MQWS Blog Hop Day 7 – Square in a Square

September 21, 2015September 22, 2015130 Comments

Good news for those of you who wish to purchase Machine Quilting With Style on Amazon – it’s now back in stock on their site with plenty of additional copies on the way!

Square in a Square – The Background Story

The title of Square in a Square is my nod to tradition. Although I would consider this quilt very modern in design, the title comes from a very traditional block of the same name. I like the play on design – this quilt features several squares inside of bigger squares, all contained in one large, gigantic square.

Square in a Square 60″ x 60″ by Christa Watson. Photography by Brent Kane.

In addition to piecing a whole bunch of squares, I wanted to carry over the square theme into the machine quilting, too. The blocks are all quilted in a wonky square spiral, using a walking foot. I chose a variegated thread for the square spirals to give it a little extra punch of color.

Quilting Square Spirals is So. Much. Fun!!

The background is quilted using one of my favorite modern textures – boxes. In the book I remind my readers, that not all of the boxes are perfectly square. Crushed boxes happen in life and a few wonky ones on the quilt are okay.

Detail quilting on Square in a Square

A Bit More

Modern elements – asymmetrical alternate grid structure, oversized blocks, simple repetitive shapes, minimalism, bold colors, expansive negative space, modern geometric quilting.

Time to complete – 20 hours from start to finish.

Stacy’s Version – A Modern Halloween Quilt

Stacy Cooper from Farm Road Quilts is my original BQF (Best Quilting Friend). We met at a quilting retreat about 15 years ago and have been returning to the same event together year after year (Check out my recent Instagram feed @christaquilts for pictures from the event this weekend.) In fact, as a true friend, she let me “borrow” her quilt to cuddle up while sewing, when the retreat room got a bit chilly. (Another friend let me borrow her quilted sweatshirt jacket so I stayed nice and toasty while I sewed.)

Here’s a sneak peek of Stacy’s quilt in action!

Stacy created her version as a Halloween quilt. However, when you see it, at first glance, you wouldn’t even know it’s a holiday quilt! She threw in pops of turquoise along with gray, black and orange for a very sophisticated take on a whimsical idea.

Pop on over to Stacy’s blog to see her version, and be sure to enter her giveaway!

The Littlest Thistle (With a Big Heart)

Katy Cameron from the Littlest Thistle and I have yet to meet in person, although we are friends online. However, I hope we’ll get a chance to one day soon, because she’s from the UK which means I bet she’ll have a killer accent!! Not only is Katy a quilter and instructor, she’s also an amazing bag maker and is hosting a really cool event – the Sew Brit Bag Camp in rural England next year. Doesn’t that sound lovely?

Katy also has a big heart when she agreed to review my book on her blog. Head over there to see what she has to say and while you are there, check out her other projects. You just may be inspired!

But Wait, There’s More!

I’ve mentioned throughout the book how much I enjoy using Aurifil thread for both piecing and quilting, so I thought I’d throw in a bonus giveaway! One of you luck readers can win this collection of 10 spools of Angela Walter’s Drift colorway and try it out for yourself.

(Unless you’ve been quilting under a rock – I’m sure you know what an amazing machine quilter Angela is. Don’t be surprised if you hear more from both of us in the near future….)

To enter simply leave a comment on this post, letting me know which quilt has been your favorite so far. I’ll draw a random winner at the end of the day on September 26th – the last day of the hop! And yes, EVERYONE is eligible to win!

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.

MQWS Blog Hop Day 6 – Little Man’s Fancy

September 19, 2015September 19, 201510 Comments

I haven’t blogged every day in a couple of years now and it’s been pretty fun getting to write new things each day. Today wraps up week 1 of the Machine Quilting With Style blog hop. I’m taking a rest day tomorrow and will pick up with the hop again on Monday.

Little Man’s Fancy – The Background Story

Little Man’s Fancy 36″ x 36″ by Christa Watson. Photography by Brent Kane

Little Man’s Fancy was inspired by a traditional block called Gentleman’s Fancy, hence the name. (I love a good play on words!) I tweaked the design a little, made it super-sized, and chose blue prints from Zen Chic’s Figures collection and coordinating Moda bella solids in blue and grey. Don’t you think it would look just as cute in pink, for a charming little lady?

I really, really enjoyed quilting this one. It’s all done with the walking foot and the hardest part was knowing when to stop!

A Bit More

Optional layout – included in the book

Just for funsies, I played around with the orientation of the block units, just to see what other designs I could make. The layout above is included in the book and It creates a really cool star effect. If I made this for a little girl, I would choose shades of pink and use this layout, I think.

Another possible layout – which one is your favorite?

Here’s another possible layout – all using the exact same block pieces. I love to create quilts with plenty of options to make it unique. Although the star designs are really cool, I went with my original idea because I really wanted the quilt to read modern, geometric, and masculine.

What makes this quilt modern – oversized block, modernized traditional design, what I like to call a “modern monochrome” color palette, simple but graphic machine quilting.

Time for me to complete – just 10 hours from start to finish!

Check out Tina’s Version

Tina and I in met in Angela Walters’ fabulous class at QuiltCon in 2013. This was my part of my educational journey to discover that I prefer sit-down machine quilting to long arm work. 🙂

I met Tina Guthmann at the very first QuiltCon and we bonded over machine quilting! She blogs over at ModGeometry and is a talented designer as well. She created an adorable line of fabrics on Spoonflower and used those to make her version of the quilt. Click on over to Tina’s blog to see her cute quilt, and enter her giveaway!

Giveaway from Moda

I was thrilled when Carrie Nelson from Moda agreed to be a stop on the hop. She’s recently taken over the social media campaign for this amazing fabric company and I love the wit and humor she is able to show on the blog – not mention some fabulous quilts showcasing their extensive line of scrumptious fabrics!

Be sure to pop on over to Moda’s blog – The Cutting Table to see what they have to say about the book, and enter for your chance to win a fabulous fabric bundle (and maybe a few extra goodies!!)

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.

MQWS Blog Hop Day 5 – Ripples

September 18, 2015September 18, 20157 Comments

Are you enjoying the roundup of quilts from my new book? I’ve shared 5 so far, with 7 more to go! Be sure to order your signed copy of Machine Quilting With Style and I’ll pop it in the mail right away. I can’t wait to see how you make these designs your own. 🙂

Ripples – The Background Story

Ripples 66″ x 88″ by Christa Watson. Photography by Brent Kane.

Who doesn’t love a good Log Cabin design? When it comes to choosing fabrics for a quilt, my philosophy is “more is more.” I mean – why use just one or two fabrics when 20 will do? I had fun picking out tons of aqua and grey fabrics from my stash, and I think this quilt would look stunning in any color combination.

It was so much to choose fabrics and cut strips for this quilt!

Although the structure of the quilt is easily recognizable as a Log Cabin variation, I used a technique I call “Structured Improv” on several quilts in the book. The basic idea is to liberate the piecing by using irregular shapes and fabric widths while constructing the blocks. I sew my blocks slightly oversized, then trim them down, making sure they all fit together in the end.

If you look closely at the wonky log cabin blocks, you will notice that the strip widths vary, and there aren’t always an even number of strips on either side of the block. Also, I didn’t strictly use all lights on one side and darks on the other like you would for a traditional log cabin quilt. This makes the whole design pop, and making these blocks was SO. MUCH. FUN!

I love adding lines of quilting texture with a decorative stitch. It was very a meditative process.

I quilted Ripples completely using the IDF (integrated dual feed)on my BERNINA with a decorative stitch. This is liking having a walking foot built into the machine! Of the 12 quilts in the book, 5 use walking foot quilting exclusively, 4 have extensive free-motion quilting, and the other three combine both techniques in the same quilt. As people buy the book and start sharing their versions with me, it will be so fun to see how the machine quilting designs are used in different ways!

A Bit More

The pieced backing of Ripples – you could make this as scrappy improv front!

I was thrilled when the publisher agreed to included the pieced backing for Ripples as a bonus project in the book! I literally took all of my extra fabric chunks that I pulled for the quilt and used them up on the back. I love back art – don’t you?

Elements That Make This Quilt Modern: Low volume fabrics, on-trend color scheme, improvisational piecing, skewed block assembly, asymmetrical design, transparency, inspired by tradition.

Time to Complete: 47 hours from start to finish including the pieced backing. (It’s big!)

Quilting Inspiration from Melissa Corry

My dear friend Melissa from Happy Quilting is one of those prolific quilters that can bust out a quilt in no time. Can you believe that she made 52 quilts last year? And she loves the quilting part as much as I do – which gives her extra credit in my book. 🙂 She’s pretty great at keeping secrets, too. I didn’t get a chance to see the final reveal until today and it is so good I can hardly stand it. The color combo is fabulous and the arrangement she and her MIL chose is just divine! Be sure to pop on over to Melissa’s blog for some more quilty goodness!

Melissa is a fellow Martingale author who released her first book, Irish Chain Quilts, earlier this year. I had the pleasure of being on Melissa’s blog hop this past summer, and I’m so glad she returned the favor!

More from the Art of Home and Blue Nickel Studios

The very talented Jacquelynne Steves from The Art of Home crafts a beautiful e-magazine 4 times per year, once each season. She recently interviewed me for her next issue which will be published in October. And the best part? It’s completely free! Click here to sign up so you don’t miss a thing! Then hop on over to Jacquelynne’s blog for her stop on the tour. She wrote a very kind book review. 🙂

Jacquelynne is also hosting a sew-along day coming up pretty soon and I’m throwing in a prize for that. So be sure to check it out! Then for some bonus content be sure to check out her roundup of holiday sewing tutorials. 🙂

Scott Hansen from Blue Nickel Studios is not only a talented quilter, he’s a great writer as well. He writes the “I am Gen Q” profiles for the magazine of the same name and recently chose to interview me for the next issue. (You’ll hear more from Gen Q later in the hop.)

I thought it was amazing how he could turn my dry answers into an interesting and witty read! For Scott’s stop on the hop he decided to try out one of the free motion quilting designs from the book and I think he did a fantastic job.

Pop on over to Scott’s blog to check it out – and he has a fun little giveaway, too!

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.

MQWS Blog Hop Day 4 – Candy Pop

September 17, 2015September 17, 201510 Comments

As you check out each of the quilts from Machine Quilting With Style, don’t forget to vote for your favorite quilt. The “winner” at the end of the hop will be the quilt I will feature in an upcoming quilt along in January, so stay tuned!

Candy Pop – The Background Story

Candy Pop 45″ x 45″ by Christa Watson. Photography by Brent Kane.

Candy Pop explores my love affair with easy machine applique. Next to machine quilting, I would have to say it’s my next favorite technique. The reason I don’t do it more, though, is because I can’t draw very well to create the images I want to stitch. However, with the emphasis on bold geometric shapes in the modern movement, I may just have a few more ideas up my sleeve….

In the book, I explain how to applique the blocks and trim down the edges for a perfect fit!

I am just in love with the Riley Blake Pop dots I used to create the circles. They remind me of candy treats like button dots or lollipops. Instead of laying out the blocks in a standard grid format, I chose to offset them to add a little interest to the design. Don’t you love the blocky diagonals that form in the background? I do, too!

You can center the dots like I did, or you can make them wonky for a more spirited, whimsical look! In the book I show you how to prevent shadowing of background fabric through the circles.

I’ve told each of my children they get to choose a quilt from the book to keep, once they are done with publicity. My daughter chose this one and she can’t wait to get it!

A Bit More

I love creating pieced backs whenever I can, so I decided to make a few extra blocks and piece them into the backing. Now that I’m gaining confidence in my quilting skills, I love to put solids on the back so you can really see the machine quilting pop. There wasn’t room to include this picture in the book, but you can easily replicate this idea from your leftovers. I machine bound the quilt with leftover fabrics using a decorative stitch, and instructions on how to do that are included.

I love including fun details in my quilts, like pieced backings and bindings. Machine quilting motifs you can practice on this quilt are loops and spirals. It’s a continuous design which goes fast!

Modern Elements – Asymmetrical grid formation, bold colors, use of solids, irregular machine quilting, secondary composition, geometric fabric prints, repetitive use of large simple shapes.

Time for me to Complete – 22 hours from start to finish.

Quilting Inspiration from Linda

Linda Hungerford (from Flourishing Palms) and I met online and immediately bonded over #domesticmachinequilting. (Search that hashtag on instagram and you’ll see what I mean!) Linda is an author herself and an excellent quilting instructor. Once you see it, her quilting will really knock your socks off! She shared sneak peaks while she was making the quilt, and I think she went above and beyond the call of duty!

Be sure to pop on over to Linda’s blog to see her amazing rendition of Candy Pop, and enter to win her giveaway. I love how she made it her own with her choice of rainbow colors, and slightly different applique method. I’m also honored that she has chosen to teach this pattern as an upcoming class, and I can’t wait to see her students’ finishes.

Visit Electric Quilt and Quilt Shop Gal For More Prizes

Hopefully you all know what a huge fan I am of Electric Quilt. I am a current EQ artist, and I designed 11 out of 12 of the quilts from the book using EQ7. (My husband Jason designed one of them on his iPad, but more on that later…) The EQ folks have been great partners and I can’t wait to meet many of them in person when I teach at EQ Academy next spring.

You can win this!!

My friends at EQ are offering a huge prize for the hop! Head on over to the EQ blog and enter for you chance to win copy of EQ7 for windows of Mac. You’ll also be able to see some of my EQ sketches, along-side the finished quilt. Then get started designing your own fabulous quilts!

Darlene from Quilt Shop Gal is super supportive of the quilting industry as a business, and especially of machine quilters. She’s offered fun challenges and inspiration over on her blog and I feel like we are great friends, even though we’ve never met in person. Head on over to Quilt Shop Gal for a nice review of the book, along with your chance to win a free -copy!

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.

MQWS Blog Hop Day 3 – Broken V

September 16, 2015September 16, 20151 Comment

It’s day 3 of my Machine Quilting With Style blog hop. Are you having fun yet? I know I am! I knew it was a big favor to ask my friends to each remake an entire quilt from the book in their own way, but seeing their “big reveals” each day is such a thrill!

Broken V – The Background Story

Broken V 60″ x 70″ by Christa Watson. Photography by Brent Kane

I can’t get over my love affair with half-square triangle blocks, lovingly known as HST’s. There’s something really calm and meditative about sewing colorful squares together, cutting them into triangles, and then assembling them into another shape as part of a larger design.

I pieced the quilt top while on vacation – a bed makes a great design wall in a pinch!

I chose to go with all solids, using this quilt as a canvas on which to add dense machine quilting texture. I love listening to quilting podcasts and audio books while I sew, and this quilt gave me hours of pleasure to do just that while I stitched!

The is what the quilt looked like after stitching in the ditch and washing. I used a wool batting for loft and decided to add more quilting. What a huge difference that makes!

My “scrunch and smoosh” method of machine quilting in action!

I love simple quilt patterns that are easy to execute in any fabrics. The key to the success of this quilt is the high contrast between the pieced blocks and the background. Although I chose solids, a favorite collection of prints would look just as great in this design!

A Bit More

Although the techniques in my book are written for all styles of quilts and quilters, I enjoyed playing around with modern aesthetics as I designed each quilt. Here are a couple of extra tidbits:

What Makes this Quilt Modern – simple shapes that create a graphic impact, the use of “unmodulated” solid areas of color, asymmetrical design, geometric quilting designs.

Time for me to complete – 38 hours from start to finish, including all that dense pebbling!

Color and Design Option from Sharon

I met Sharon McConnell from Color Girl Quilts while attending Sewtopia retreat last fall. We became fast friends while we chatted and sewed the whole weekend. Sharon is prolific pattern designer and she can put together the most amazing print combinations in her quilts. In fact, she chose to remake Broken V using a majority of prints with just a sprinkling of solids. It’s such an effective design choice, that at first glance, you may not even realize it’s the same quilt!

Be sure to pop on over to Sharon’s blog to see her version. Her machine quilting is pretty amazing, too! And while you are there, be sure to enter her giveaway.

More Machine Quilting Goodness from Leah and Amy

The thing I love best about the online quilting community is getting to know so many great people! Two gals that admire immensely for their machine quilting skills are Leah Day from The Free Motion Quilting Project and Amy Johnson from Amy’s Free-Motion Quilting Adventures.

Be sure to visit Leah’s blog for a behind-the-scenes interview with me, plus tons of inspiring quilting content! She has created literally hundreds of free videos that will help you improve your free-motion quilting skills on your home sewing machine. While you are visiting, be sure to sign up for Leah’s Newsletter! You can also find products to support your hobby at LeahDay.com.

I recently did a review of Amy’s Craftsy class on domestic machine quilting with rulers. I love it when people I know really push the boundaries of what can be done with quilting on a home sewing machine. Amy will soon be opening up a store to sell her favorite rulers, and I can’t wait!

Be sure to pop on over to Amy’s blog to see what she has to say about my book. While you are there, be sure to enter Amy’s giveaway for a chance to win one of two prizes – her Craftsy class, and a set of quilting rulers. How fun is that??

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.

MQWS Blog Hop Day 2 – Pearl Gray

September 15, 2015September 15, 20158 Comments

Ready for some more inspiring quilts from Machine Quilting with Style? I have to say, I’ve been working on planning this blog hop from the moment I finished writing the book and am so excited to share more with you today. I don’t consider a quilt “finished” until it has been blogged about so these posts have been a long time coming!

Pearl Gray – The Background Story

Pearl Gray 66″ x 77″ by Christa Watson. Photography by Brent Kane.

First of all, I have to consistently remind myself to spell it Gray rather than Grey. I guess the former spelling is the American way and the latter is the European way. It must be my ancestral roots sneaking in there…

Pearl Gray was inspired by an earlier version of this design, my String of Pearls quilt pattern. As soon as I made the first quilt, I immediately knew I wanted to explore more ideas with this concept. Although I usually work in brights, I wanted to see if I could pull off more of a low-volume quilt and still create the contrast in the blocks. I also enjoy creating secondary designs in the background and I really like the checkerboard that emerges when using two different background colors.

My String of Pearls quilting motif is a modern free-motion alternative to straight line quilting!

Because the quilt has a lot going on, I thought an interesting allover quilting design would be the perfect complement to the piecing. I quilted a series of lines and circles which I named String of Pearls – giving homage to my earlier quilt design. As one idea always leads to another, the String of Pearls motif is the first in a series of modern linear designs that I am developing as a free-motion alternative to straight line quilting. So stay tuned for more on that subject in future classes and books! 🙂

My favorite memory of working on this quilt was finishing the binding while on vacation at the beach. There’s nothing better than a little sea-side quilting in my opinion!

I wish I could bind next to the beach for all of my quilts!

A Bit More

I was very detailed about each of the quilts in the book. In addition to listing the sizes and materials requirements, I also included design notes and which threads and battings I used for each quilt. Below, I’ve shared some bonus info for you guys that is not in the book:

Modern elements – Low volume fabrics, hard edges with strong contrast and clean lines, simplicity of form, repetitive use of basic geometric shapes, scrappy pieced binding.

Time for me to complete – 40 hours from start to finish.

Turning lemons into lemonade – I originally made this quilt for a magazine pattern, but at the last minute (and before it had been seen in public), it was pulled from publication. Yes, I was a little heart-broken at the time, but I was simultaneously working on my book proposal and needed just one more design with a finished project to submit. Wouldn’t you know – this was the final piece I needed, and now Pearl Gray graces the cover of my book. Don’t you just love it when fate works that way?

Color Option and Fabric Giveaway from Alyce

I’ve been online friends with Alyce Blyth from Blossom Heart Quilts for awhile now and was so excited when we recently got to meet in person at QuiltCon earlier this year. I just love how Alyce has interpreted her version of Pearl Gray. She combined three different quilting motifs from the book and it is so effective. Her binding is to die for, too! But rather than spoil the surprise here, you’ll need to head on over to her blog to see what she’s done.

Alyce is also hosting a giveaway on a separate blog post. She has a bundle of fabrics to share from the same line she used for her version of Pearl Gray. Click here for Alyce’s giveaway!

Bonus from Andover Fabrics

I can’t give enough hugs to the folks over at Andover fabrics. Daryl (aka fabrichick) and Guiseppe (aka giucy_giuce) have been super supportive of my work. Head on over the Andover blog and to check out what they have to say. If you follow Andover on Instagram, there’s a special bonus there, too!

Although Pearl Gray would look gorgeous in any fabric line, I’m really itching to make another one using Lizzy House’s Mini Pearl Bracelets. Aren’t they the cutest?

Mini Pearls by Lizzy House for Andover fabrics, a smaller version of Pearl Bracelets.

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.

MQWS Blog Hop Day 1 – Color Crystals

September 14, 2015January 16, 201610 Comments

Welcome to day one of the star-studded, international blog hop for my newly released book Machine Quilting With Style! You know what they say – quilting is good therapy, so I invite you to enjoy all of the beautiful eye-candy that will be shared over the next two weeks. Who knows – by following along, you may just be inspired to improve your (quilty) life and make some friends along the way! 🙂

Color Crystals – The Background Story

Colory Crystals 54″ x 62″ by Christa Watson. Photography by Brent Kane.

I love using precuts, I adore solid fabrics, and I’m head over heels for modern aesthetics, so I wanted to design an original quilt that incorporated all three. The first spark of this idea came from the backing of a quilt I made a few years ago. I played around with the stair step design and scaled it down so that it could incorporate precut strips to their best advantage. For my quilt I chose the Kona Solids New Bright roll up along with a Kona Solids Black roll up and I think they pair together quilt nicely – don’t you?

Here’s my work in progress – using my design wall to lay out the colors in a pleasing arrangement. Wouldn’t this be fun using a white background, too?

For the machine quilting I wanted to try out Aurifil variegated cottons and I really like the effect it gives. I chose to be a little more subtle with the background quilting, allowing the colored sections to really pop!

Using variegated thread allowed me to add texture without switching thread colors.

Bonus Design – Technicolor Backing

After designing the front of Color Crystals, I knew I would have lots of leftover precut strips. Instead of letting them languish in my scrap basket, I decided to use them up on the back to create a secondary design.

The pattern to make the Technicolor Backing is included in the book!

A Bit More

Even though this book is written for all quilters, I do tend to gravitate more towards modern design. I thought it would be fun to explain why I think this design fits the definition of a modern quilt!

What Makes This Quilt Modern – Color Crystals incorporates bold colors, with sharply defined boundaries between the minimalist design and the background negative space. The piecing uses simple shapes to create graphic visual impact with highly contrasting solid fabrics.

Time for me to Complete – 22 hours from start to finish, including the pieced backing.

Color Options and Quilting Ideas from Vicki and Ida

Two of my local BQF’s (best quilting friends) Vicki Ruebel and Ida Ewing each took on the challenge of making this quilt in their own unique way. You may just decide you like their versions better, and that’s totally okay!!

Vicki recreated a stunning version of Color Crystals using her favorite Tula Pink prints, and her quilting is just to die for. She told me she couldn’t wait to quilt all of that negative space! Vicki quilts on a longarm and it’s been so fun watching her share her sneak peeks. In fact, her quilting is so good that her quilt was recently accepted into the Pacific International Quilt Festival. I love having talented friends, no matter what type of machine they use!

Visit Vicki’s blog at Orchid Owl Quilts to see her amazing show-quilt!

Ida decided to make the backing into a stand-alone quilt using gorgeous ombre solids. She also machine quilts on her home machine just like I do, so pop on over to her blog at Ida Rather Be Quilting to see her work her magic. You’ll be glad you did!

Bonus Inspiration

Sarah Craig wrote a very kind book review over on her blog at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and I didn’t even bribe her to do it! In fact, she went above and beyond by remaking the front and back of Color Crystals and finishing it off with some gorgeous quilting. Be sure to pop on over to check out what she had to say, and see how she made it her own.

Bonus Prize!!

Today over on the Craftsy blog, I shared a little bit about the blog hop with Craftsy readers. Not only does it include general information about the hop, I included a couple extra goodies that you just may want to win! Click on over to check it out.

Yes, that is Pat in front of my quilt. 🙂 This was taken at Quilt Market in the Martingale booth.

Finally, I have to give a huge shout out to my good friend and adopted mentor, the one and only Pat Sloan! She’s interviewing me today on her podcast at American Patchwork and Quilting along with Gudrun Erla and Jessica Alexandrakis. It should be a fun show! Be sure to listen in live, at 1 PM Pacific Time or download the podcast later from Itunes or Stitchr.

Click here for the complete blog hop schedule.

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.

Machine Quilting With Style Blog Hop Schedule

September 12, 2015September 22, 201510 Comments

I am so excited to kick off the blog hop for Machine Quilting With Style on Monday! Each day over the next two weeks (excluding Sundays) I will share a different quilt from the book, including some behind the scenes info and a few extra tidbits.

Schedule of Special Guests

The schedule below shows which day I will showcase each quilt, plus links to friends’ blogs who each remade their favorite quilt in their own way. You are going to love seeing all the variations!

9/14 Start here at MY WEBSITE
9/14 Color Crystals – Vicki Reubel from Orchid Owl Quilts
9/14 Technicolor Backing – Ida Ewing from Ida Rather Be Quilting
9/15 Pearl Gray – Alyce Blyth from Blossom Heart Quilts
9/16 Broken V – Sharon McConnell from Color Girl Quilts
9/17 Candy Pop – Linda Hungerford from Flourishing Palms
9/18 Ripples – Melissa Corry from Happy Quilting
9/19 Little Man’s Fancy – Tina Guthmann from Mod Geometry
9/21 Square in a Square – Stacy Cooper from Farm Road Quilts
9/22 Static – Lee Heinrich from Freshly Pieced
9/23 Rain – Cheryl Brickey from Meadow Mist Designs
9/24 Lightning – Leanne Chahley from She Can Quilt
9/25 Facets – Kristy Daum from St. Louis Folk Victorian
9/26 Focal Point – Amy Garro from 13 Spools

Plus, there will be additional stops on the hop from the awesome people listed below. They will be sharing their insights including book reviews, interviews, sample blocks, and other interesting content you won’t want to miss.

9/15 Andover Fabrics
9/16 Amy’s Free Motion Quilting Adventures and Leah Day’s Free Motion Quilting Project
9/17 Do You EQ? from Electric Quilt and Darlene from Quilt Shop Gal
9/18 Jacquelynne Steves’ The Art of Home and Scott Hansen from Blue Nickel Studios
9/19 Moda Fabrics – The Cutting Table
9/21 Katy Cameron from The Littlest Thistle
9/22 Debbie Grifka of Esch House Quilts and Generation Q Magazine
9/23 Rebecca Bryan of Bryan House Quilts
9/24 Stitch This – The Martingale Blog and Riley Blake Fabrics
9/25 Michele Foster of The Quilting Gallery and Teri Lucas from TerifiCreations
9/26 Pellon Projects and Amy Ellis from Amy’s Creative Side

Prizes

Of course, there are going to be prizes! I mean, c’mon – what’s a blog hop without prizes, right? I’m not going to tell you who’s giving away what – you’ll just have to check out all of the stops for yourself. But trust me, there are some amazing prizes, so it’s well worth the hunt!

Quilt Along

I’m going to do another quilt along in January and YOU get to vote for your favorite quilt. Whichever quilt receives the most votes is the quilt along I’ll do. Won’t that be fun??

Click here to vote for your favorite quilt along choice!

Quilting Podcast

If that’s not enough fun already, be sure to tune into Pat Sloan’s Podcast – American Patchwork and Quilting Radio – on Monday afternoon, September 14th. I’ll be her guest for two segments, talking about the book and some tips for machine quilting success.

Click here to listen in!

Click here purchase your autographed copy of Machine Quilting With Style.

Quick Book Update

September 9, 2015September 9, 20156 Comments

First of all, a huge, huge, thank you to all of you who have purchased a copy of my book so far. The response has been truly humbling! By the end of the day yesterday, Machine Quilting With Style shot to #1 in Patchwork on Amazon and is now ranked the number 1 new release! How exciting is that?? It’s currently hovering between #2-#4 in these three categories: patchwork, quilting, and sewing. I couldn’t ask for a better first-day release!

Several of you have emailed your concern that the book is temporarily out of stock on Amazon. I asked my publisher about that and it just means they Amazon hasn’t received the next shipment of books, but they are on their way. Depending on how long it will take Amazon to receive its shipment and get them into their warehouses, customers are getting shipping update notifications that are going into October. On one hand that is super exciting for me, because that translates to good sales, but on another, that can be frustrating for you to have to wait!

But not to worry, if you want to get the book quicker than that, you can order directly from Martingale. All orders placed through the publisher’s website get a free ecopy to download instantly, so that’s pretty spiffy. Also, you can order a signed copy directly from me. I should be getting my stock of books any day now and will get those out to you as soon as I can! As a little unannounced bonus, I’ll be including one of my Christa Quilts pin buttons with every signed copy I sell.

My Buttons

Thanks again for your support – writing this book has been a dream come true for me and it thrills me to no end when I see you all making your versions of my designs. 🙂

It’s Book Launch Day for Machine Quilting With Style!!

September 8, 2015September 8, 201521 Comments

Today is a special day for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s my daughter’s birthday and she was able to have a great party yesterday with all her friends, since there was no school. Secondly, my book releases today! Yippee!!

I made sure to keep these very special events separate but let my daughter know how awesome it was that my first book came out on her birthday, so I would always remember the date! I have to admit that it’s been a source of pride when I’ve caught her on the couch reading it. 🙂

Jenna made her first quilt with me when she was 8 years old. Now she loves to draw and write!

My family is super important to me, which is why I dedicated the book to them:

The dedication is the first set words I composed for the book back in 2013.

I am in love with the photography, layout and graphic design in this book. Honestly, the main reason I decided to go with a publisher when writing a book is because of how awesome they are able to make everything look! I about cried, when I opened up the inside cover pages. And it just gets better from there…

Inside cover pages from Machine Quilting With Style, photography by Brent Kane

Here are a few ways you can purchase your copy:

Click here to purchase a signed copy of Machine Quilting With Style directly from me.
Click here to purchase Machine Quilting With Style from Amazon.
Click here to purchase Machine Quilting With Style from Martingale, and get a free e-copy!
Visit your favorite Local Quilt Shop or bookstore.

Blog Hop Coming Soon!

Save the date – I will be hosting a blog hop to showcase all of the quilts from September 14-26. Be sure to check my blog later in the week for details and the complete blog hop schedule.

As a first time author I was a little nervous with how the book writing process would go and I kept waiting for it to get hard or for something to go terribly wrong. However, everything went so smoothly and I’m so proud of the team at Martingale for the work they’ve done to produce this book. I’m happy to say that I enjoyed every step of the process and would gladly do it again!

Bonus Giveaway!

My publisher, Martingale, has been so amazing to work with throughout this whole process. Today, they are hosting a giveaway for an ecopy of the book. Pop on over to their blog to enter!