This week for 99 Machine Quilting Designs I’m showing how to free-motion quilt several loop variations. They are one of my go-to designs! Click below to watch:
These 3 designs all come from my book 99 Machine Quilting Designs. You can grab the instant PDF download of this book from my Etsy shop and follow along with each video that I’m sharing all year long!
After watching my video tutorials each week, I’m sure you’ll want to apply what you’ve learned on a real quilt. I’ve taken the basic loops I shared in this week’s tutorial and have modified it to include another design I recently shared – boxes – to create a fun and festive design that I quilted on my Fancy Gifts quilt!
I recently entered 2 quilts into my local quilt guild’s show and was pleased with both the feedback and the response they got, so I thought I would share more about that with you today!
Interlinked Wins 1st Place!!
First up is my Interlinked Quilt. This one is huge – King sized to be exact! I had finished nearly all of this quilt a couple years ago when my Stitchy fabric first came out. However, I dragged my feet on finishing the binding because I wanted it to match up perfectly with the offset borders. Once I finally did, I was pleased that it was able to be hung in the show and received a 1st place ribbon in the Modern Category.
Interlinked Custom Quilting Detail
The only bummer is that it was so huge that you can’t even see all of it in the picture, LOL! But I’m pleased that the judge liked it. Here are the comments I received on this quilt:
“Use and placement of neutrals and colors create great movement and keeps the eye moving. Piecing is good. Variety of quilting designs enhance your modern aesthetic. And the quilting technique is generally well done. Some buildup of threads in some backtracking areas should be avoided. Outer edges should be straight, and binding is well done.”
Just in case this is the first time you are seeing this quilt, I actually made a video showing how I managed such a large quilt on a regular sized sewing machine. Take a look below to watch:
Swanky Spirals Quilt
Next up, I entered my Swanky Spirals quilt made from my Dazzle Dots fabric. Originally I had planned to do a simpler quilting design since it’s such a busy quilt. However, once I started quilting different designs in each wedge of each block, I just couldn’t stop!
Here’s the judging feedback I received for this quilt:
“Successful modern esthetic. Grey neutral was a good choice for the balance of the brights. Pacing is generally good. Intersections should be precise. The variety of quilting designs greatly enhanced the piecing and the theme. Quilting should remain in the ditch. Back art is appreciated. Binding is generally good. Take care with miters.”
Swanky Spirals Quilting Detail
If you’d like more details on how I quilted each and every part of this quilt, take a look at the bonus video below:
Interlinked & Swanky Spirals Quilt Patterns
If you’d like to make either or both of these quilts, you can grab the patterns in print or PDF.
Want to learn to quilt a fun modern meander called Circuit Board? This is the next installment of my “Year of Machine Quilting” free video tutorials for you to try! Click the image below to watch:
This week’s featured quilt comes from my latest book, “How Do I Quilt It?” In this book (which is required reading for all of my in-person workshops), I show how to quilt 3 different quilts, 3 different ways. In the teal version of Loose Weave, shown under my machine on the book cover below, I’m free-motion quilting circuit board as an edge to edge allover design. So take what you’ve learned in the video above, and you can make this super fun and simple quilt!
I love to clear out the old, to make room for the new! Be sure to head over to my online shop where I sell all of my designer fabrics, patterns and other fun goodies. I’m needing to make room on my shelves for my new Dazzle Dots 2 collection, so now is your chance to scoop up some of my older fabrics & bundles for less than retail price.
Get My Book – Piece and Quilt with Precuts for More Designs!
Two of the quilt patterns I show in the video above come from my 3rd book Piece and Quilt with Precuts. It’s now out of print but you can grab the PDF version from my Etsy Shop!
Bonus Freebie: Modern Table Runner Pattern + Video
I quilted this fun Modern Table runner design 3 different ways. Can you see the zig zags stitched on the grey version? Grab my free pattern to make these projects below. It includes 3 quilting plans for all free versions, plus a bonus video showing how I quilted them all!
Can you believe I’ve designed 10 fabric lines? Do you have any of my previous collections in your stash? Although I love releasing a new fabric group once or twice a year, I really look at it as one continuous collection. I enjoying adding more fabrics and designs when I realize what I’m missing in my own stash, LOL!
After the tremendous success of the original Dazzle Dots, my fabric company asked for more dots! Since I did bold saturated colors last time, I though it would be fun to lighten things up again and add soft pastels to the mix. I absolutely love how they play well together and have plans to incorporate both groups into the same quilt, soon. Won’t that be fun??
Dazzle Dots 2 includes a total of 20 prints – 10 dots and 10 squares. Aren’t they scrumptious?
I recently making 2 new versions of my Surplus Strips quilts using all of these pretties. I used the grey dots for the background of one of them, and the white squares for the background of the other. You can grab a quilt kit for one or both for a limited time! And I’ll be sharing a video soon, showing how I quilted them both, so stay tuned for that!
How are you enjoying my year of machine quilting videos so far? Are you finding time to practice? I have another fun set of Walking Foot quilting designs for you to try – Shattered Lines and Wavy Shattered Lines. Take a look below:
Bonus Video – Quilting Shattered Lines on Bling
If you’d like to see how I quilted shattered lines on a “real” quilt, take a look at my bonus video below. I’m demonstrating on one of the versions of my Bling quilt pattern.
I love including quilting suggestions in all of my individual quilt patterns. You’ll never see the words “quilt as desired” from me, LOL!! Bling was such a fun quilt that I made it twice. Isn’t it fun to see how different fabrics, layout and quilting can affect the look of a quilt? Grab the pattern and get started making this quilt today!
This week for 99 Machine Quilting Designs we are learning to quilt Triangle Texture, a design that’s great for modern OR traditional quilts! Watch below and let me know what you think!
Get the Surplus Strips Quilt Pattern or Kit I recently combined 2 motifs – boxes and triangles on the gray version of my Surplus Strips quilt! You can now grab the kit to make this quilt with the gray or white background, or grab the pattern and choose your own colors. It’s fun to make and fun to quilt!
If you’d like to choose your own adventure, grab the Surplus Strips quilt pattern and then rummage through your stash for the perfect colors to make it your own. It’s the perfect design for using up leftover (surplus) precut strips!!
Below are 2 versions I made a few years ago and it looks great no matter what!
If you are looking for a geometric, modern free-motion fill, this week’s machine quilting tutorial is just for you! I break down this fun design step by step with 2 different variations for you to try. Take a look below and let me know what you think!
All of the designs I’m sharing in this year long series come from my book 99 Machine Quilting Designs. Although it’s gone out of physical print, you can still grab the PDF download from my Etsy shop.
Over the course of the year I’m going to demonstrate how to sketch out each and every design in the book! Be sure to bookmark the video playlist so you’ll be able to back and watch them again and again!
If you’d like to take things up a notch, be sure to watch this bonus video below where I show how to apply this week’s quilting design to an actual full-sized quilt. I quilted boxes and spiral boxes on a scrappy version of Terrace Tiles made from my Stitchy Fabric collection.
Get the Terrace Tiles Stitchy Kit!
For a limited time, you can make the exact version of Terrace Tiles I show in the video above. It’s made from fat quarters and is literally the easiest quilt pattern I’ve designed!
It’s QuiltCon time and this is the one show I’ve been to every single year since it launched in 2013. I’m headed to Phoenix, AZ this time around to attend some amazing lectures, volunteer my time on the show floor, and do a little fabric and book promotion. If you are planning to attend, please come and see me during one of these times shown below. I’d love to see you there!!
After a hiatus of entering quilt shows the last couple years, I just got the exciting news that Colorful Chaos was juried into the international quilt show in Paducah, KY!! There’s no pattern for this quilt because it’s part of my renewed push to make new and exciting experimental work that pushes me out of my comfort zone. I’m thrilled with how it turn out. Read more about it below….
In this post I thought I would share more about my machine quilting process and how I decided to quilt it. I hope you enjoy all the quilty eye candy!
Step 1 – Make a Quilting Plan
Before I begin quilting, I always start off with a quilting plan. I printed off a few color copies of my finished quilt top and then sketched out several different possibilities. These were simple pics I took from my phone and printed on a regular piece of paper. I wanted to emphasize the circles with the quilting and then fill in the other areas with some fun, geometric designs. This is just a roadmap, and I usually change it up a little when I get to the actual quilt.
I always make a quilting plan before quilting, and it’s totally ok to deviate from the plan!
Step 2 – Choose Thread Colors
For most of my quilts, I usually just choose 1 or 2 thread colors, and I always use the same thread in the bobbin. For this colorful quilt, however, I wanted to quilt each colorful section with a matching thread color.
When I’m doing custom quilting, I take my time and focus on one area at a time. For this quilt I did some light stitching in the ditch between sections to anchor or secure the quilt. Then I went to town with different motifs in each colored area.
Above is what it looks like when I’m scrunching and smooshing my quilt under the machine. I’m using my Christa Cabinet to hold the weight of the quilt and it’s a game changer for domestic machine quilting!
Below I’m using pieces of painters tape to help me quilt straight lines using my dual feed system, which performs the same function as a walking foot.
Straight lines are super versatile because they can be stitched at lots of different angles, and they always look great! My secret is to quilt them in an irregular pattern rather than trying to have an even amount of spacing between the lines.
I also used walking-foot style quilting to stitch spirals inside and outside of each inset circle. To jazz them up a bit, I then went back and free motion quilting pebbles in between each of the spirals. It was a fun challenge figuring out how to make that work, but I love trying new things with every quilt I make!
This year it’s been my goal to work on what I call my “runway” quilts in between other projects. These are quilts that are a bit more edgy and push the boundaries of what I can do. There’s no pattern for them so that frees me from the need to be able to replicate everything I do.
But just like runway fashions inspire colors and style you’ll see at your local department store, my experiments will show up in bits and pieces, such as this practice sample that I’ve added to my “Spirals and Swirls” machine quilting workshop:
I continued the rainbow colors around the edges with matching binding. I pieced the binding in sections and then added one section at a time, splicing the seams together roughly were the colors overlapped.
Christa Quilts 