I always like to post a final writeup of my quilt finishes (even when I’ve done a quilt along) so that I have a place where I can refer to the when I made the quilt, and keep track of the quilt details like fabrics & batting used. So hopefully you aren’t tired of seeing my Pieced Primrose quilts, yet. They were so fun to make!
Can I share a secret with you? I’ve been working behind the scenes on my next book and I can’t wait to share it with you! However, before I give any sneak peeks, I want to offer signed copies of my current books at a discount when you enter code BOOK at checkout . It’s my way of encouraging you to update your machine quilting library with any of my current titles that you don’t yet own.
I really enjoyed writing Machine Quilting with Style,The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting, and Piece and Quilt with Precuts, one right after the other! Then I took a break from book writing to start designing fabric. Now that I’ve been able to successfully work that into my busy life, it’s time to get back to books once again.
All 3 of my current books teach you how to make a complete quilt from start to finish, with thorough piecing instructions, plus step by step machine quilting diagrams which you can mix and match among all of the projects. Here’s a favorite quilt from each book:
Facets from Machine Quilting with Style
This was the very first quilt I ever designed for the book and I loved making my own fabric using solid scraps and improv piecing! I was thrilled when it won a ribbon in the modern category at Paducah – even though it’s far from perfect. But it’s full of yummy quilting goodness which gives it that special wow factor!
PlumB Lines from The Ultimate guide to Machine Quilting
This is the most modern quilt in the book and it was designed by my co-author Angela Walters. We each made the same 10 quilts using different fabrics and completely different machine quilting designs. So there’s loads of inspiration for all types of quilts from modern to traditional and everything in between!
Star Struck from Piece and Quilt with Precuts
Above is the original version in black and white as shown in the book. Below is my remake of the exact same quilt using my Modern Marks fat quarters in bright bold colors. Isn’t amazing how different the same quilt can look, depending on the fabrics you choose?
See All of the Quilts from my books
I created a gallery of all the quilts from my books including remakes of many of them in other color. I included a total of 64 images to inspire and delight.
A recent display of quilts from my books and patterns – I pieced and quilted every single one!
I hope you are excited to stock up on my books to complete your set, or buy an extra copy for a friend who’d would like to develop their machine quilting skills.
I sure have enjoyed making my Pieced Primrose quilts and I hope you have, too. Now it’s time to put the finishing touches on the quilt with binding- either by hand or machine. Just remember, if you are still working on your quilt, I’m here to cheer you on – no matter how long it takes!
Because I wanted to include all 10 prints of warm or cool from my Abstract Garden line, I used 9 fabrics for the blocks and then the focal print “Raised Beds” for the backing and binding of both Pieced Primrose quilts.
When I first started quilting, I used to cut my binding strips 2 1/4″ wide, but recently I’ve started cutting them 2″ wide which makes for a nice, narrow finish that’s 1/4″ wide on both sides of the quilt. To figure out how many strips to cut, take the perimeter of the quilt (length of each side of the quilt) and add 10″. Then divide that number by your width of fabric and that tells you how many strips to cut.
For example, the Pieced Primrose wall size is 35″ on each side, so (35″ x 4) + 10 = 150″ of binding needed. I divide that by the usable fabric width of 40″ to which I round up to 4 strips to cut. (150/40 = 3.75). This simple quilt math works for any size quilt you need to make!
I was in a hurry to make my quilts on a deadline for quilt market when this fabric line was first released, so I don’t have any step by step pics of my binding. However, I click the links below to for several binding tutorials from previous quits:
I’m so pleased with how many of you have said you love doing my quilt alongs! So this year I’m thrilled to be sharing more quilt alongs than ever before! Now don’t feel like you have to do every single one – but I like to share a variety so that there’s something for everyone. I recently took a vote in my Facebook group and the overwhelming majority wanted to make Block Chain next and I can’t wait!
Fabric requirements are super easy this time around: just one charm pack plus 2 contrasting background fabrics (black and gray or other combo). The quilt shown above and on the Block Chain pattern cover is Throw size, but you can make it in any sizes listed on the pattern, or easily adapt it to any size you like. The secret? Just make more blocks or add borders.
All you need is a copy of my Block Chain quilt pattern to follow along. The quilt along itself is free!! Here’s the materials list sown on the back of the pattern cover – click to enlarge:
The fun will begin March 16 and just like all of my quilt alongs, we will go over every step of the quilt-making process: fabric selection, cutting, piecing, basting, quilting AND binding. If you follow me on the entire journey – you’ll have a fully finished quilt by the end, whoo hoo!!
Can you believe we are almost to the end of our Paper Pieced Primrose Quilt Along? If you are just now hearing about it, scroll to the end for links to all of the other QAL posts. I’ll leave them up indefinitely so that you can make this quilt on your own time and schedule.
The first thing to think about when quilting a busy quilt such as my versions shown above, is that the quilting won’t be a focal part of the quilt. It’s more about the interplay of the fabric colors and the geometry of the pieced design. So a busy quilt is a great place to practice a new quilting design, or one that you want to get better quilting.
In the Pieced Primrose quilt pattern, I give machine quilting suggestions (just like I do in ALL of my quilt patterns). Because I made two versions of the same quilt, I quilted them with two different allover edge to edge free-motion designs: round spirals and square spirals.
When quilting an edge to edge design – I start on one side of the quilt and work my way across the quilt in a methodical fashion, block by block.
I used my Aurifil Variegated Thread Collection in blue and pink for each of the respective colorways. They blend into all of the fabrics and added a little bit of sparkle to the quilts. Here are a few detail shots below:
Abstract Garden Warm – click images to enlarge
Abstract Garden Cool – click images to enlarge
My favorite thing about quilting an allover edge to edge design is that it adds yummy texture to the quilt and is sooo forgiving! Your motifs don’t have to be perfect because you won’t see the individual stitches. And the best way to hide imperfect quilting is to surround it with MORE imperfect quilting!!
See Me qulting on Video!
I recently quilted 3 different versions of another quilt – Terrace Tiles using 3 different free-motion designs in the same way. I stitched Swirls and Boxes (similar to Square Spirals) on two of them and other fun design – Jagged Stipple – on the third.
This is the final part of my “making of” series for Terrace Tiles. I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey and are inspired to make your own version! See below for info about these quilts and the previous progress posts.
Terrace Tiles Finished Quilt Stats
Finished sizes: Amethyst and Citron 38″ x 57″; Breeze 57″ x 76″
This week, Benartex is promoting my new Gridwork fabric on their social media channels. Along with that, they run a weekly Win-it Wednesday promotion. Today is your chance to win a fat quarter bundle of Gridwork + 2 of my quilt patterns made from it.
To enter, head over to @benartex_fabrics on instagram and leave a comment there. You must follow both Benartex and me @christaquilts on instagram to win. Contest is open until Tuesday, February 18th at 11:59 pm EST. Three winners will be announced on Wednesday, February 19th on the Benartex social media account.
And now we come to everyone’s least favorite part of making a quilt – basting!! But really, if you just set aside the time to do it’s not that bad! Here’s what both versions of Pieced Primose look like up on my design wall that also doubles as my basting area. Read on for helfpul ways to tackle this part of the quilt-making process. It’s easier than you think!
Because I wanted to include all 10 warm or cool fabrics from Abstract Garden in both colorways of Pieced Primrose, I used 9 fabrics for the blocks, and then the multicolor print “Raised Beds” for the backing and binding. The wall size kit includes the backing; for the larger size you’d need 6 yards of either color.
I’ve basted my quilts many different ways over the last few years, and I try to share as much about the process as I can. So take a look at the different tutorials below from prior quilts I’ve made. I’m sure one of them will make your quilting life easier!!
This is the first full-fledged basting tutorial I’ve created for my YouTube channel. I filmed and edited it while making my Infrastructure quilt. In reality it takes about an hour to do, but with the magic of edting, you can watch on super speed which only takes about 7 minutes. Too bad I can’t baste that quickly in real life, right??
If you don’t have a dedicated design wall, no problem! You can still do my spray basting method using a table. It’s the method I used when making my Improv Squares quilt:
Finally, here’s the way I USED to baste my quilts until about 5-6 years ago – using safety pins! It’s still a good method if basting spray isn’t your thing.
If you have another method you prefer, feel free to share you tips or links in the comments for others to see. Until next week – happy piecing and basting!!
LINKS AT A GLANCE
Click the links below for supplies needed to make this quilt:
Today I’m excited to share some machine quilting tips and videos for all 3 versions of my Terrace Tiles quilts. My thought is why make one quilt when you can make 3 in almost the same amount of time, right?? LOL!!
Choosing Thread colors
The variegated thread color above is actually a combo of red, white and blue but it looks pink and purple when quilted on the Amethyst quilt!
Because these quilts are so bright and colorful, I decided to quilt them using 3 different colors from my Aurifil Variegated Thread Collection. I’ve really been enjoying quilting with them because they add a bit of whimsy and sparkle to my busy quilts! Whenever I pick colors, I audition the thread by placing the spool on top of the fabrics to see how it will blend in.
Variegated thread on the Breeze colorway in progress!
It’s often surprising how well a thread will blend in even if the colors aren’t an exact match to the fabric. I normally use the same color it top and bobbin and don’t worry about whether or not the same colors will line up perfectly – that’s an impossible task. But with the variegated colors, any imperfections are hard to see and that makes for stress free quilting!
The black and white will add an extra dimension to this modern color palette!
Choosing the Quilting Designs
Because I was in a hurry to make these quilts for quilt market last fall, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to finish them. I pride myself on quilting my own quilts because (1) that’s my favorite part and (2) I’m a little bit of a control freak. So I knew I had to choose designs that would look great and wouldn’t take too much time.
Swirls in progress on the Amethyst colorway. Don’t stress about the imperfections!
Also, I wanted these quilts to do double duty. Not only do they showcase my Gridwork fabric and Terrace Tiles quilt pattern, they also are examples of 3 different motifs I teach in my machine quilting workshops: Swirls on the Amethsyt colorway, Boxes on the Breeze colorway, and Jagged Stipple on the Citron colorway.
Boxes on the Breeze colorway is one of my favorite modern machine quilting designs.
The fastest and easiest way to finish a quilt with free motion is to choose one design and quilt it from edge to edge across the quilt regardless of the pieced quilt design. It’s also a forgiving way to hide wonky or irregular seams. Just focus on one block at a time, and before you know it, the whole thing is finished! Another way to speed up the process is to quilt the motifs on a larger scale, because that takes up more space in less time.
Jagged stipple is my modern, angular version of it’s traditional cousin, smooth curving stipple.
Just to give you an idea of how fast these designs are to stitch out, it took me about 3 hours to quit swirls on the baby size Amethyst version, 5 hours to quilt boxes on the throw-sized Breeze version, and 2 hours to quilt jagged stipple on the baby sized Citron version. Although the Citron quilt is the same size as the Amethyst, jagged stipple is a much looser design than swirls, so it was a bit faster.
Scrunching and Smooshing the Quilt
Because I do everything on a sit down machine, it’s important to control the weight and bulk of the quilt. I still have yet to find the perfect quilting table, so this is what my hacked together set up looks like below:
I got this table for a song 20+ years ago and sadly I don’t even remember the brand!
My sewing machine is flush with the bed of the table so it can hold most of the weight. It’s pushed against the wall so the quilt won’t fall off the back of the table. Most of the bulk is to my left, and I’ve placed a TV tray forming an L shape to hold more of the quilt as I scrunch and smoosh it through the machine. I also have a comfortable ergonomic chair that I can roll around easily.
A larger throat space on my machine makes a huge difference when managing the bulk!
On a bright sunny day I like to look out the window which gives me lots of natural light while I’m sewing and quilting! When the quilt falls into my lap, I just scrunch and smoosh it out of the way as needed while I quilt.
I hope this helps you overcome your fear of free motion when choosing and allover textural design like this. The key is to fill in all the spaces, so your eye doesn’t notice any of the imperfections.
See it on Video!
Here’s a YouTube video I made showing me actually fee motion quilting each quilt. The video is just under 8 minutes and it’s packed with tips as I quilt each of the 3 quilts shown above. I’m stitching in real time with the volume on my machine so you can see and hear what it looks like “in real life.” Notice how much I stop and reposition my hands:
Scrappy Binding
Sew the leftovers together randomly for a fun, scrappy binding!
I love a scrappy binding, especially when making quilts from fat quarters. For Terrace Tiles, you just use up the leftovers and piece them together randomly to carry the colorful chaos all the way to the edges of the quilt.
You can join the ends on an angle or edge to edge!
I prefer to cut my binding strips 2″ wide so they finish nice and narrow and are even on both sides. I press each of the seams open to reduce bulk and make sure the binding is long enough to go around the entire quilt with a few inches extra.
Another great thing about scrappy binding is you can always add more strips!
Although I prefer the look of hand binding, machine binding is a great way to finish fast! Here are my two favorite ways to bind, either by hand or machine:
Remember, if you make your own version of this quilt, please share. You can use #terracetilesquilt on instagram, or you can share your progress in my ChristaQuilts Facebook group. I’d love to see it!!
QuiltCon, put on by The Modern Quilt Guild is absolutely my favorite quilting event to attend! It’s taking place this year in Austin, Texas February 20-23 and I can’t wait!!
The first modern quilt show and conference took place back in 2013 and I’ve attended each and everyone one since. It’s a can’t miss event for me and this year I’m especially thrilled to taking classes, doing some meet’n greet events, and sharing my quilts on the show floor and in several vendor’s booths.
Meet ‘n Greets on Friday and Saturday
I’m thrilled to be invited for a couple of meet ‘n greets with quilt shops who will be selling my fabrics, books and patterns at the show. So please stop by and say hi, show me what you are working on, and get some tips and tips on machine quilting or modern design:
Loving Stitches Booth #545 on Friday Feb 21, 1-2 PM
I’m excited to be taking a whole slew of design classes from a couple of my talented friends, Heather Black of Quiltachusetts and Daisy Aschehoug of Warm Folk. I love gettin to be a student at the show this year because my quilting education is always a work in progress!
I’ll also squeeze in several lectures and I’m excited to check out the awards ceremony and other social events throughout the show. Let me know if you’ll be in attending any of these events:
Several of my other quilts will be on display in the Homestead Hearth booth, Loving Stitches booth and also the Hobbs batting booth. I love loaning them out so they can help decorate the vendor booths and also so they can be seen by a wider audience.
Some of my quilts that will be on display in vendor booths throughout the show.
Be on the lookout for Bling, Block Chain, Optical Illusion, Infrastructure and several more! If you’ve ever been to a national quilt show before, I’m sure you’ll agree that the quilts hanging up in the booths are just as fun an inspiring as those in the show!
So if you are planning to attend let me know – I’d love to see you! And if you’ll be watching all the action at home, check out the Instagram hashtag #quiltcon for some amazing inspiration from the show. Now it’s time to start dreaming about the quilts I’ll make for next year’s show……
Christa Quilts 