New Quilt Pattern – Interlinked Available as a PDF Download

May 8, 2020March 6, 20215 Comments

I’m thrilled to introduce a brand new quilt to you today! It’s called Interlinked and was a design I came up with a couple years ago when playing around with some modern design ideas.

Interlinked Quilt by Christa Watson, 64″ x 80″
Made from neutrals of Fandangle, Geo Pop, and Gridwork

I love making all kinds of quilts and most of my designs fall on the “Modern Traditional” side of things. But with Interlinked, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and really embrace modern principles like “minimalism” and “negative space.”

Interlinked Beauty Shots

I’ve also been having fun taking some styled shots of my quilts. there’s something about surrounding a stark neutral quilt with some earthy color that makes it pop, don’t you think?

The most fun part about making this quilt was combining white and gray prints from several of my fabric lines. After releasing my first fabric line, Modern Marks back in 2017, I realized I needed to add more backgrounds and neutrals to work with in each of my succeeding lines. So this one includes white & gray from Fandangle, Geo Pop and my newest line, Gridwork.

I used the white/gray “Mosaic Dots” print from Geo Pop for the backing.

Get the Kit!

When I shared sneak peeks of me making this quilt a few months ago, I immediately got requests for kits once the pattern was available. So I’m happy to announce that kits are now in stock and ready to ship over in my online store at shop.ChristaQuilts.com.

Click here to get the interlinked quilt kit (fabric only) while supplies last.

The PDF pattern can be found in my Etsy shop and it includes a couple of bonus options such as adding borders, color ideas and even a coloring page.

The quilt is actually really quick and easy to make and you can have fun with the quilting just like I did. I quilted a different geometric design in each fabric of the quilt and it was so fun putting this one together. It’s the first time I’ve made a quilt from my fabrics where I’ve used more than one collection and I really enjoyed the freedom of doing that!

Interlinked free-motion quilting detail – click image above to enlarge.

I hope you enjoyed looking at all these fun pics and I can’t wait to see your version of the quilt. When you make it, please use the hashtag #interlinkedquilt on social media so I can cheer you on!

Where to Buy

Christa’s Quilts – Woven Ribbons

January 7, 2016April 8, 201619 Comments

Woven Ribbons and is quickly and easily made from just two Kona Solids Skinny Strips. I used the 2014 Kona Colors and Black, but it would look fantastic in your favorite solids or prints.

woven ribbons

Woven Ribbons by Christa Watson, 45″ x 63″

I created Woven Ribbons to go along with my profile feature in Issue 9 of Make Modern Magazine. I wanted to create a modern design with a very minimalist, graphic feel that was easy to make from precuts.

I quilted wavy lines (seaweed) with switchbacks. These are two free-motion designs from my book Machine Quilting With Style. It’s fun to combine designs together in other quilts!

Although I love to quilt the heck out of my quilts, I prefer to choose designs that are simple to execute, don’t need marking, and do NOT require perfection to look great!

wavy lines quilting

Tip for quilting with bright colorful fabrics – use a variegated thread!

I quilt all of my quilts with Aurifil cotton thread and chose 50 weight black #2962 and 50 weight Marrekesh #3817 for this quilt. These colors allowed the design to shine, without overpowering the quilt. I used a cotton/poly batting in black since it’s such a dark quilt.

woven ribbons

I love how the black background causes the other colors to pop!

Woven Ribbons Stats

Made by Christa Watson; designed in EQ7
Finished size 45″ x 64″; completed November 2015
Pieced and quilted on my BERNINA 770
Materials: Kona Skinny Strips – 2014 Colors and Black; Hobbs 80/20 black batting
Aurifil Thread: 50 weight #3817 Marrekesh and #4241 Very Dark Grey
Quilting design – Seaweed (wavy lines) and Switchbacks (back and forth curves)
Received 3rd place ribbon in Modern, Small category at DQN 2016 Quilt Show.

3rd place modern

You can find Woven Ribbons, along with 14 other fabulous projects in the current issue of Make Modern Magazine. It’s a digital download which means you can save it on your computer forever!

issue9_cover

This is my second pattern with Make Modern, and I’m sure it won’t be my last!

Coming up in January – Feature and Pattern in Make Modern

December 22, 2015December 22, 20154 Comments

I wanted to give a quick shout-out to what I think is one of the best magazines out there for modern quilting. Make Modern is a digital magazine created by Australian quilters Jane Kelly, Kristy Lea and Lara Motta. It’s packed full of interesting articles, great patterns, and fun giveaways.

One of the coolest things of it being an online magazine is that it includes hot links embedded within the text. So if you want to learn more about a particular pattern designer, all you have to do is click their name and it will take you to their website. How cool is that?

Issue 9

How fun to have my name on the cover. I may print it out and frame it!!

In issue 9, coming out in January, includes a profile of me, plus an original pattern I’ve designed using precuts. I can’t wait to share it with you! To ensure you don’t miss it, be sure to subscribe to Make Modern. You can purchase single issues, or a 6 month or year-long subscription. Back issues are also available. Click here to see my previous quilt from issue 5.

Another perk of subscribing digitally? You can save it forever with no paper to waste!

Introducing HST in Make Modern Magazine

May 2, 2015April 29, 201515 Comments

I’m excited to share one of my latest quilt finishes with you today. It’s called HST and the pattern can be found in the current issue (#5) of Make Modern Magazine.

HST designed, pieced and quilted by Christa Watson

When the gals at Make Modern invited me to submit a design, this idea literally popped into my head. I love making half square triangles and thought what a riot it would be to make a quilt from half square triangles that form one larger, modern HST.

HST on my bed – I’m not much of decorator, but this quilt brightens up my room!

It turned out so well that I now use it on my bed and it is so comfy and snuggly! I used Alison Glass Handcrafted batiks from Andover fabrics along with textured solids in 2 shades of grey with a pop of yellow/green just for fun! For batting, I chose the highest loft of Quilter’s Dream cotton that I could and it is very warm. I just love this quilt!

Click here for my previous blog post showing sneak peeks of the quilting and the back.

Christa’s Soap Box – Why I Quilt My Own Quilts

March 9, 2015March 7, 201519 Comments

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!)

Have You Heard of Make Modern Magazine?

January 23, 2015January 19, 20154 Comments

Hey guys, it’s been awhile since I’ve done a review but I wanted to tell you about this cool new digital magazine that just recently launched. It’s called Make Modern Magazine and is the brainchild of three super creative gals from Australia – Jane Kelly, Kristy Lea, and Lara Motta.

Make Modern – Issue 3

I’ve known Kristy online for a couple of years. She’s an amazing pattern designer with a penchant for paper-piecing (say that 3 times fast) and I love everything she does! I do have to mention that I’m a little biased towards this magazine because I’ve been invited to share a pattern in a future issue (more details as that gets closer).

Make Modern is chock full of great article as well as patterns. I don’t know about you, but I really like “reading” quilting magazines, not just looking at all the pretty pictures, though it includes many of those as well. Some of my favorite issues have included tips on free-motion quilting (of course!), working with half-square triangles, and profiles of many of my favorite makers. Because I love being part of the online community, it’s especially fun to see well-known blogging friends contributing to the magazine.

Make Modern – Issue 2

You can purchase single issues of the magazine as well as 3 issue (6 month) or 6 issue (yearly) digital subscriptions. I myself ordered the yearly subscription to get the best discount and I get an email with a link to the PDF download as each issue is published.

One of my favorite things about this being a digital magazine is that it includes tons of embedded links that take you right to the pattern designer’s blog to get to know more about them. How cool is that? Each issue also includes some pretty generous giveaways just for their readers.

I invite you to check it out – I think you’ll really like it! And if you are an aspiring designer like me, I know they are always looking for submissions.

By the way, if you want to listen to Jane & Kristy’s awesome accents, be sure to catch their recent interview on the Modern Sewciety podcast!