In my latest Craftsy blog post, I’ve made a list of 6 things to look for when considering purchasing a domestic sewing machine for machine quilting. My favorite feature is the extra wide throat space my Bernina has, which makes it much easier to “squish and smoosh” my quilts as I go.
Closeup of my String of Pearls Quilt in progress
It’s real – it’s really real! My book is now available for pre-order on Amazon! So before I faint with excitement, please allow me to tell you a little something about it… 🙂
My book is called Machine Quilting With Style: From Walking-Foot Wonders to Free-Motion Favorites. That’s quite a mouthful, but I couldn’t be more thrilled! As many others have said, it really is like birthing another child, complete with restlessness, anxiety and weight gain, LOL! 🙂 The “due” date is mid-September, about a month after my own birthday, so I really couldn’t ask for a better present.
It’s been a dream of mine to write a book since I began quilting many years ago, and the perfect opportunity came at just the right time. I had returned home from the first QuiltCon on fire with the desire to share my passion for quilting with a many people as possible. Coupled with my new-found love of the modern aesthetic, all the stars aligned in the best possible way to create this book.
Promotional information by the incredibly talented marketing team at Martingale.
Machine Quilting With Style includes patterns for 12 quilts with step-by-step instructions on how to machine quilt them. It also includes a large section on setting yourself up for successful machine quilting, with plenty of motifs to practice. There are a total of 112 pages, and I’m so grateful to Martingale (aka That Patchwork Place) for believing in my vision and allowing me to write the book I was meant to write.
Now that the hurdle of writing and editing is over, I get to engage in the fun part: promoting the book, talking to shop owners about it, creating classes around it, and getting to share it with as many people as possible. I’m pretty sure I enjoy the “social” aspect of quilting just as much as the actual making. 🙂
This is what book editing looks like!
Machine Quilting With Style is available for pre-order on Amazon at a discount off the cover price, which is always nice. You can also purchase it from your local quilt shop or favorite bookstore later this summer, or ask them to preorder you a copy when they attend quilt market this spring.
If you’d like to pre-order a signed copy directly from me, it’s just a few dollars more, and I’ll ship mid-September as soon as they come in.
Ok – I’d best get started on the next one, now! (Kidding-not-kidding!)
No pictures – words only today! 🙂
A friend of mine recently pointed me to an interesting entry on Seth Godin’s blog: the difference between commitment and technique.
When I read it, it hit me like a ton of bricks because it perfectly embodies one of my philosophies but I didn’t quite know how to phrase it. In a nutshell, he states that we need to focus more on teaching commitment rather than getting hung up on technique. I think technique is important of course, because it’s important to learn the fundamentals, especially when it comes to quilting.
But so many people get frustrated and give up when trying to machine quilt their quilts (especially free-motion) because they expect their efforts to be perfect right away. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. It takes commitment and a willingness to put in hours and hours of practice over a period of time. Honestly, my first quilting efforts were pretty awful, but I stuck with it, because it was a skill I wanted to learn and master. If we give up when things get hard, we will never accomplish what is in us to do.
So here’s my plug for commitment – if you really want to learn to do something, keep going and push pass the “it’s not working for me” stage. When you do, you’ll be greatly rewarded with a huge sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with a job well done!
I’ve come a long way since I began my quilting journey so many years ago. My style has changed over the years, but my passion has not. In fact, it’s gotten stronger, the more quilts that I make! I was recently reflecting about why I do what I do and what drives me to do it! A large part of my personal quilting style is that I choose to quilt my own quilts. The reasons for it have changed over the years, and I feel like I’ve come a long way since I began.
WIP sneak peek #1 – gotta love all that texture! I used Aurifil 50 wt cotton – my favorite!
I first started off quilting my own quilts because I didn’t know any better. I just thought that’s what you did. Of course, my first couple of finished quilts were actually tied but I loved them just the same.
When I began quilting in earnest around 1994-95, most award winning quilts were still hand quilted and longarms were just coming onto the scene in a big way. I knew people who owned one and came so close to purchasing one. A friend was selling hers cheap and I thought about buying it. When I mentioned it to my mom, she agreed to loan me the money, but by the time I got back to my friend, she had already sold it to someone else.
WIP sneak peak #2 – I free-motion quilted the spiral with the help of a stencil.
So I just continued to quilt my quilts because that was my only option. I will admit that I did go through a period of quilt snobbery where I thought it was cheating if you didn’t quilt your own quilt. But then I was enlightened when I realized not everyone enjoyed that process. Just as I don’t like to sew clothing or accessories and will gladly pay someone for those services, I’ve realized that many quilters are perfectly content to do the piecing while others are perfectly happy to just quilt. What a great match!
At one time I took orders for custom quilts and even gave professional quilting a try on my domestic machine, but that was really way too stressful. I am still a recovering perfectionist so I’m much happier to make mistakes on my own quilts rather than the quilts of others. Over the years I’ve tried longarm quilting, but it’s just not for me, and I’m totally cool with that.
WIP sneak peek #3. I enjoy quilting straight lines, and my machingers gloves are a must!
After making quite a few quilts in a short period of time last year, I finally realized that the reason I quilt my own quilts is for the sheer pleasure of it. Instead of feeling stressed and overwhelmed that I had to a tight deadline to meet, I enjoyed every minute of it! In fact, I had a little bit of a letdown when I had finished my quilting obligations!
Wip sneak peek #4 – the pieced back is as much fun as the front! The final reveal will be shown in a future issue of Make Modern magazine. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!
For now, I will continue to enjoy the journey I’m on and share my methods with others if they want to learn. And if they decide it’s not their thing, at least they tried, right? (I can’t tell you how many things I have tried that are not for me… but that’s another post for another day!)
Welcome to another installment of my Abacus Quilt Along! Today is when the magic happens. It’s time to machine quilt, which I think is the most fun part of the quilt making process. It took me only 1 3/4 hours to machine quilt – so fast and fun! 🙂
I’ve written several blog posts about getting started with machine quilting, including many of my favorite tips and tricks. Click here to read them all!
Machine quilting wavy lines with your walking foot is super simple and fun!
Step 1 – Practice Quilting on a Scrap (1/4 hour)
I always, always, try out my quilting idea before I quilt the whole quilt. More often than not, I’m disappointed if I skip this step. What I see in my head may not translate well in fabric, so it always helps to make a small practice piece. It can be as simple as two scraps of fabric with a small piece of batting. Or sometimes I will make up a complete block using the same fabrics and thread as in the quilt.
One of the biggest unknowns when machine quilting is how the quilting thread will look on a wide range of fabrics. I’d rather try it out on a smaller piece to make sure I’m happy. I think the grey Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread and uneven lines of quilting look great on both the light and dark fabrics. So now I’m ready to move onto the real quilt.
Step 2 – Quilt the Anchor Lines, AKA Stitch Near the Ditch! (1/2 hour)
Whenever I begin quilting a piece, no matter how large or small, I always start by quilting a series of anchor lines across the surface of the quilt. This helps stabilize the quilt for more quilting later. For Abacus, I stitched my wavy anchor lines right next to each of the vertical seams, moving the quilt slightly from side to side, letting the lines wobble a bit.
If the quilt is well basted, it doesn’t matter where you start. I usually start quilting in the middle, and move to the right across the quilt, stitching each line from top to bottom. Then I rotate the quilt ninety degrees and finish the other half in the same way.
Right now it looks like a bit of a mess, but I know from my practice piece that once all the lines are filled in, it’s going to have some incredible texture.
Step 3 – Quilting the Wavy Lines (1 hour)
I quilted wavy lines using my built in even feed. That’s the same thing as using a walking foot. I increased the stitch length slightly and moved the quilt from side to side as the machine stitched, creating the waves.The feed dogs are up as normal and I’m wearing Machingers gloves to give me a better grip on the quilt.
Once the anchor lines are quilted, I filled in the spaces between the rows with more wavy lines. I quilted a few lines on the left, then a few lines on the right, all the while aiming for a very organic (messy) looking texture. I let the number of quilted lines vary per row, and used the width of my foot as a rough guideline for spacing.
For those of you who can adjust your presser foot pressure, I set mine all the way down to zero. This really helps eliminate tucks and puckers.
In the picture above, I have quilted all the anchor lines and completely filled in the wavy lines on half of the quilt. I rotated the quilt, now I’m ready to finish quilting the other side!
Voila! Quilting finished! Next week I will show you how to square up the quilt and bind it.
If you are enjoying this quilt along, please share your progress on my flicker group or on Instagram #abacusqal.
Remember, I encourage you to work at your own pace. However, if you finish your quilt (or even just the top) by November 10th, I’ll be happy to feature it on my blog in my parade of quilts! 🙂
Thank you all so much for your thoughtful comments on last week’s Soap Box. I love that we can have conversations about hot-button quilting issues in such a respectful manner, even if we differ in our opinions.
Thanks to the online quilting community, I know I have become more open-minded, even though I am still passionate about my ideas. I actually wrote the essay below several months ago, but didn’t have a chance to share it. Now is the time, and I’d love to know your thoughts about it, as I continue to explore my own feelings on the subject.
From the archives – a baby quilt I made for a friend several years ago.
You Can Be the Quilter
I am constantly inspired by attending and entering quilts into shows, both locally and nationally. I learn so much from the judges’ comments and after I show them, I love to use them!
When I first began sharing my quilts locally, I lamented that there weren’t more quilters entering their own completed quilts for judging. It seemed like a majority of the quilt entries were quilted by the one or two professional quilters in the area.
While it was wonderful to see Teri Topper’s beautiful blocks, and Patty Piecer’s perfect points, Lucy Longarmer’s gorgeous quilting always stole the show, yet she seldom got the credit for her work. Nowadays, I’m happy to see more quilt shows sponsoring separate categories for individual entrants, and it warms my heart to see professional machine quilters earning ribbons for their beautiful work.
Over the years I’ve tried to do my part to encourage others to learn and enjoy the machine quilting process, whether their machine of choice is a long arm, short arm, or somewhere in between. This is so that when others look at their beautiful quilts and ask who the “quilter” is, they can say, “I am!”
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 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.
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!
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!
This past weekend I had the great pleasure of meeting quilting diva Cindy Needham and taking a fabulous machine quilting class from her, on how to quilt heirloom feathers and backgrounds. All photographs were taken by me and shared with Cindy’s permission.
Cindy Needham and Christa Watson at DQN Guild Meeting
Cindy’s specialty is turning vintage heirloom linens into beautifully quilted masterpieces! She is my hero because she find joys in extensively quilting her quilts and encourages others to conquer their fear of free-motion quilting. I love this quote from Cindy, shared on the back of one of her beauties:
It reads, “Take the time to quilt something beautiful. Your work will speak to generations to come about your passion for quilting, and give your quilt a voice to speak to those who choose to listen…” Isn’t that lovely?
Click on each of the pictures shared below to enlarge and appreciate the details!
Heirloom quilting by Cindy Needham.
Although Cindy’s quilting style is beautifully vintage, with heirloom quality stitches machine quilted on a breathtakingly small scale, I was able to learn so much from her and contemplate how I might apply her techniques to my modern quilts.
Cindy’s quilt sample. Imagine what a beautiful, modern wholecloth this would make!
In fact, during class I kept laughing to myself whenever she would show samples of her “larger scale” designs. I mentioned that her large scale is my small scale. 🙂 I think that a good way to describe the differences in motif size could be called be “Heirloom Scale” and “Modern Scale” – both equally beautiful and appropriate for their quilting styles.
Cindy’s Feathers
Cindy reminded us that it was okay to be “consistently inconsistent” and that perfection in quilting is over-rated. Words to live by. The sample below is one of my favorites. I love her nod to asymmetry in this piece! I think it’s a touch modern, don’t you?
Quilting Sample by Cindy Needham
If you ever get a chance to take a class from Cindy, or listen to one of her lectures, I highly recommend it! She also has a couple of machine quilting classes on Craftsy, one of which I reviewed previously on my blog. Now I’m off to doodle… and dream sweet machine quilting dreams….
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!
Christa Quilts 