Craftsy Review – Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot

June 4, 2014February 12, 201718 Comments

Can I just tell you how awesome Jacquie Gering’s newest Craftsy class is? It’s called Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot and is truly one of the best classes I’ve watched.

Jacquie’s class is chock full of good tips and tricks for using your walking foot to achieve amazing machine quilted results. One of my favorite tongue-in-cheek reminders she offered is that it’s a walking foot, not a running foot! So going slow is the key to walking foot quilting success. 🙂

I’ve met Jacquie in person a few times and am currently working with her on some behind-the-scenes QuiltCon show prep. She is probably one of the most kind-hearted people I’ve ever met, and she really cares about those to whom she teaches. In this class, she’s all about sharing what she knows in such an easy-going conversational way, that you can’t help but enjoy every minute of the class.

Sinking Sun by Jacquie Gering – one of my all-time favorites! Image courtesy of Jacquie.

In Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot, Jacquie makes the comparison of quilting to a good paint job: more time may be spent prepping your work than you think, but good preparation is another key to good quilting success. She echoes my sentiments that proper basting and good tools help eliminate puckers and tucks. She prefers spray basting and flat battings (hear, hear!) and one tip I picked up was that you can iron your cotton batting to help get it nice and smooth. Now why didn’t I think of that??

One of my favorite “modern” quilting textures is matchstick quilting where you literally quilt every 1/4″ to 1/8″ over the surface of your quilt. I love Jacquie’s method for achieving precise lines that add such amazing texture to her quilts! If nothing else, this class is worth it for that demo alone!

Jacquie’s amazing matchstick quilting – one of my favorite techniques!

The Class runs for approximately 3 1/2 hours, broken up into 8 easily digestible lessons. Topics covered include walking foot basics, decorative stitches, quilting curves & text, and more! It ends with a section on quilting strategies which is super helpful for you to learn how to manage the bulk of a large quilt under the machine.

Jacquie validates many of the techniques that I like to employ in my walking foot quilting, such as using the edge of your foot as a guide and counting stitches when figuring out when to turn your work for echo quilting.

jacquie_hidden_gems

Jacquie shows how to quilt wonderfully straight lines as shown in Hidden Gems, above.

I love how Jacquie is not afraid to shy away from quilting large quilts and she doesn’t even quilt with a super-sized machine, either. She introduces several ways to add gentle curves to your quilts, and she offers tips on how to start and stop, along with what to do when you run out of thread.

I personally get excited when others finally understand just how fun quilting your own quilts can be. With this class, you can learn how to quilt all those quilts (modern or not) without feeling like free-motion quilting is your only option to achieve amazing results.

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Jacquie’s hexagon quilt – all done on her home machine. Image courtesy of Jacquie.

I highly recommend Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot. In fact, I think I’ll go watch it again, just to pick up more tips that I may have missed the first time around!

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This and That

May 6, 2014May 5, 20145 Comments

Just a little bit of this, that, and the other today:

This

Congratulations to loralyejean who won the copy of EQ7 quilt design software. She requested the Mac version, so it should be on it’s way soon!

This is what she had to say in her comment:

“I have been drawing graph paper designs since I was a teenager and am now in my 50′s! I just finished my first large quilt (large to me 67″ x 67″) from my own design! I am an unemployed graphic artist and design on one of my two imacs at home! The EQ7 for Mac software would be extremely beneficial in turning 100′s of graph paper designs into quilt patterns! My designs are pretty intricate and the software would make the process of transferring the designs to the software so much easier! Thank you for this opportunity! Best of luck to everyone! :)”

Well loralyejean definitely had good luck today! Thanks to all of you who commented – that really makes my day! And just remember, you can like Electric Quilt on Facebook or sign up for the EQ Mailing List to get all latest news, including sales and giveaways, and free EQ7 downloads!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElectricQuilt
Mailing List: http://electricquilt.com/community/newsletter-signup/

That

Here’s a fun blog post I wanted to share with you, written by my friend Lorna of who blogs at SewFreshQuilts. She compiled a list of one word attributes from fellow bloggers along with advice on what makes a great blog. I was honored to be included among her guests, so be sure to check it out here. She has a really fun weekly linky party, too!

The Other

Thanks to all of you who follow me via my other social media. Because of the traffic to my Craftsy Blog Posts, I was listed as one of the top referrers to Craftsy in our monthly writers’ newsletter. So thanks, guys and gals, for making me look good!

(And also thanks to those of you who started following me via Instagram after my announcement yesterday!) It’s fun to have followers. 🙂

How to Get the Most out of Your Craftsy Classes

April 17, 2014April 16, 201411 Comments

As many quilters do, I love to learn new techniques and keep up with the latest quilting trends. I’m willing to travel far and wide to attend national quilt shows and meet my favorite quilting personalities. However, there’s a part of me that’s a self-proclaimed homebody, so I love the fact that Craftsy makes it possible for me to take amazing quilting classes from the comfort of my own home.

Quilt Design from Craftsy’s Free 2014 BOM

I recently had a chance to interview a few of my favorite Craftsy instructors. They had many interesting things to say in regards to teaching and interacting with students via the Craftsy platform:

Domestic quilting expert Leah Day explains the difference between the free content on her blog and her online Craftsy classes that you register and pay for. Says Leah, “My paid content is usually longer, more in-depth, and definitely more step-by-step. I’m willing to hold your hand and take you through every question I know you’re going to ask.

“Craftsy is also worlds different from YouTube because of the interactive platform which allows you to ask questions, post photos, chat with other students, and bookmark sections of the video to go back to.”

Image courtesy of LeahDay.com

I am a very visual learner. When someone tells me something or tries to explain a concept to me, I usually nod politely while I’m thinking about my next quilt. But once they show me hands-on – that really grabs me and engages my attention! That’s why I’ve signed up for so many classes myself – so I can have access to them at anytime of day or night and watch them literally on demand.

Angela Walters began adding online classes to her roster when she discovered that it allowed her to reach even more quilters. At well over 10,000 students for her first class alone, she says, “I am so humbled and thrilled that I get to connect with so many quilters. I love seeing their pictures and engaging with them on their platform.”

Christa and Angela at QuiltCon – she truly is one of my heroes!

Camille Roskelley enjoys the online learning format, both as a student and as an online instructor. Camille focuses on the convenience of piecing with precuts in her classes.

As a busy mom of young boys, Camille says, “I’m always trying to figure out ways to fit quilting into everyday life, so I have to make the most of the time I have. In class, I show how to cut, press, and piece in a way that you can walk away from it, and come back right where you left off, while always making the most of your time… even if you have as many distractions as I do!”

Photo courtesy of Craftsy

Remember that video teachers are like regular teachers and that they are real people, too. They each have their preferences, methods, and unique quilting habits. So take what you want, leave the rest, and learn something from everyone. 🙂

Remember the saying, “Do what you love?” These fabulous instructors are doing it! Here are their suggestions on how to make the most of your online experience:

From Leah Day: “Be open minded. Don’t be rigid in thinking there’s only one way that a certain technique can be done, or only THAT material can be used for THAT technique.” (In other words – ignore the quilt police!)
From Angela Walters: “Engage on the website. Not only by asking the instructor questions, but also by sharing pictures and talking to other students. It makes the class more like a community!”
From Camille Roskelley: “I have found I get the most out of a class if I watch a lesson closely once and sew along with it the second time around. I also suggest you take as many classes as you can to see other quilters’ techniques because we all do things differently!”

Leah Day filming her Craftsy class. Photo courtesy of Leah and Craftsy.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m a cheerleader for all things quilting. These amazing instructors not only make that job easier, they also inspire me to try things I never would have dreamed of before!

Craftsy Class Review – Elizabeth Dackson’s Start Free-Motion Quilting

April 12, 2014April 11, 20148 Comments

I’m excited to review another fantastic Craftsy class with you today! It’s Elizabeth Dackson’s “Start Free-Motion Quilting” and I love it on so many levels! Although machine quilting is one of my favorite subjects to teach, I cannot get enough free-motion quilting education myself. 🙂

Everyone has their own different ways of teaching which is why I highly recommend taking as many classes as you can from as many different instructors as you can. When it comes to free-motion quilting, it really helps to learn those techniques over and over again so they really sink in.

Elizabeth’s class is broken down into a series of 9 easily digestible lessons for a total of just over 3 hours of class time. After traveling far and wide to take classes from well-known instructors, I think this class is quite a bargain indeed. 🙂

Specific quilting motifs taught in class include stipple patterns, loopy flowers, woodgrain, circuit board, wishbones, mock clamshells and more. Once you get the hang of how these designs are formed, you’ll be adding them to your quilts in no time!

All images courtesy of Elizabeth Dackson and Craftsy; shared with permission.

Elizabeth prefers many of the same tools and supplies that I do: she encourages the use of quilting gloves (on larger sized quilts), enjoys quilting with an open-toe free-motion foot for visibility, and enjoys machine quilting with Aurifil thread.

I don’t know about you, but it makes me feel great as a quilter knowing that I’m doing at least a few things right, LOL!! I really like Elizabeth’s “golden rules of quilting” which I think everyone should have posted in their sewing rooms.

The Golden Rules of Quilting

Practice, practice, practice!
Give yourself permission for things not to be perfect right away.
Walk away and take a break if you feel that you’re getting frustrated.

Throughout the lessons, Elizabeth sprinkles in other techniques for you to learn such as how to start and stop, burying your threads, tips on batting, and how to baste. Rather than hitting you over the head with all of the material at one time, it’s presented in smaller snippets that are easier to understand and remember.

To keep it real, Elizabeth shows images her first very first quilt. It’s quite amazing to see how far she’s come by simply diving in there and quilting her own quilts. She’s great at encouraging beginners that they’ll get better in time. 🙂

Elizabeth’s first quilt – isn’t it great? Check out the class for quilting closeups.

My favorite part of any Craftsy class is reading through the questions that are asked by students, along with the instructor’s responses. Usually when I’m watching a lesson, I’ll read through all the questions first, then go on and watch the lesson. It makes me feel like I haven’t missed anything and it helps give me a really thorough understanding of the material presented.

One of my favorite tips that I read in the Q&A is Elizabeth’s emphasis on experimentation as a great way to find out what settings and tools work best for your particular machine.

I hope that this gives you just a taste of Start Free-Motion Quilting. Whether you are an absolute beginner or more experienced with free-motion quilting, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I have!

Christa’s Soap Box – It’s time to brag about my friends: Cory and Carolina

March 17, 2014March 17, 20145 Comments

I’m so excited that I get to share some cool things my friends are doing. And not just because their names both happen to start with a “C” (though that is pretty cool)! Cory is my rather blogless friend, so I took it upon myself to shout her praises. I keep telling her that if she ever gets a blog, I think she’ll be an overnight success. 🙂

Cory is an amazing long-arm quilter, and one of her collaboration quilts was recently featured in the March issue of The Quilt Life magazine. The quilt is called Northwest Passage, and it’s part of an article titled “Going Dutch” written by Colleen Harvey.

Northwest Passage, Pieced by Diane Johnston, Quilted by Cory Allender

When I first met Cory, she presented a trunk show of her amazing work to my local quilt guild, including Northwest Passage, shown above. Of course I blogged about it, and somehow, Colleen Harvey happened to see my blog post later on. She contacted me to inquire about including the quilt in her article, and I was able to help her get in touch with Cory and Diane. I just love it when things work out like that!

Mini Quilt Math – a Craftsy blog post by Carolina Moore

The other good news I want to share is about my friend Carolina who is a prolific blogger. She was recently invited to be a guest blogger for Craftsy and she’s actually written two posts so far!

Carolina teaches you how to calculate the math for mini triangles, too!

Carolina loves modern quilts and mini’s and she’s created a 2-part series about math for minis. She shows you how to calculate the sizes so that you can shrink down any full-size quilt block into a mini version. How cool is that? Be sure to read part 1 and part 2 here and then give her some comment love. 🙂

How about you? What cool quilting stuff is going on in your life, or that of your friends and family? I am a self-proclaimed quilting cheerleader, so I’d love to give you a virtual pat-on-the back, too!

Tips for Getting Started with Modern Quilt Design

March 14, 2014March 13, 20149 Comments

My latest blog post for Craftsy has been published, and I’m rather pleased with the subject matter. It’s called 7 Tips for Getting Started with Modern Quilt Design and I really enjoyed writing it.

The back of Colorful Chevrons – I think it’s more modern than the front. Tutorial here.

Suffice it to say, I had fun gathering pictures and examples of modern quilting, and emailing their makers to obtain permission to share. It was really just a great excuse to get to know more amazing designers, and this is just the tip of the iceberg! I could have included dozens more if I had the time and space to write about them.

Another “modern” backing I designed. One day I’ll make something like this for the front!

So don’t be surprised if modern quilts are all I can think about for awhile. I have to make up for lost time!

Sew and Tell – Do You EQ? I Do!

March 8, 2014March 7, 201444 Comments

It’s no secret I love designing and making quilts.

Since discovering the modern quilting movement, I’ve been inspired to create more original designs in the last 2 years than I have in the last 10 years combined! All it took was finding my niche and discovering the right motivation.

I’m pleased to announce that the folks over at Electric Quilt are enjoying my passion for design, too!

I’ve recently been invited to become an “official” EQ Artist and am now featured on their Do You EQ? site along with plenty of other well-known quilters in the industry. I have to tell you, it’s a little bit intimidating to be featured alongside so many amazing quilters who also design in EQ. I keep waiting for them to tell me, “not really – we were just kidding!”

But lots of good has come out of this. For starters, it has encouraged me to do all of my designing in EQ7 so that I can practice becoming comfortable with more aspects of the software.

My latest EQ7 design – This quilt will do double duty as my entry into the next MQG fabric challenge, and as a future class sample. Stay tuned for more!

Also, I’ve finally taken the plunge and have started publishing my own patterns, integrating images from EQ7 along with good old basic word processing software. So far I’ve only finished one pattern, but the next one will launch soon, and I’ve got more coming. Be sure to keep an eye on my Craftsy Pattern Store for more.

Charming Chevrons – my first officially “published” pattern. You’ve seen this one before!

Finally, I’ve decided I will start teaching some introduction to EQ7 classes later this year. I’ve had several requests to teach about the software, but it will take me awhile to develop a class. My favorite local quilt shop is in need of new teacher so the timing is right. I’ll keep you posted in case any of you are in the mood for a road trip to Vegas later in the fall.

And now, on to the next design!

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!

Valentine’s Table Runner Tutorial on Craftsy

February 9, 20143 Comments

Hi all. Just in case you haven’t gotten a chance to see my Love table runner tutorial, I’ve posted it for free on the Craftsy blog.

Love by Christa Watson 12″ x 30″

You can make it into a table runner as is, or play around with different layouts to come up with your own design. It would make a super cute pillow, or you could even make several blocks for a larger sized quilt.

Click here for the tutorial and enjoy!

Free BOM and Craftsy Flash Sale

January 18, 2014January 18, 20146 Comments

Now that I’m going to be blogging for Craftsy on a regular basis (thanks to so many of you for reading my first Craftsy post), I thought it’s only fair to spread the Craftsy love whenever I think they are doing cool stuff. And don’t worry, I’m not going to slack around here – I still have plenty to say on my own blog, LOL!!

So anyway, I love the fact that Craftsy offers so much free content on their site, including this year’s free block of the month series. The 2014 BOM is all about applying color theory to your quilts for dynamic results. I know that picking colors and choosing fabrics is my hardest part of making a quilt, so I’m excited to pick up a few tricks of the trade as I follow along with instructors Amy Walsh and Janine Burke.

I mean, doesn’t this look simply scrumptious?? And if such loud colors aren’t your thing, you can always go back and sign up for the BOM for 2013 or 2012 here. They are still available online for free! (I love free – don’t you?)

If you do get that itch to sign up for more classes, Craftsy is having a “flash sale” through the end of the day tomorrow, 1/19/14. There are a nice selection of quilting classes, most of which I signed up for during the last sale. 🙂 Here are a couple couple of quick recommendations if you’d like to check them out:

Click here to view all classes on sale this weekend and get started on something crafty!