Tag: machine quilting

99 Machine Quilting Designs #41 – FMQ Hears and Geometrics

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We’re back to free-motion quilting this week with two dense designs that will add lots of texture to a full-sized quilt: Echoed Hearts and Geometrics. If you want to learn more about these designs, click on the video below.

Try these designs on Surplus Strips!

Want to try one or both of these designs on a real quilt? Check out Surplus Strips, a beginner-friendly design made from just one Jelly Roll and background fabric. You can get the kit (while supplies last) or pattern below. You can also take a look at all my Jelly Rolls to assemble your own custom kit.

Here’s a detail shot of two different quilting designs used on this quilt. I love making different iterations of my quilts, as I’ve actually made Surplus Strips four times! There are endless opportunities to vary this quilt from fabric choice to what designs you quilt on it.

Bonus Video – Free Motion Quilting on Surplus Strips

This is a how-to video on how I quilted different dense FMQ designs on Surplus Strips. If you want a deep dive into making the quilting plan for this quilt, check out the video below.

I hope you’re enjoying this series! Leave a comment to let me know what you think!

99 Machine Quilting Designs #40 – Decorative Stitch Grids

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This week we are practicing more decorative stitches with our walking foot. Any traditional “straight line” design be modified for this technique. Watch and learn below:

Quilt This Design on a Real Quilt!

Practice quilting decorative stitches on Ticker Tape! I have several colorways of this kit available (while supplies last). It’s made from one jelly roll of Dazzle Dots with a colorful background.

Click Here to view all Quilt Kits
Click Here to grab the Ticker Tape Quilt Pattern – PDF Download

I even used decorative stitches on the binding, too! It’s a fast way to finish and the binding stitches become part of the overall quilting design. I love paring decorative stitches with other walking foot designs like wavy lines.

Bonus Video – Watch Me Quilt 2 Versions of Ticker Tape

I put together a video showing how I quilted two different colorways of Ticker Tape. I will usually make the same quilt more than once, just to try out different machine quilting ideas.

Here’s my recoloring of Ticker Tape in 4 different colorways. Which is your fave??
Click here to grab the Ticker Tape Quilt Kit – while Supplies last!

Walking Foot Quilting with Decorative Stitches – Machine Quilting Tutorial #39

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99 Designs Episode 39 – Decorative Stitches

Did you know that any walking foot design can be quilted with decorative stitches? It’s a great way to add incredible texture to your quilts! Check out my latest free video tutorial below and give it a try! 

After practicing on smaller samples, it’s time to try these designs on real quilts! Below are two bonus videos to watch for free. First, try out those decorative stitches I’ve shown above on my Bling quilt made from Stitchy fabrics:

While supplies last, you can grab the kit to make Bling from either my Stitchy fabrics as shown in the first and second videos above, or Dazzle Dots, shown in the bonus video below.

Click here to grab the Bling Quilt Kit, While Supplies last
Click here to grab the Bling Quilt Pattern

Here’s another bonus video, showing how I quilted Bling using other walking foot quilting designs I’ve shared in previous tutorials. And don’t forget to checkout my playlist showing how I quilted these designs on real, full sized quilts!

Click here to see all “How I Quilted It” video tutorials. They are free to watch as many times as you want!

99 Designs Episode #38 – Quilting Wavy Chevrons!

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Did you know that one of the easiest ways to change up your free-motion quilting is to stitch the design with wavy lines? That’s what I’m showing in my latest video. Watch and learn below:

If you are looking for fun quilt patterns to practice your quilting skills, check out my printed patterns. They are all on sale now for way less than the regular price.

Click here to view all quilt patterns on sale.

Let me know how your free-motion practice is coming along. I still have many more videos to share! I’ve you want to see them all, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. It’s totally free to watch! Then catch up on my 99 Machine Quilting Designs play list while you are there!

99 Machine Quilting Designs

How to Free-Motion Quilt Ribbon Candy Variations – 99 Designs Episodes 35 & 36

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I have two videos to share with you this week, covering 4 designs that are all closely related! These are fantastic for quilting strip quilts, or other linear areas of your quilt like borders and sashing. First take a look at my quilting tutorial for Cursive L’s and Double L’s below:

I used the Cursive L’s design when quilting an earlier version of my Beaded Lanterns quilt. The free pattern includes a step by step quilting plan which breaks down how to quilt it, step by step.

If you’d like to stitch out a more intricate design, take a look at Ribbon Candy and Crazy 8’s. All of these designs require a little more thinking and planning to execute, but once you have them down, they’ll really punch up your quilts! Watch and learn even more below:

If you haven’t already grabbed a copy of my book, 99 Machine Quilting Designs, it’s a great companion to my free YouTube series. I promise, if you quilt out just one practice sandwich a day, you’ll vastly improve your domestic machine quilting skills in no time!

Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for easy access to these videos, and check out my 99 Designs Machine Quilting Playlist to catch up on previous tutorials. They’ll stay up indefinitely so you can refer back to them any time you wish!

99 Machine Quilting Designs

Free-Motion Quilting Tutorial: Geometric Shapes, 99 Designs Episode 33

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In this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs, practice free motion quilting more “shapes on a stick” like Balloon Shapes and Shish Kebabs. Click below to watch and learn:

Quilt These Designs on Block Chain

I made this quilt before I started making video tutorials, but it’s a great one to practice these designs! The Block Chain quilt pattern includes a quilting plan showing you how and it’s perfect for your favorite charm packs!

Block Chain by Christa Watson

Huge Fabric Clearance

Right now, my Gridwork charm packs shown in the quilt above are on sale for way below the retail price. I’ve also reduced the price of many of my earlier fabric lines, and they are only available while supplies last!

Gridwork Charmpack

Sharing is Caring!

As you practice your machine quilting designs on samples, or real quilts, be sure to share what you’ve made over in my Christa Quilts Group on Facebook. Fellow members and I would love to cheer you on!!

99 Designs Episode 31 – 3 FMQ Chain Designs

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In this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs learn to quilt 3 versions of Geometric Chains, or what I lovingly refer to as “Shapes on a Stick.” Click play below to watch:

The featured quilt on the wall behind me is called Plumb Lines and the pattern can be found in my book with Angela Walters called, the Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting. I was so pleased when I entered it into a machine quilting show and it won a ribbon!

Click here to get the PDF download of our book, The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting.

Are you continuing to practice these designs? We are more than half-way through the series, and I can’t wait to show you more!

Machine Quilting Bling with Your Walking Foot

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I’m excited to share my step-by-step process for quilting my latest iteration of Bling. This is one of my favorite patterns I’ve made over the years. Whenever I get a new idea for a fun colorscheme or quilting plan, I can’t help remaking some of my most popular patterns! Click below to watch and let me know what you think!

Get the Bling Quilt Pattern

Bling quilt pattern

You can choose a similar color story and layout, or you can switch things up and make it your own! The last few times I’ve made this quilt, I chose scrappy backgrounds, but you can also use one fabric for the background and it looks just as good. Hmmm, maybe you’ll want to make more than one like I did??

Grab My Kits and Fabrics While Supplies Last!

I always like to kit up a quilt when I make it because I know others will like it too. However, these are only available for a limited time, as long as the fabrics are in print. Enjoy some beauty shots of this quilt that I took while on a recent beach vacation. It was a nice cloudy day, and seeing these pics brings back great memories!

I had just as much fun making the pieced backing and using up a bunch of leftover Dazzle Dots!

99 Designs Episode 29 – Free-Motion Quilting Scrolls & Curls

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In this week’s episode of 99 Machine Quilting Designs you can learn how to free-motion quilt 2 closely related designs called Scrollwork and Echoed Curls. Watch below:

Get the Swanky Spirals Pattern

The quilt shown behind me in the video is my Swanky Spirals pattern featuring Dazzle Dots. It’s my machine quilting sampler that includes nearly every FMQ design I can think of!

Bonus Video – Quilting Swanky Spirals

In each of these videos, I like to share an example of a quilt in which I’ve quilted the design I’m showing. Take a look below to see how I did it:

If you are enjoying these videos, let me know! There’s so much to explore over on my YouTube channel!

Quilt A Real Quilt with Me at Empty Spools Retreat!!

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I’m so excited to check something off of my bucket list! I’ve been wanting to teach at Empty Spools Seminars in Asilomar, CA for as long as I’ve been a quilter and 2026 will finally be the year, whoo hoo!!

Normally when I travel and teach I give a one hour lecture and 1-2 days of machine quilting workshops. I love it, but all we have time for in that short period of time is to quilt out a bunch of practice samples. I also discuss how students can apply what they’ve learned to an actual quilt but of course, they’ll need to go home and do that on their own time.

Well, I’m bursting with excitement to let you know that my week long workshop at Empty Spools takes it to the next level. In this class, you’ll get to bring in a real, basted quilt (or 2) and learn how to actually quilt it all week in class! We will go through a series of exercises to get you comfortable with the process and then I’ll guide you step-by-step to quilt and finish your own quilt. Won’t that be fun??

Take a look below at the schedule for the week. Click on the image to enlarge it if needed:

I will be teaching this in-depth workshop, called “Quilt That Quilt!” during Session 1 which runs from Sunday, March 1 through Friday, March 6 of 2026. This gives you plenty of time to gather supplies and make arrangements for your visit. Registration includes alls meals and you can either stay on campus, or make your own accommodations.

Click the image below to enlarge for details on costs:

This workshop/retreat is a chance for you to go through the entire process of making a quilt from start to finish. Once you sign up, I’ll be in touch with students so that they can prepare a quilt of their choice so it’s all ready to quilt once they arrive to class next year. I can’t wait to see what quilts students choose to make, and I’m so excited to help them experience the joy of making their own quilts.

This is a big event and commitment but I promise its worth it to set aside the time and money to attend. Do you have any questions? Please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them ASAP!