn together. I used the same fabric for each Lantern unit. But you could absolutely go super scrappy if you wanted to! The trick is to make sure you are sewing with accurate 1/4″ seams so that each unit ends up the same size.
I press each seam as I go and then press the final block front and back when I’m finished. The reason I do this is so that the blocks and quilt top will lie flat for domestic machine quilting. I’m always thinking about how the piecing will affect the quilting and vice versa!
I love having a yummy pile of freshly sewn bocks! Aren’t they pretty?
Don’t forget to make the square blocks in addition to the lantern blocks! If you don’t already have a copy of the free quilt pattern, you can grab it below, along with the optional kit in 3 colorways:
Sew all of the blocks so they are ready to make the quilt top. Share pics of your progress and feel free to ask for any help you need over in my Christa Quilts Group on Facebook!
In this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs, learn to quilt this geometric walking foot design easily on your domestic machine! Click the image below to watch:
Get the Pattern to Make S.W.A.K. from my Book
The quilt shown behind me is called Sealed With a Kiss from my book, Piece and Quilt with Precuts. The printed version is sold out, but you can grab the PDF download below!
Catch Up on All the Previous Episodes
There will be over 55 videos in all, once this series is complete! If you’ve missed any of the previous videos, click the link below to go to my playlist. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel so you’ll be first to know when a new video drops!
Christa Quilts 