Catching up with Christa on Craftsy

March 3, 2014February 28, 20147 Comments

Many of you know I’ve recently become a freelance writer for Craftsy. It’s a fun excuse to write more about my love of quilting and reach a slightly different audience from those that follow my blog. In case you haven’t seen me over there yet, I thought I’d catch you up on the last couple of posts I’ve written.

I wrote a piece about how you can quilt on a regular sewing machine – even one as small as a featherweight! This was a fun followup to a question about my first entry, “tips for free motion quilting.”

My beloved Featherweight – I don’t quilt on it – but you can!

I also gave a fun little report about my recent excursion to AQS Phoenix with a few tips on how to enter one of their shows. I’m always pro quilt-show in the hopes that more of you out there will share your amazing talents!

AQS Phoenix Best of Show

I usually write about one post a week for Craftsy so I still have plenty of time to write here. So far it hasn’t gotten too crazy and I plan to continue blogging (in both places) as long as it remains fun!

How about you bloggers out there – do you write multiple blogs or for multiple audiences? I’d love to know!

Craftsy Guest Post – Tips on Free Motion Quilting

January 14, 2014January 13, 201427 Comments

Did you know that Craftsy has a blog? And did you know that a lot of bloggers I follow share their knowledge there? I’ve been reading Craftsy’s blog for a few months now, especially the posts related to quilting because I can always learn something new. 🙂

I was invited to contribute a post this week, writing about my favorite subject, machine quilting. Click here to read my blog entry and hopefully pick up a tip or two for yourself!

All of of the pictures I shared in the post came from tutorials and quilt alongs I’ve shared on my blog. It was fun to gather them together and use them to illustrate some of my favorite machine quilting tips.

Happy reading and quilting!

My Friend Alexis – The Crafty Blogger

December 27, 2013December 18, 20133 Comments

I just have to give a blog shout out to my friend Alexis who blogs over at Persia Lou. She was recently featured in the latest issue of Homespun Magazine on how to start a craft blog. Isn’t that great?

Now here’s the funny thing about us. She lives right down the street from me and we’ve been friends for years. But often, weeks will go by without us hanging out or even talking (because we are both too busy sewing or blogging). Thank goodness that we can still keep in touch daily via each other’s blogs, LOL!

Persia Lou Featured in Australian Homespun Magazine

Alexis has inspired me to be a better blogger (hers is amazing), and I’ve encouraged her to explore her “quilty” side when she recently re-decorated her kids’ bedroom in an adorable vintage Disney theme. She made these two Herringbone quilts below using my Chevron Quilt Along tutorials in a single color palette.

So check out her blog – she does all kinds of amazing crafts: sewing, crochet, home decorating, and more. Every time I go to her house, she’s finished something new and it’s very inspiring. Way to go, Alexis! 🙂

Christa’s Soapbox – Blogging Goal Accomplished

April 8, 2013April 8, 20136 Comments

I am a very goal-oriented person and I work well with to-do lists, schedules and check boxes. At the end of last year, I made a list of Quilting Goals and I get a certain sense of satisfaction when I can cross something off my list and move onto the next item.

Today, I get to put a “done” next to my goal of improving my blog. Jason and I have worked really hard over the last few weeks to update and organize the blog so it’s easier to read and more fun to follow!

Here are just a few things we’ve accomplished:

Renamed the blog url to ChristaQuiltsBlog.com. It’s still located on WordPress and the old links will still work. But it makes it easier for Google and others to find me!
Set up the domain ChristasQuiltAlong.com. It points to my blog with a page set up exclusively for my quilt alongs. Now you can find them all in one place!
Cleaned up the sidebar so it shows organized, pertinent information and links.
Have now attracted over 1000 blog followers – can we make it 2000?
Added links at the top to more easily find my tutorials, quilt alongs, and flickr group with more to come!
Reorganized my blog categories to make them easier to find and read.
Added a button for other bloggers to spread the word about my quilt along:

<div align="center"><a href="http://christasquiltalong.com" title="Christa's Quilt Along" target="_blank"><img src="https://christaquilts.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/christas-quilt-along-175-2.png" alt="Christa's Quilt Along" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Wow! It felt really good to check that off my list. 🙂