Book Recommendation – Wanderlust Quilts

November 4, 2015November 3, 201581 Comments

I recently learned the most important thing about Amanda Leins (aka Mandy or Mandalei Quilts). You pronounce her last name like LIONS. Got it? Good! 🙂 The second most important thing about Mandy is that she’s just written an amazing book with the incredibly appropriate title of Wanderlust Quilts.

So what are Wanderlust Quilts you ask? They are quilts inspired by the art, architecture, and history of ancient civilizations and the objects made by human hands that remain behind, made to gain a fuller understanding of the people who lived in that time and place.

In her book, Amanda presents 10 beautifully original patterns, along with photographs of the places and events that inspired those designs. Her background is in archaeology, so it’s a natural fit that she’s inspired by her previous work and life experiences.

My Favorite Quilt

Eggs and Darts, pieced by Sue Bishop and Quilted by Amanda Leins, won first place in the Modern Category at NQA Quilt Show in Little Rock, AR earlier this year.

My favorite quilt from the book is Eggs and Darts. The quilt design is stunning and I love the expansive negative space which allows for copious amounts of machine quilting. I had the pleasure of viewing this stunning quilt close and in person earlier this year at the NQA quilt show.

I’d award a Best in Show ribbon to Wanderlust Quilts if I could.

In fact, I love going to quilt shows because they inspire me so much. I’m such a big advocate of showing your work, not for the glory or ribbons, but simply to share your artistry with the viewer. I never really understood the phrase “art moves me” until I began viewing quilts as art when hung in quilt shows. I can stare at them for hours and imagine all of the possibilities if I were to make this quilt my own.

Here’s a better view of the luscious detail quilting of Eggs and Darts:

In addition to being an amazing pattern designer, Mandy’s quilting will knock your socks off, too. (Photo by Nissa Brehmer)

Egg and Dart detail – photography courtesy of C&T.

I also love that along with beautiful quilt photography, each quilt includes a photograph of the architectural details that inspired it. Here’s a closeup of a facade of the Pantheon, showing a small egg and dart row. I learned this fun fact from Mandy’s book: historically, the egg and dart motif was used as a very small detail on a temple, or as a bit of a border between features.

Wanderlust Quilts Giveaway

Mandy’s publisher, C&T is very generously giving away a book to one person at each stop along the blog hop. To enter, please leave your comment below telling me where you would love to travel to find your quilting inspiration. I’ll keep the comments open until November 15th, the last day of the hop.

Aquaducts, another favorite of mine. Photography by Nissa Brehmer.

Be sure to visit Mandy’s blog for the full blog hop schedule so that you too can be taken along an imaginary journey into far off places.

I have to end this post with this fun little image I noticed when looking for Mandy’s book on Amazon. It made me smile. 🙂

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Book Recommendation – Stitches to Savor by Sue Spargo

November 3, 2015November 2, 20153 Comments

Yay for book week! The next book on my list that I get to share with you is Stitches to Savor: A Celebration of Designs by Sue Spargo.

It’s a coffee table book which means it’s full of gorgeous photography for you to pour through. It’s 144 pages worth of full color images – eye candy for any quilter!

If you enjoy wool applique or handwork, the intricate details are sure to inspire you!

The book has very few words, just page after page of exquisite closeups and finished projects.

Order your copy of Stitches to Savor today! 🙂

Book Recommendation – The Quilter’s Planner

November 2, 2015October 31, 2015Leave a comment

I’m so excited for this week! Not only will I be attending Sewtopia later in the week (be sure to follow me on Instagram for live action shots of the retreat!); but this week I get to share several amazing books with you! Several of my friends have written books and I can’t wait to tell you all about them. I mean, when someone takes on the task of creating an entire book – that’s something to celebrate, right?

The Quilter’s Planner by Stephanie Palmer

For starters, Stephana Palmer, aka Late Night Quilter and my new BQF (Best Quilting Friend) has just created The Quilter’s Planner. A quick background – Stephanie and I met back in August while taping machine quilting segments for QNNtv. We hit it off immediately and now we are even periscope buddies, too!

So I’ll get to the planner details in a minute, but first I want to tell you about the unique way in which Stephanie is selling her planner. She’s using the crowd-funding site Indiegogo to take pre-orders while she finalizes the finishing touches. What’s awesome about this platform compared to others is that she doesn’t have to meet a funding goal in order to go ahead and print the planners and send them out into the world. Unlike Kickstarter, there’s no threat of an unsuccessful crowd-funding project. So if you order a planner, you are guaranteed to receive a planner! Sounds like a win-win to me!

What’s Inside:

Monthly calendars
Weekly calendars
Project planning pages
Swatch saver
Graph paper
Free motion quilting practice pages
Goal-setting prompts
8 full quilt patterns from amazing designers
52 original quilt block designs from awesome quilt bloggers
Gorgeous artwork pull-outs
Reference section for quilting calculations and common construction techniques

The planner includes 8 quilt patterns plus 52 original quilt block designs.

Order Yours Now to Kick off 2016

For more details about The Quilter’s Planner, and to pre-order your copy, click here!

I’m super excited for Stephanie’s new venture, and once you get your copy, I’m sure you’ll be excited (and organized) too!

Paper Pieced Quilt Along #12 Machine Quilting Linear Echoes

October 31, 2015November 1, 20151 Comment

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Today we are back to using the walking foot or integrated dual feed (IDF) to quilt straight lines of texture around the blocks. In my book Machine Quilting With Style, I call this quilting technique “Linear Echoes” because you are basically stitching echoing lines around the patchwork to help outline the piecing design and make it pop.

Start the first linear echo with the foot right next to the seam line. Vary the spacing if desired.

I did not mark the lines, but instead used the edge of my foot as a guideline when quilting each line. I was able to start and end each line of quilting off the edges of the quilt, in the batting, so I didn’t have to worry about burying my threads at either end.

Use the width of your foot as a guideline for spacing. Wider spacing means fewer lines to quilt.

You can quilt one or more lines around the blocks, depending on the type of look you want to achieve. So far I have quilted three lines around each row of blocks, each approximately 1/4″ apart. Rather than using a walking foot, I used my quarter inch foot for spacing, combined with the integrated dual feed on my BERNINA.

I’ll fill in the rest of the negative space with more lines, or a different FMQ design.

Here’s a tip – quilt a couple of stitches on a practice sandwich and measure them so you know how many stitches you are doing per inch. I only need to quilt about 2-3 stitches per quarter inch. That comes in handy when you need to echo quilt beyond the first line.

This is what the backing looks like so far. I love all that texture!!

So far I’m quilting my lines in black thread to match the background fabric on the top. I only want to see a little bit of the texture rather than the stitches so I’m ok if my quilting blends in at this point. I used an invisible thread from Aurifil for the bobbin so that the black thread wouldn’t be so stark on the lighter backing fabric.

For the next tutorial, I plan to add in a little more decorative free-motion quilting, probably with a contrasting thread. I’ll start on that now so I’m ready for the next QAL post!

Share your progress

Be sure to share your version in my Facebook group: Quilt With Christa.

Click here for all of the Paper Pieced Quilt Along Tutorials.

Quilt Market Summary – Fall 2015

October 26, 2015October 25, 20159 Comments

As Jason and I head back home from Quilt Market today (the semi-annual trade show), I’ll share a quick summary of our weekend. As you know, there are two main parts of our business – the precut side which Jason is in charge of, and the designer side, which is the fun stuff I get to do.

My “schoolhouse” presentation was a success – I spoke to a packed room about my new book Machine Quilting With Style. I shared all of the quilts from the book, plus tips and tricks on how shop owners could successfully sell the book in their stores, and how to build workshops and demos around it. I even had a couple of excited shop owners come up to me after the fact, inviting me out to their stores to teach. Sounds fun to me!

While I was presenting additional demos in my publisher‘s booth and networking with other quilting professionals throughout the weekend, Jason was meeting with our vendors to purchase luscious new precuts for our store.

I really fell in love with these new Modern batiks from Hoffman. That’s right – MODERN batiks. I’m so excited for these!! It’s called ME & YOU and the line features modern geometrics plus solid batiks that are really solid – no mottled designs here! These will be available in the spring.

I also had a chance to check in with a couple of distributors that are now carrying my patterns and books. Hanging some of the quilts on display entices shop owners to come in and hopefully purchase those patterns for their stores!

It was thrilling to see my Modern X quilt hanging in the Brewer sales booth, right next to Violet Craft’s amazing Lion pattern.

And I was pleased to see my book prominently on display in both the Checker Distributors booth as well as at United Notions (the notions/patterns/book arm of Moda).

One of the fun parts of going to market is getting to check out all of the new products and equipment on display. I’ve recently been invited to become a BERNINA ambassador (more about that later), so I got to play around on their new Q 20 sit-down machine for a bit.

I instantly fell in love with the sit-down long-arm and started thinking about whether or not I’d have room for one of these in my home!

It was a great weekend getting to connect with other industry friends that I only see at events like these. Now I’m ready to get home and get back to work!

Quilt Market is This Week! What I’m doing and Where I’ll be.

October 19, 2015October 16, 20154 Comments

International Quilt Market, the twice yearly industry trade show is this weekend in Houston, Texas, from Friday-Monday. I’ll be there of course, purchasing the latest and greatest for our precut store.

But perhaps even more exciting (and nerve-wracking) is that I’ll also be there on behalf of Martingale/That Patchwork Place, promoting my book Machine Quilting With Style. I’ll be participating in three promotional events for my book, so if you are attending I invite you to come see me!

Meet me at Quilt Market and choose your favorite button!

Schoolhouse Schedule

On Friday, during the Schoolhouse Series, I’ll be giving a 30 minute presentation and showing the quilts from the book. The point of this presentation is to educate quilt shop owners on why they want to carry my book in their shops and how to sell it.

Why carry my book? – it’s the perfect machine quilting reference for 18 different designs, using both walking foot and free motion quilting techniques. Quilters always want to learn more tips and tricks on how to quilt their own quilts! It’s also great lesson manual for teaching how to make a complete quilt from start to finish.

How to sell it – bundle it up with a kit purchase, include it on the supply list for at least 15 different classes (12 piecing classes, 3 different machine quilting classes); for sewing machine dealers – offer it as a “freebie” with any sewing machine purchase.

Demos and Giveaways

Then on Saturday, I will be presenting two demos in the Martingale booth, one at 11 AM and then again at 3 PM. The purpose of these demos will be to show shop owners how they can create a fun customer experience around my book and how to encourage add-on sales. I’ll be showing how shop employees can demo improv piecing, how to use a few of my favorite rulers for precision cutting of the blocks, and how to get their students comfortable with quilting by practicing daily free-motion sketching.

It’s sure to be a whirlwind of a time and I plan to share tons of live play-by-plays on Instagram and Periscope so be sure to follow me there @christaquilts!

Fabric Friday – Angela Walters’ Drawn and Rhoda Ruth by Elizabeth Hartman

October 16, 2015October 12, 20158 Comments

Don’t you just love it when some of your favorite quilt designers become fabric designers, too? This week I want to share two new colorful collections from Angela Walters and Elizabeth Hartman, both of whom design fabrics for Robert Kaufman.

Drawn in Sorbet with coordinating Kona Solids.

Drawn – Water colorway with coordinating Kona Solids.

Drawn Pewter with coordinating Kona Solids.

Angela Walters’ Drawn collection features luscious bundles in warm Sorbet, cool Water, and neutral Pewter. I also think it’s genius that you can get several of her designs in extra wide fabrics, too – perfect for backings. Either use them as stand alone backings, or quilt on the lines with the quilt upside-down to add incredible texture to your quilts.

The wide bundles come in a 3 yard x 108″ wide piece – perfect for backings!

Rhoda Ruth by Elizabeth Hartman for Robert Kaufman

Rhoda Ruth is named for Elizabeth’s grandmother who must have had a great sense of color and style. I think these prints answer the call for smaller scale prints that will look perfect in modern quilts!

I know that both Angela and Elizabeth will be debuting their new lines at fall quilt market and I can hardly wait to get my hands on them!

The End of an Era – Plus a Giveaway

October 12, 2015October 12, 2015112 Comments

By now I’m sure many of you have heard the news that the National Quilting Association (NQA) is ceasing operations. This came as such a sad surprise to many of us who had been longtime members. The organization just celebrated it’s 46th year and a huge turning point in my quilting career was getting the opportunity to write a regular magazine column for them about Machine Quilting, and getting to teach at their last quilt show earlier this year. The reasons for their dissolution are given here.

The last issue of Quilting Quarterly

As a side note, I hope I’m not a bad-luck charm. The last magazine I wrote for on a regular basis was Quilty, and it went defunct, too! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for better luck in the future!

At the time I wrote what I consider to be my best article to date (co-authored with the super amazing Jacquie Gering), I didn’t realize it would be in the final issue of the magazine. I don’t think the publishers and editors knew that either. In fact, I had one more column slated for the next issue which won’t end up being published. However, I’ll be sure to share it with you all at a future date.

The last article I wrote for NQA, about QuiltCon, co-authored with Jacquie Gering

I always like to find a silver lining among the gloomy clouds, so the good news for you guys is that I have one extra copy of the issue I can pass along to one lucky winner. I’m sure this will become a collector’s item since it’s the last issue.

To enter this giveaway, just leave a comment letting me know what’s your favorite quilting magazine and why. I’ll choose a winner at the end of the day on Friday and will share the winner’s name here in this post. I’m happy to ship it to anyone, no matter where in the world you live!

If you click directly on the title of this post, there should be a comment box below this post for you to write in. Otherwise, click the # of comments show, above the post in the left margin to leave your comment.

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The latest craze – join me on Periscope!

October 6, 20155 Comments

I just joined the latest social media craze – periscope!! Now I have to be honest and tell you I don’t really know much about it, except that it’s fun! You can follow me there by downloading the Periscope App on your smart phone and finding me under ChristaQuilts.

I’ve only “scoped” about 3 times so far and tonight I will be doing a periscope hop with the lovely gals shown above. If you are reading this post after tonight, you can view the replay up to 24 hours after it goes live. The fun thing about that is that it’s no-stress video!! In fact, my goal is to broadcast periscopes nearly every day, showing what I’m working on plus live in-action quilting videos!

So hop on your phone, download the app, and start finding fun people to follow NOW 🙂

Book Review – Splash of Color by Jackie Kunkel

October 5, 2015October 4, 201518 Comments

Today I’m excited to tell you about Jackie Kunkel’s brand new book, Splash of Color! Both Jackie and I chose Martingale/That Patchwork Place as our publisher (because they are the best) and our books both released at about the same time. So we thought it would be fun to tell our readers about each other’s books this week. (Check out her blog on Wednesday for her review of my book.)

Splash of Color by Jackie Kunkel, Hip to Be Square on the Cover

First a quick background if you haven’t met Jackie yet. She runs the super awesome online store Canton Village Quilt Works, is a certified Judy Niemeyer Instructor, and she’s also a pilot. Isn’t that cool?

Jackie Kunkel standing in front of Lava Lamps – such an awesome quilt!

Jackie’s Book, Splash of Color really hits home with me because of its graphic combinations of black and white prints with color. In fact, I love the book’s subtitle: A Rainbow of Brilliant Black and White Quilts. I love high contrast, geometric quilts and this book is just full of them. To see what I mean, check out these gorgeous images (photography by Brent Kane):

Seeing Spots

My favorite quote from Jackie is in the introduction to this book: “When I combine black and white with bright fabrics, something magical happens. My heart begins to sing. It’s like eating candy – I want more. I hope the projects in this book will affect you the same way.”

Yes, Jackie, they do affect me in the same way. I couldn’t have said it better myself!

Jumpin’ Jax

In her book, Jackie successfully teaches you how to combine a splash of color with black and white prints without it all looking jumbled up or too busy. She also includes several techniques that are a must have for every quilter: paper foundation piecing, curved piecing, strip piecing, and applique.

Twirling

The book includes a total of 12 fantastic quilt patterns and most of them include alternate versions for inspiration, so you can really see how versatile Jackie’s designs are. I think the alternate version of Proud Mary, shown below is my favorite quilt from the book, but really they are all fantastic!

Proud Mary

I also like that Jackie mentions it took time to collect her large stash of blacks, whites and brights. I love it when designs are versatile enough to use any prints so you can recreate them even if you don’t have the same exact fabrics.

Crossroads