Craftsy Class Review – Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine

December 31, 2013December 31, 201319 Comments

Over 24,000 students have taken the online Craftsy class, Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine so I figured I may as well join them and tell you all about it. 🙂

Award winning quiltmaker Ann Petersen quilts her designs completely on her home machine (yay!) which is a Bernina (double yay!) and her class includes eight lessons which cover five different methods for quilting a big quilt. Total running time is approximately 4 1/2 hours and I enjoyed watching the class one or two sections at a time over the last week or so.

Reflections of a Rising Sun by Ann Petersen 2008 -40″ x 40″
Shared with Permission

I quilt a lot of big quilts on my home machine and try to share the love of machine quilting with as many people as I can. I think the number one issue domestic machine quilters deal with is how to handle the bulk of the quilt under the arm of the quilt. Ann covers this and more in her fabulous class.

I think my favorite section was when Ann demonstrated how she sandwiches her quilts using basting spray and an iron to heat set the adhesive. I’ve never tried this method of basting before, but after watching this class, I’m definitely willing to give it a try!

Curves Again!-35″ x 35″ by Ann Petersen
Shared with Permission

I thought it was very cool that during class, Ann actually demonstrates how to quilt using a real queen-sized quilt. You can see how she moves the large quilt under her little machine, and she shares a few hints on the order of her quilting. (She starts with stitching in the ditch on her borders first to keep them straight – genius!)

I learned a few new tips including why sharp (topstitch) needles are really preferred for machine quilting (rather than ball-point or universal needles). Ann confirmed my experience with polyester batting – it’s really too slippery to use when quilting on a home machine! I also appreciate that she validated another point that I love to teach – where possible, use a blending thread and match your top and bobbin colors to eliminate little “pokies” of thread showing through on either side of the quilt.

In addition to showing how she quilts a full quilt under the machine, Ann also covers several quilt as you go methods which I haven’t tried yet but have always wanted to. I was very intrigued by Ann’s “split-batting” and “split-quilt” methods to deal with the bulk.

Modern Baby Quilt, 39″ x 34″ by Ann Petersen
Shared with Permission

Other valuable tutorials she covers include properly setting up your machine space for quilting, choosing the appropriate threads, and thinking about the quilting designs you’ll use before you begin.

Ann includes downloadable extra course materials as part of this class such as her step-by-step tips for spray basting, favorite tools for marking and steps for blocking a quilt.

Sunshine & Shadow – 2012 – 20″ x 20″ by Ann Petersen
Shared with Permisssion

The questions that are asked during the class (listed on the sidebar while watching) are also very informative. There was a discussion on the best ways to handle quilting with clear polyester thread and I picked up quite a few tips from reading them.

The pictures above are just a few of Ann’s beautiful quilts, which she allowed me to share with you. To see more of her fabulous work and gain confidence with your machine quilting skills, I encourage you to register for Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine today. You’ll be glad you did. 🙂

Sewing with Certainty – Yes, You Can Quilt It Yourself!

December 20, 2013December 16, 201340 Comments

I love to encourage others to try their hand at machine quilting. I’ve blogged about getting started with free-motion quilting here and some of my favorite FMQ tips here.

The number one tool I like my machine quilting students to acquire costs nothing, and everyone has one of these if they know where to look:

It’s a “can-do” attitude. 🙂

Before you feel like you need to jump in and quilt elegant feathers or spend a ton of time stitching intricately quilted designs, try these tricks instead for effective, quick results:

(1) Don’t underestimate the capabilities of your walking foot.

You can add amazing texture to your quilts with simple straight (or not-so straight) lines. I quilted Baby Bricks by marking a series of straight lines across the diagonal of the quilt and quilting them with a blending cotton thread.

Baby Bricks Quilt Along by Christa Watson

This was an effective way to quilt this quilt and it’s enough to hold the quilt together so that it’s washable and useable. However, I always like to add more quilting so I went back later and quilted many more rows in between the original lines. I didn’t mark any of the extra quilting. I simply used the edge of my walking foot as a guide.

(2) Try stitching “near” the ditch.

Stitching in the ditch is boring and time consuming, so I came up with a jazzier way to quickly quilt the seam lines while adding a little texture. Use a built-in decorative stitch with your walking foot and quilt across the seam lines so you can see it. Most machines will allow you to change the stitch length or width for a variety of options.

This is such an easy way to quilt, even a child can do it! My daughter quilted her first quilt when she was just 8 years old. 🙂

(3) Try quilting gentle wavy lines with your free-motion foot and the feed dogs dropped.

For my Li’l Rascals quilt, I quilted an unmarked grid with a very thin blending thread. I started by quilting roughly parallel wavy lines all going the same way:

I then turned the quilt and quilted perpendicular to my first set of lines to create an “improv” sort of grid. I love quilting textures that don’t have to be evenly spaced!

(4) Practice quilting on real quilts.

The best way to learn is by actually quilting on a real quilt. Don’t stress too much about perfect tension or quilting designs. Try out your idea, dive in and do it, and then give the quilt away (to charity, or a family member or loved one). The recipient will love it and they will not notice your mistakes, I promise! It’s much easier to push past your mistakes when the quilt will not be around as a constant reminder of your learning.

(5) Remember: the best machine for quilting is the one you have right now.

My friend Lacey is stipple-quilting her very first quilt! I gave her two rules when I agreed to teach her how to quilt. #1 – She wasn’t allowed to use cheap fabrics. #2 She had to quilt her own quilt. 🙂

Lacey is working on her very first quilt. Whoo hoo!

Lacey doesn’t have all the fancy-schmancy equipment or a drop-in table with tons of room. She purchased a very basic, used Bernina from a local dealer and she doesn’t even own a walking foot. In fact, when quoted the price for a new walking foot, Lacey’s reply was, “for that amount of money, it should be called a running foot!” 🙂

Closeup of large stippling, also called “meandering.”

Lacey practiced on a couple of sample scraps to learn the rhythm of her machine, then she jumped right in and gave it a try on her actual quilt. She’s quilting on a larger scale, also known as meandering. She picked a bright pink thread that goes will all the colorful fabrics in the quilt. Doesn’t it look great so far?

(6) Give yourself permission to make mistakes.

The beauty of machine quilting is in the overall texture that quilting stitches add to the quilt. When you step back from your work a few feet, things look much better than when your nose is two inches away from your stitches. And when in doubt, add more quilting! The best way to hide imperfect stitches is with more imperfect stitches. 🙂

Think about it this way – if you are just beginning your journey into quilt-making, then your quilting skills will be at about the same level as your piecing skills. If you challenge yourself to quilt all of your quilts from the beginning, you can improve both techniques simultaneously, one quilt at a time!

Machine Quilting Inspiration

November 13, 2013November 12, 201313 Comments

I love scheduling two weeks in between quilt along tutorials. That gives everyone time to work at their own pace. It also gives me a chance to highlight a few of the WIP’s that everyone is sharing on flickr and on their blogs.

Susan N – Desertsky Quilting

Today I especially wanted to give a shout out to a few gals who have already begun machine quilting their quilts. I’ll start off with Susan from Desertsky Quilting. She whipped up 4 blocks into this cute quickie table runner. She stitched a simple outline around her trees which shows up wonderfully on the back in the photo below:

Susan’s Quilting Detail

I love Susan’s can-do attitude with her quilt. She said, “The walking foot really helped me, and I don’t know if I’ll go beyond straight lines and wavy lines with that, but it was fun, and I loved how easy it was!” It tickles me when quilters like Susan realize that you really can add extra dimension to your quilts, even with simple quilting!

She made my day with her sweet comments when she said, “Your encouragement gave me the confidence I needed and I loved every minute of it. The quilting is my favorite part.” Me, too, Susan!!

Katie’s Straight Line Quilting

Katie A. did a fantastic job straight-line quilting this adorable baby quilt made from leftover blocks. Don’t you just love the texture her quilting adds? Fantastic!

Mara C’s Swirls

I adore the quilting that Mara (aka Simon Says Sew) is adding to the background of her trees. It looks like a blustery day in the forest, blowing up piles of snow drifts! I think Mara’s made at least 4 different Modern Tress so far. Can we say teacher’s pet? 🙂

Anne J. Loops and Swirls Quilting

Look at those fun loops and swirls that Anne J. has added to her background! Isn’t it great? She’s going for swirling snow and scattered snowflakes. I love it!

There are many more beautiful quilts that everyone is sharing. The fabric choices and color combinations are simply amazing. You can see more fabulous pics here on my flickr group.

My hope with this quilt along is that you will not be afraid to jump in and give machine quilting a try. (And don’t worry – if machine quilting’s not your thing you can still play with us and sew along!)

Background Quilting for Christa’s Modern Trees

Here’s a sneak peek of my FMQ progress. I’ll give some more in-depth tutorials on background fillers when I finish quilting Modern Trees next week!

Free Ebooks From Fave Quilts Including my FMQ Primer

September 9, 2013September 9, 201311 Comments

Fave Quilts is a fun website that features literally hundreds of free quilting patterns from dozens of different bloggers and designers. From time to time they have featured many of my blog tutorials both on their website and in their free eBooks.

The newest eBook they’ve published is called 17 Quilting Tutorials: Quilting for Beginners and Top Tips for How to Quilt. It includes my Intro to Free-Motion Quilting Tutorial along with tips on basting, applique, binding and more.

I was honored to be selected for inclusion in this eBook along with several other bloggers whom I’m sure you’ll recognize.

I was previously published in American Quilting Traditions: 11 Free Quilt Designs, Quilt Blocks and More Americana. My project in this compilation was my American Rails quilt tutorial, made for our wounded warriors.

You can get free downloads of both these eBooks along with links to hundreds, perhaps thousands of other fantastic quilting tutorials from FaveQuilts.com. Just beware of inspiration overload! 🙂

Craftsy Class Review: Dot to Dot Quilting by Angela Walters

August 20, 2013August 19, 201318 Comments

Dot to Dot Quilting is the 3rd in a series of online machine quilting classes by Angela Walters. Along with her other two classes, Machine Quilting Negative Space, and Free Motion Quilting with Feathers, Angela helps you to conquer your fear of machine quilting your own quilts.

Her warm, humorous manner along with her motto, “close enough is good enough” really put me at ease in this class. Even though she is a professional long arm quilter, Angela Walters teaches this class entirely on a domestic machine. Can we say “versatile”?

Dot to Dot Quilting is a way to quilt intricate designs on your quilt top with little to no marking, using points on the quilt as a guide.

Angela covers 3 of her favorite quilting motifs in this class (starbursts, lattice and diamonds), plus some cool FMQ variations for borders, sashing and blocks that create entirely different looks. In this class Angela shares how she thinks it’s easier to learn one design and tweak it 5 different ways, rather than learning 5 different designs. Clever!

After watching the first couple of lessons, I quickly quilted up these little diamond and starburst sample motifs, just to get the hang of it.

Dot to Dot Practice

Being able to watch Angela quilt “live” on video, then being able to pause and try it out immediately is an excellent way to learn. 🙂 I really like how I can go back and rewatch the segments again, to review what I just learned and make sure I really get it.

Here are a couple more quilting doodles I tried, to get a feel for the process. I just used some scraps I had lying around, quilting with whatever thread was in the machine.

Filling in the Diamonds

Because I enjoy learning and sharing free-motion quilting techniques, I appreciate it when Angela demonstrates things that I also teach, such as using a blending thread whenever possible. This allows you to see the quilting texture, rather than the stitches themselves.

Dot to Dot Quilting is broken down into 8 different segments of about 8 to 10 minutes each, plus an introduction at the beginning. This is a wonderful way to watch because for me personally, I only have about 10 minutes of uninterrupted free-time at any given point in the day!

More of Christa’s Quilt Doodles – This is Fun!

Angela first shows how to quilt the designs in roughly square shapes, then uses a variation on a theme to show how to fit the designs into other shapes, too. Her designs are very scale-able, which means you can quilt them in any block size, large or small. She shows how to quilt them in a regular, classic way, and then she changes it up by starting off-center, or in a corner. The possibilities are endless!

My favorite motif I quilted is this diamond star. I stitched it completely with my free-motion foot and no marking. 🙂

Christa’s Diamond Star, FMQ

Angela states that quilting is like handwriting – she can show you how to form the shapes, but it’s up to you on how you develop your own signature style.

At the end of the class, she shares tons of different examples of dot-to-dot quilting from quilts that she has finished. This was one of my favorite parts of the class – I love looking at all that quilting eye candy!

Angela Walters’ Dot to Dot Quilting

Angela includes a free sample pattern in the course materials along with stitching diagrams and quilting design variations. I recommend tracing them with your fingers or sketching them on a piece of paper before quilting to get your “muscle memory” flowing.

Another highlight of the class is reading the comments left by other class members as they watch. Both Angela and the other classmates are quick to answer the questions I have while watching. I highly recommend Dot to Dot Quilting!

New Angela Walters Class on Craftsy – Dot to Dot Quilting

August 14, 2013August 13, 20134 Comments

I am so excited that Angela Walters just launched a new online Craftsy class. I can’t get enough of her quilting! Her class is called Dot to Dot Quilting and I’ve already signed up for it and have watched the intro. Once I finish it, I’ll give a more indepth review like I did with her Quilting Negative Space class.

For now, here are a few highlights:

Angela demos machine quilting on a domestic machine, even though she professionally quilts on a long arm. No matter what type of machine you have, this class will work for you – whoo hoo! 🙂
She looks really comfortable in front of the camera with this class. I think she’s really found her groove teaching these classes online. (3 under her belt so far…)
Dot to Dot Quilting is a way to quilt interesting designs on your quilt with little or no marking using points on the quilt as a guide. What an awesome concept!
In class she will cover starburst, diamond, and lattice designs, plus lots of free motion variations.
She includes a free pattern in the class materials so that you can quilt along with her.
Angela assumes you have some basic experience with free-motion quilting and know how your machine works. This class can enhance your quilting skills and help take them to the next level.
Her philosophy is that quilting should be FUN and her quilting motto is, “close enough is good enough.” I couldn’t agree more…

If this has piqued your interest, you can sign up for Dot to Dot Quilting on Craftsy. Now I’m off to watch the rest of the class videos. I can already tell it’s going to be fun!

Favorite Tools – Painters Tape

August 6, 2013August 3, 201316 Comments

I have found one of my favorite nifty notions to use is a roll of blue painters’ tape! It’s low tack, so it will temporarily stick where I need it, but doesn’t leave any permanent residue.

It’s perfect to help tape down the edges of a quilt back when basting…

Use painters tape for basting.

And it recently came in handy when I was wanting to quilt rows of straight lines without marking. I cut a bunch of pieces off, laid them on the quilt and quilted right along the edge. Then, I was able to use the width of my quilting foot to quilt the remaining lines.

Tape for Quilting Straight Lines

I love it when I can use up cheap supplies that are just lying around the house!

A Few Words About Judged Quilts Part 1 – The Beginning of a Journey

June 10, 2013June 17, 201316 Comments

I’ve had a few people ask me to go into detail about some of the comments I’ve received for quilts I’ve entered into quilt shows. I thought that would make a pretty good blog topic! It will take more than one post to explore this idea, so be sure to follow my blog for updates.

First, here’s a little background – I’ve been quilting off and on over the last 18 years, but up until this year have previously entered my quilts only in local shows. I have received my share of ribbons in this time and have earned a variety of critiques, most of which I never thought about keeping for “quilt posterity”.

Christa’s Quilt Ribbons – and one for Jenna!

I’m getting smarter now about keeping all the documentation relating to my work. I’ve also realized that if I want to enter my quilts in shows I’ve got to be able to take the heat, even if I don’t agree with a judge’s comments (but for the most part, good or bad, I do see their point!)

So here goes, I’ll start with some of my earliest competitive quilts and work my way forward. I don’t have the judge’s comments but I’ll share what I remember.

This mini quilt was the very first thing I ever entered, way back in 1997 – can you believe it? It was for a guild challenge and all that I remember was that we were supposed to use a a basket, a heart, and a flower.

It’s one of the very few hand quilted pieces I’ve done and my first attempt at mitering corners. Now I only use straight borders and I machine quilt all of my quilts. ‘Nuff said! But I did earn a second place from a vote of the members so that was my first taste of “competition”. I just ate it up!

Over the years I started getting better at my machine quilting and was pleased when my pieced heart quilt won a second place at my traditional guild’s annual show in 2002. I enjoyed adding lots of detailed quilting which has kind of set the stage for my style of quilting – more is more!

The big mistake that I made on this quilt was using too many busy prints, so that all my fabulous quilting was hard to notice! You just can’t see the gorgeous cabled border I quilted in metallic threads (really!) Hmm, maybe that’s why I’m so fond of solids now?

The 2002 quilt show was a banner year for me – nearly every thing I entered won a ribbon. I finally landed a first place with my original Hugs and Kisses. (I did a remake of this quilt recently for one of my quilt alongs). I remember only one written comment from the judge – “I love this quilt!” That made my day until I realized this quilt was the only one in it’s category.

This was the first year our guild started separating out professionally machine quilted quilts into their own category. Since I was definitely NOT a professional and I quilted this one myself, there was no competition in the home-machine quilted category, LOL!! But we’ve come a long way and more members are machine quilting their own quilts, for which I’m very proud! (And the organizers told me a judge won’t give it a blue ribbon unless the quilt deserves it – regardless of the number of entries).

Next, I got into my applique phase and won a couple of 1st place ribbons for these appliqued beauties. They were fun to make but since I followed a pattern, they weren’t exactly originals.

You can see I was definitely a traditionalist here but these quilts are where I realized my techniques – small machine button hole stitches with matching thread and lots of quilting. Now to translate these techniques into more modern quilt designs!

After this I kind of took a break for about 8 years where I didn’t enter hardly anything. Sure, I taught a lot of quilting classes, made tons of samples and got into stipple-overload. I also started my fabric business, but the competition side of me really waned. I also sold quilts at a local craft mall for several years. This threw me into mass-production mode which really stifled my artistic spirit!

Tune in next Monday for part 2 of this (breathtaking) saga!

Christa’s Soapbox – Faster Doesn’t Always Mean Better

March 4, 2013March 19, 201328 Comments

Since attending QuiltCon last month, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to quality versus quantity. As a shop owner, I feel a certain drive to sell as much fabric as possible, as quickly as possible, to support my family.

Busy Hands Quilting

This means attendingallthestradehows and makingallthequiltkits and meetingnewdesigners and findingasmanyfunnewpatterns as I can.

This can lead to quite a hectic life at a frenetic pace, with not as much time for personal fulfillment.

My hands are so busy with so many things, that, as a quilter, there’s a part of me that needs to slow…..things….. down!

I have been contemplating what I feel is turning into the fast-food-ization of quilting. We all love to sew and complete a project, but how much of the creative process is being lost in the rush to get things finished?

Yes, I know there’s a time and a place for the last minute baby shower quilt or Christmas present.

But the rest of the year, why don’t we focus on making quality quilts, whether or not they can be completed in a day?

The workmanship at QuiltCon, Road to California, and other top-notch shows inspires me to make good quality work and to hopefully share more of that with you.

Hugs ‘N Kisses

If you have followed along with any of my Quilt Alongs from the beginning, you will notice that I have started adding more tutorials over a longer period of time.

This is a project I have committed to doing on a long-term basis so that I can inspire you to make a quilt from start to finish. My joy is full when I see more of you completing your own quilts!

Although I will still be offering quilt kits for many of them as a convenience, starting this week you will begin to notice more customization and tips on how to truly make it your own.

Going forward, Jason and I have big plans to not only expand our store, but to get back to the roots of what attracted me to quilting in the first place: making a unique hand-crafted work of art!

Christa Quilts!

The Finished Quilt That Wasn’t

January 14, 2013March 19, 201317 Comments

I really thought this quilt was finished. But then I realized it wasn’t. So now it qualifies as my latest UFO. I enjoyed making this quilt and I like the quilting on it, but I don’t love it – it’s just not enough. After the last project I quilted the heck out of, I am starting to find my personal quilting style. It’s one that requires a lot of quilting. And I mean A LOT.

So I will add many more lines of quilting to this quilt. The original pass of straight line quilting only took about 2 hours to do and I was so happy to finish it so quickly. But now that it’s been sitting around for awhile it’s calling to me for more. So I will add more.

I decided to fill in the lines of quilting with more lines. I marked all of the original lines about 2 inches apart so I could quilt them neatly with my walking foot. Fortunately the “filler” lines do not need to be marked; I simply used the edge of my walking foot as a guide and can fit exactly 3 more rows of quilting in between each original line of stitching.

After about 2 more hours of quilting I’m about halfway done and I think it’s looking much better. FYI, I used Superior King Tut cotton thread in a variegated blue (in top and bobbin – my stitches seem to balance out better when using the same weight on both sides).

And now for the soapbox part of this post – it’s ok to make a quilt just because you want to. I have no idea what I will eventually do with this quilt. I may give it away. I may keep it as a teaching sample. I may turn it into a pattern. I originally made it as a tutorial and still have a few kits left with the same fabrics.

It was really nice to not have to rush off and send this quilt off somewhere as soon as (I thought) it was done. So that’s why I can “finish” it now – because there are no deadlines and it needs more quilting.

What I enjoy most about this quilt is that quilting it makes me happy. There are lots more quilts out there that I have to make, just because I want to – with no end purpose in mind. And that’s OK. Really it is. How liberating!

Here is the same Baby Bricks quilt design a pink version. And yes, I think it needs more quilting, too…. Any suggestions??