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???
Are you enjoying my weekly youtube video tutorials? I hope so because I enjoy making them for you! On this week’s video I’m showing how to quilt an easy free-motion quilting design called Modern Boxes. I quilted it on my Terrace Tiles quilt made from my Stitchy fabrics. Click the image below to watch.
Grab the Pattern, Fabric or Kit (while supplies last)
This is one of those quick and easy quilts that I seem to make over and over again (so watch our for more designs using this quilt pattern… just sayin’!). I’ve updated the pattern cover so it looks a little different than what’s shown in the video. However, the new and improved Terrace Tiles pattern also include 6 sizes instead of just 3 – what a bonus, right??
It’s time once again for Benartex to showcase all the fabulous brand new collections coming out this fall and winter. I’m super excited to be releasing my 9th fabric collection with them called Dazzle Dots, coming in December. Stay tuned as preorders for this sizzling group will be available soon! In the meantime you can get an in-depth sneak peek next month.
The full schedule of presenters is listed below. The event will be presented live, but it will be recorded so you can always watch it later at your convenience. Click here to register now.
Bling is fun, modern quilt that I’ve made several times from different fabric lines. In this week’s video I go in depth showing how I quilted diagonal wavy lines using a decorative stitch on my sewing machine (#4 Serpentine on my BERNINA). In the video I also share more ideas from a few other versions I’ve made. Click below to watch:
Grab the Pattern, Fabric or Kit!
My Bling pattern is so versatile and includes several layouts, too. In fact, depending on how you make it you can’t even tell it’s the same quilt! For a limited time you can grab the quilt kit, made from my Stitchy fabrics, but as you can see in the video and pattern cover, it looks fabulous in any fabrics!
Christa Quilts 