Craftsy – Page 7 – Christa Quilts

While I have a little down time on vacation, I thought it would be fun to review a few of the Craftsy Quilting Classes I’ve signed up for.

Today I will begin with Angela Walters’ Quilting Negative Space class.

I first heard about this class months ago when it came out. I didn’t sign up for it right away because I knew I would be taking a class from her live in person earlier this year at QuiltCon. Her live class was so fantastic, that when I returned I immediately signed up for both of her Craftsy classes.

Christa and Angela at QuiltCon

Since I couldn’t possibly remember everything from Angela’s live class, the online Craftsy classes are such a great resource.

I can go back to them again and again, post questions in class and rewind and rewatch any segment of the class.

Angela’s online class is different enough from her live class that I didn’t feel like I was wasting my money by taking both.

Plus her approachable manner and in-depth explanations were easy to follow.

The class is broken up into 10 segments or lessons, focusing on things such as combining designs, and changing scales.

Throughout the class, Angela demonstrates how to achieve beautiful quilting with little or no marking, which I really like.

One of the often overlooked elements of quilt design is sketching out your ideas first. Angela covers this in great detail and she includes tips on how to apply your sketched designs to the actual quilt. She covers a little about thread selection, too.

My favorite tip of hers is to use a blending thread, whenever possible. You want the quilting texture to show, not the thread! One of my favorite designs she teaches is how to quilt flowers which I used in my Hugs ‘n Kisses quilt, above. They are a lot easier than you might think!

Below is another of the machine quilting samples I was able to stitch after watching Quilting Negative Space. It was fun to combine the pebbles and swirls together into one motif. Angela also covers woodgrain, tiles, leaves, wavy lines, plume feathers and more.

I just checked the stats on Craftsy and over 5000 people have signed up for this class so far! I enjoyed Machine Quilting Negative Space so much that I’ve already signed up for her next Craftsy class, Free Motion Quilting with Feathers (watch for my review on that one soon – it’s on sale, too!)

And oh yeah – even though Angela quilts on a long arm and I quilt on my Bernina, the design principles she teaches are easily applicable to both. If you can only afford to take one Craftsy Quilting class – this is the one to choose!

Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the kick-off to summer – a great time to gear up for fun times ahead and a chance to start on some summer sewing.

But of course it’s so much more than that. It’s really a time to honor our veterans and remember those brave men and women who have served in the US Armed Forces and supported the cause of freedom.

This Memorial Day, let's honor our verterans.

You can honor our veterans and kick off your summer by signing up for a Craftsy class this weekend. From now through Monday, when you sign up for an online class, Craftsy will donate a portion of the proceeds to benefit a veterans’ organization. Select classes will be on sale up to 60% off!

I took a quick look to see which quilting classes were on sale and there was quite a good selection to choose from. Here are a few that look interesting:

Pictorial Techniques by Wendy Butler Burns. I met her at Road to California 2 years ago and she was full of energy! This one’s on my to-do list at 25% off.

Design It, Quilt It by Cindy Needham – 25% off. I signed up for this class the last time it was on sale and it’s one of my favorites. It includes an excellent basting tutorial, too!

Big Techniques From Small Scraps by Sarah Fielke combines traditional techniques with fresh design. Fun – and 50% off!

Stupendous Stitching by Carol Ann Waugh explores of embroidery designs, decorative sewing machine stitches, couching and binding. It’s 33% off.

Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine – I can’t get enough domestic machine quilting classes! It’s 38% off through Monday.

The Machine Embroidered Quilt with Eilleen Roche looks like another fun class where you add embroidery elements to embellish your quilt. It’s 38% off, too

Civil War Blocks by Kaye England – learn precise piecing methods and make 12 traditional blocks, inspired by the stories of strong women of the Civil War era – 50% off!

Quick-Strip Paper Piecing with Peggy Martin – now that sounds like something I could use! Another one at 38% off. That’s kind of a weird discount amount but it’s better than paying full price. 🙂

I make it a point to only sign up for Crafsty classes when they are on sale and so far I’ve been impressed with how often that happens. Click here to see the rest of the classes that are on sale this weekend. Happy sewing!