I was cleaning and organizing my sewing room and realized I have a TON of leftover fat quarters from quilts in progress, bolt ends, and fat quarter bundles from all four of my fabric lines: Modern Marks, Fandangle, Abstract Garden, and Geo Pop.
Don’t they look like colorful candy?? This is just a small sampling of my freebies for you!!
Rather than trying to cram them in somewhere and let them collect dust, I’d rather give them to you!! So from now on, all orders of $50 or more from my little online store at shop.ChristaQuilts.com will get one of these beauties as a surprise in their package!
I’m very much a minimalist, and although I’m keeping plenty of yardage of all my collections on hand for personal use, I have a hard time storing smaller pieces of fabric. So I’m excited to send them your way instead! 🙂
Below is the current list of shops I know of who’ve purchased Abstract Garden from Benartex. Keep in mind that I don’t get a report of who orders from distributors or international stores unless they tell me. So if you know of another shop, I’ll be glad to add them to the list!
Let’s dive into a summer full of color! In two weeks I’ll kick off my free Quilt Along featuring Color Weave – the perfect quilt that you can work on at your own pace and on your own schedule! This should give you enough time to gather your supplies and be ready for some quilting fun!
This quilt was originally made for the February Quilty Box and they had exclusive rights to it for the first couple of months. Now that the rights have reverted back to me, I was able to release the pattern (in print and PDF) to share it will you all.
Here’s the complete pattern cover front and back. You can change it up and use just 3 colors for a completely different look, and I’ve included backing requirements, too. Click the image below to enlarge.
Color Weave Quilt Along Schedule
Each Monday for the 8 weeks, I’ll write up a post with bonus content and tips on top of what you’ll find in the pattern. Each time a post goes live, I’ll update the links below so you can refer back to it any time you are working on your quilt.
Just like all of my quilt alongs, I’ll guide you through the entire quilt making process from cutting to binding. After all, I want you to have just as much fun making this quilt as I did!!
The fun begins next week, so gather your supplies, and join the fun anytime right here on my blog. If you want to receive a notice each time a new blog post has published, enter your email in the subscribe box (found on the left of the screen on a computer, or scroll down to the very bottom of your screen on a mobile device).
As promised, here’s a virtual tour of my quilt market booth, where I showcased my brand new Geo Pop line (shipping in Aug/Sept) and shared new things made from my current line, Abstract Garden. Quilt Market is an industry only trade who which took place in Kansas City, MO. Ready for a bunch of inspiring pics??? Here goes:
Here’s the whole booth at a glance. I features some brand new quilt patterns, along with some fabulous projects made from my designer friends. Putting up a booth is no easy feat; fortunately I do get help from Benartex with booth setup, but it still takes all day!
This amazing strip-roll quilt is called Colour Maze, from the uber talented Linda Sullivan of Colourwerx. How fab would it look made from an Abstract Garden Strip Roll?? On the benc above left, you’ll see the adorable rope bowl made by Vicki Arnold of SewPositivelyVickie on Instragram (who also made my adorable name tag below.)
I displayed my Geo Pop fat quarter bundle (which you can pre-order now), plus my quilt patterns that work great in any of my lines (or other fabrics for that matter.) Shops really liked being able to my current patterns directly from me and take them home from the show!
Don’t you love this woven bag made by Sherry Shish of Powered by Quilting? I believe she’s currently working on a pattern for it, so stay tuned!!
Tammy Silvers of Tamarinis chose white and gray, with pops of blue and green for her brand new Spark quilt pattern, coming soon. Isn’t it super cool and modern? On top of the quilt are the new patterns being released this spring , so stay tuned for more info when they are ready!
Sprinkled throughout the booth were more pops of color – bags and accessories from the folks over at ByAnnie. They make quick gifts and give you a fast finish!
Domestic machine quilting goddess Leah Day recently released her first fiction novel, “Mally the Maker” about a young girl on a quest to find her missing grandmother. Her companion is Miss Bunny, her beloved doll. Leah created a pattern to go along with the book and even made a miss Bunny for me (which my daughter quickly claimed.)
You can see above that Miss Bunny and I are both wearing matching dresses – from the Mosaic Dots print in green. Just behind me and left I showcased my Pieced Primrose pattern made from Abstract Garden fabric. Because the line is currently in stock, I wanted to show how nicely the two colorful groups play with each other.
I also displayed my newest Aurifil Thread kit – The Variegated Collection. I used it to quilt the Pieced Primrose quilts as well as Color Weave. It was fun to share quilting tips with anyone who stopped by!
The highlight of my booth was two versions of my Bling pattern that I made, with either black or white background from the line. It just takes 20 fat quarters of Geo Pop (or your favorite fabrics) and it goes together super fast!
Although it was a ton of work to pull this together for 3 days of display, it was worth it seeing all of the smiles of everyone who’s ordered it so far for their shops. I hope you enjoyed this virtual tour, and believe it or not, it’s already time for me to start prepping for fall market, LOL!!
I’ve had something under wraps that I’m finally excited to share! My latest quit pattern – Color Weave is now available as a PDF download from my Etsy shop.
I enhanced the original pattern and also included an option to make it from a single color instead. But of course it would look fabulous in any fabric combo! You just need two strips of the same fabric when working with precuts. That’s why I designed my Abstract Garden precuts with 2 of each!
Click the image below to enlarge so you can see the materials requirements.
I had an amazing time making this quilt! The instructions are easy to follow and I’ve included step-by-step full color diagrams for both versions shown above. I’ve also included a quilting plan to quilt one of my favorite walking foot designs – random crosshatch.
I’m here to cheer you on every step of the way when you purchase any of my patterns. I want you to have just as much fun making this quilt as I did!
Sharing is caring! While you are making your version, be sure to share your progress in my ChristaQuilts Facebook group or use the hashtag #colorweavequilt on instagram. I’m happy to guide you every step of the way!
Most people think that stitch in the ditch is the easiest thing you can do with your walking foot, but wavy lines “near” the ditch are much easier to accomplish. Then, when you are ready to tackle straight line quilting, embrace unmarked, uneven line spacing for a quicker finish!
Irregular Parallel Lines on Geese in the Garden – Cool
Make a Quilting Plan
I originally developed the idea to make a quilting plan in my books, then refined my technique so that I could clearly teach it to others in my online video class – The Quilter’s Path. In a nutshell, I like to draw my designs out on an image of the finished quilt top to see how it will look before I quilt the quilt. Below is the quilting plan for both quilts, which is included in my Geese in the Garden quilt pattern.
The reason I like to quilt irregularly spaced, imperfect lines is because I know I’m going to “mess up” anyway, so why not build it into the design? After all – you know what they say: do something once and it could be a “mistake.” But do it two or more times and it’s a design element! Plus, it’s a lot faster to quilt imperfect lines than perfect ones!
Because the prints are so colorful and busy, a variegated thread looks great and helps blend everything together. I chose Stone Washed Denim #3770 for the cool version. Even though it looks like a solid colored thread, it has subtle color changes that will look great on this quilt. Because it’s more on the pastel side, it also blends in with the rest of the prints.
For the warm version, I selected #3840 French Lilac. The purply-pinks blend beautifully and add wonderful texture. When choosing colors, I lay the spool across the quilt and see which color disappears into the quilt the most. If I’m not using and exact matching thread, I’ll usually go a shade lighter rather than darker, as that seems to blend in the best.
To do the actual quilting, first I quilt a series of “anchor” lines to secure the quilt. These can be lines in, or near, the ditch, randomly spaced across the quilt to prevent it from shifting. Then I fill in with additional lines as desired.
Check out this video of me quilting the warm version with a simple wavy line design, following the pieced design of the quilt. I’m using my BERNINA dual feed, which acts just like a walking foot, but allows me to use different feet on my machine.
For the cool version, I used painter’s tape in some of the areas to divid up the space and give me nice, crips lines. When stitching right next to the tape, I have to be careful not to stitch it to the quilt!
Once I’ve established a few anchor lines, I’ll fill in between the lines at random intervals, using the edge of my foot as a guideline for spacing. Here’s another short video of my quilting the cool version, adding more lines in between previously spaced lines:
Finally, I prefer to bind my quilts by hand because I love the clean look it gives to them. Here’s a final video showing how I make each stitch by hand, once it’s been sewn onto the quilt by machine. (See links at the end for my full binding tutorial.)
Here’s a short video showing how I stitch the binding by hand to finish:
I really enjoyed sharing more behind the scenes of making this quilt. To help support the time it takes to create these posts, please use the links below to purchase the pattern, or find my entire pattern and fabric line at shop.ChristaQuilts.com. Many thanks!!
Welcome to my new series where I explain a little more in depth about how I made a recent quilt and share tips to make your sewing and quilting faster and more fun! Today we’ll focus on my Geese in the Garden Quilts made from my Abstract Garden line with Benartex/Contempo.
When I designed Geese in the Garden with it’s radiating diamond-like shapes, my first instinct was to write the pattern by making all of the blocks from Half Square Triangles. However, that would have left a seam in the middle of each block which would have disrupted the fabric print.
I knew I could eliminate some of the seams using the “flip and sew” method but there would still be some seams I didn’t like, and it would have created a lot of waste. Here’s an early sketch of it in Electric Quilt with those unsightly seams (in the yellow seeds fabric and the pink roses fabric).
So then I researched how to sew diamond shapes and discovered that these shapes are NOT true diamonds, but are rather “squished” or “elongated” diamonds. However, the traditional technique to make the diamonds would still work, but I’d have to recalculate the math.
Diamond cutting in process.Â
After a bit of testing I figured out an easy way to cut these elongated diamonds with a simple acrylic ruler that has a 45 degree line – no specialty ruler required! It’s all about the width that you cut them, and that information is included in detail in the pattern.
You’ll get a chance to use the 45 degree line on your ruler when cutting these diamonds.
Because these are not true diamonds, they have a definite left and right side. You can create some really cool designs with “mirror image” units. Here’s a tip to cut them correctly: Cut at least 2 stacked strips at a time. Make sure one strip is right side up, while the other is wrong side up. Or fold the strip in half and you’ll automatically get mirror image pairs.
Mirror image units – and no pesky seams in the middle of the fabric!
Abstract Garden Fabric Choices
My Abstract Garden collection includes a total of 20 fabrics arranged into warm and cool colorways. However, I wanted fabric selection to be easy for this quilt pattern, so that you could use any fabrics you like. So it only takes a total of 5 prints to create the design.
Since I was making two quilts (warm and cool), I decided to cut and piece them both at the same time. I starched the fabrics ahead of time before I cut, to help control the diagonal bias edges.
The fun part about choosing fabrics is creating a radiating, glowing look with your color choices. Because the center diamonds of the design are interchangeable, I played around with them to make sure I was happy with the color arrangement.
I love pretty stacks of cut units – don’t you?
Sewing the Geese Rows
Technically, this is a “row” quilt, meaning it’s sewn together into rows, rather than blocks. The super easy thing about this pattern is that each row is exactly the same! To make sewing go even easier, I recommend laying out all of the units, and sewing them into pairs on either side of the center triangle.
Although these are for 2 separate quilts, how fun would it be to alternate the rows?
My tip for sewing units with a 45 degree angle is that you need to offset the triangle tips by the same amount on both sides as you sew. The triangle tip will stick out about 1/4″ inch on either side. Notice the tips sticking out in the image below when the fabrics are matched up, right sides together:
Sew an accurate 1/4″ seam, using the point where the two fabrics intersect in the corner. This detail image below shows the sewn seam (stitched with my favorite 50 weight Aurifil thread). Notice it’s been rotated to show the angle at which I sew each unit under the machine. (Make sure to chain piece all the units at once for speed and efficiency.)
You’ll know you’ve sewn them correctly when you’ve created a nice smooth edge along both pieces. Don’t forget to trim the triangle tips! I also press all of my seams open so that my blocks will lie nice and flat.
Remember, this technique works for ANY units with a 45 degree angle. Below is what the center triangle looks like when I lined it up with the rest of the sewn pairs. It looks a little awkward, but notice how both tips are sticking out about 1/4″. Once the pieces are flipped over right sides together and sewn, everything will come out even, just like the diamond pairs.
I often get asked how I press seams open without burning my fingers. The answer is that I open them up with my fingers ahead of the iron, and I never use steam. Here’s a 20 second video clip showing how I press my seam open, once I’ve sewn my rows:
Here’s the backside of the cool version with all of the rows sewn and those nice, flat, pressed open seams. Doesn’t it look just as pretty as the front??
Although the pattern comes in 3 sizes, I chose to make the smallest size. But the best thing about this pattern is that it’s the same number of pieces to cut and sew, no matter which size you make. They just get larger as the quilt gets bigger. It only took me a few hours to piece each quit top, so it’s a great design to make when you are in a hurry, and it’s fun to show off your favorite fabrics in the diamonds.
One final tip to share today: don’t stress too much about perfection. Do your best to line up the seams as you sew the quilt, but notice the lower left corner of the image below. The turquoise and blue corners don’t match up perfectly in all the rows, but that’s ok. Once the quilt is quilted – you won’t even notice it!!
Very few of my points line up perfectly – but it still looks great!!
If you found this post helpful, you can help support my blogging efforts by purchasing my Geese in the Garden pattern or any of my other quilt patterns or fabrics at shop.ChristaQuilts.com. They’ll come infused with a little “Christa Quilts” magic, ensuring your success while I cheer you on!
In the next post, I’ll share tips on how I quilted each quilt with two quick and easy walking foot designs, so stay tuned!
In between moving, hosting the Blooming Wallflowers quilt along, and planning out my next round of designs, I haven’t had a chance to tell you much about some of my latest finishes. So I thought I’d take some time over the next several weeks to share more in-depth about my process of making quilts from my latest fabric line, Abstract Garden.
Think of the next several weeks as Do It Yourself quilt alongs. They won’t be as in-depth as my regular quilt alongs, but they’ll provide a little more insight into my quilt-making process and will help you have a smooth experience making your own version. I enjoy blogging about the process so that I can include some in-process photos, in addition to the full color diagrams and quilting plans I include in my patterns for sale.
One of the fun things I love about designing fabric for Benartex is being able to express myself creatively through fabric. I also love getting to know their other fabric designers and see the amazing things they make! Recently Benartex pulled together a fun collaboration to create this fun sampler quilt. Each block was designed by one of nine current fabric designers who participated, and there are instructions to make each block as well as the full quilt over on the Benartex blog.
As an inspiring bonus, the folks over at Benartex recolored the sampler quilt using each designers’ latest fabric line. Links to each block and fabric collection are below each image:
Isn’t it fun to see how unique a quilt looks made up in different fabrics? This is a great way to experience the variety of colors and styles that Benartex offers. Now I want to make them all!!
Christa Quilts 