Tag: Quilting

Bling Quilt Along Week 2: Block Sewing

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I named this pattern “Bling” because the main part of the design is an abstract representation of a sparkly ring. Can you see it?? Last week we cut out our fabrics and this week it’s time to sew them together to make Bling blocks! I like to lay out all of my pieces stacked up in order next to my sewing machine.

I’m making the scrappy background version, so as long as there’s good contrast between my lights and darks, these are going to look great! You can also use all of one background fabric for a more consistent, cleaner look.

In the Bling quilt pattern, I give you a couple of options for arranging each Bling block. You can use all of the same fabric for each Bling like I did above. Or you can use more than one fabric for a bit of a scrappy look. It’s totally up to you!

I like to press my seams open so the blocks will lie super flat. I sew with a shorter stitch length (2.0 instead of 2.5) to add more thread to each seam for extra strength. Click the image above to watch a short video of me sewing the units together using pins to line everything up. I assembly line sew, aka “chain piecing” to make this process faster.

The pattern tells how many blocks you need to make for each size. So your homework this week is to follow the diagrams and instructions in the pattern on pages 2-3 to make your blocks. The be sure to share pics of your progress in my Christa Quilts group on Facebook!

If you are just joining us, you can grab a copy of the Bling quilt pattern and choose your own fabrics. Or you can grab one of the optional kits if you want to make one just like mine!

Machine Quilting My Colorful Chaos Quilt

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After a hiatus of entering quilt shows the last couple years, I just got the exciting news that Colorful Chaos was juried into the international quilt show in Paducah, KY!! There’s no pattern for this quilt because it’s part of my renewed push to make new and exciting experimental work that pushes me out of my comfort zone. I’m thrilled with how it turn out. Read more about it below….

Colorful Chaos, Front and Back
It will be hanging at the American Quilter’s Society Show April 23-26, 2025.

In this post I thought I would share more about my machine quilting process and how I decided to quilt it. I hope you enjoy all the quilty eye candy!

Step 1 – Make a Quilting Plan

Before I begin quilting, I always start off with a quilting plan. I printed off a few color copies of my finished quilt top and then sketched out several different possibilities. These were simple pics I took from my phone and printed on a regular piece of paper. I wanted to emphasize the circles with the quilting and then fill in the other areas with some fun, geometric designs. This is just a roadmap, and I usually change it up a little when I get to the actual quilt.

I always make a quilting plan before quilting, and it’s totally ok to deviate from the plan!

Step 2 – Choose Thread Colors

For most of my quilts, I usually just choose 1 or 2 thread colors, and I always use the same thread in the bobbin. For this colorful quilt, however, I wanted to quilt each colorful section with a matching thread color.

Click here to get my favorite Aurifil thread groups in neutrals, colors, or variegated.

I chose 12 different thread colors from my Piece & Quilt Neutrals and Colors collections.

Step 3 – Quilt Your Heart Out

When I’m doing custom quilting, I take my time and focus on one area at a time. For this quilt I did some light stitching in the ditch between sections to anchor or secure the quilt. Then I went to town with different motifs in each colored area.

Above is what it looks like when I’m scrunching and smooshing my quilt under the machine. I’m using my Christa Cabinet to hold the weight of the quilt and it’s a game changer for domestic machine quilting!

Below I’m using pieces of painters tape to help me quilt straight lines using my dual feed system, which performs the same function as a walking foot.

Straight lines are super versatile because they can be stitched at lots of different angles, and they always look great! My secret is to quilt them in an irregular pattern rather than trying to have an even amount of spacing between the lines.

I also used walking-foot style quilting to stitch spirals inside and outside of each inset circle. To jazz them up a bit, I then went back and free motion quilting pebbles in between each of the spirals. It was a fun challenge figuring out how to make that work, but I love trying new things with every quilt I make!

This year it’s been my goal to work on what I call my “runway” quilts in between other projects. These are quilts that are a bit more edgy and push the boundaries of what I can do. There’s no pattern for them so that frees me from the need to be able to replicate everything I do.

But just like runway fashions inspire colors and style you’ll see at your local department store, my experiments will show up in bits and pieces, such as this practice sample that I’ve added to my “Spirals and Swirls” machine quilting workshop:

Previous Blog Posts: Colorful Chaos in Progress

Part 1 – Making Soul-Fulfilling Work
Part 2 – Piecing Inset Circles
Part 3 – Improv Quilt Backing from Leftovers
Part 4 – Spray Basting Tutorial

I continued the rainbow colors around the edges with matching binding. I pieced the binding in sections and then added one section at a time, splicing the seams together roughly were the colors overlapped.

About This Quilt

Christa’s Soap Box – Thoughts about Doing My Own Sewing (while relaxing at the beach…)

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This week I’m having a fun beach vacation with the family and since I’m not sewing, I’ve had a bit of time to think about sewing instead. Recently it occurred to me that whenever I travel and teach, I often say that I do all of my own “stunt sewing” – and I know I’m somewhat of an anomaly when it comes to professional quilters that do this full-time.  There’s nothing wrong with busy designers getting help, but I just love sewing my own stuff and don’t want to give it up!

view from the beach

View from my “office” this week at Hermosa Beach, CA where I’m writing this blog post.

Recently, someone asked me “now that you are successful in your business – when are you going to hire me to sew for you?” I know she meant it as a compliment and really wanted to help me out, but my gut reaction was – if I ever get to the point that I don’t have time to sew or quilt my own quilts, what’s the point of HAVING a quilting business??

For reals, I’d rather hire out my cooking and cleaning than ever give up sewing. In fact, I already have a team in place that helps me with some of the other tasks – a graphic designer helps lay out my patterns, and I just recently started using the services of a virtual assistant to help me with some of my pattern editing.

Family bike ride

We’re starting off each beach day with a family bike ride; we love great views and great exercise!

From time to time, I’ll enlist other designer friends to make quilts to showcase my fabrics using their patterns, and sometimes enthusiastic fans and followers will pitch in and remake some of my older patterns using my fabric. In all of those cases though, they are making THEIR quilts, not MY quilts.

In fact, it was kind of funny that when I was working on creating the projects for my second book The Ultimate Guide to Machine Quilting, the deadlines were VERY tight. I had to make about 10 quilts in 4 months so my publisher offered to pitch in and help. Because the book focused on machine quilting, they offered to help with piecing or binding to help reduce my load. I looked at them like I thought they were crazy pants and politely turned them down. I’m not sure if it’s my control freak tendencies or what, but the fact of the matter is, I simply like to do each step of the process myself, LOL!!

Quilts on the bed at the beach

One of the guest beds at the beach house is our “flat” staging area waiting for photography.
FYI – Dot’n Dash will be the quilt-along I’m doing next month– so stay tuned!!

Now that I’m designing fabric, I have even less time to sew because much of my time is spent with a sketchbook or at the computer. But all that really means is instead of mass producing large quantities of new quilts and patterns, I’ll be very thoughtful about the quilts I choose to make, and I’ll continue to enjoy every step! The other thing it means is that I can take more time to tell you about the quilts I am making, and share more than just one picture or blog post of each.

Surfboards at the Beach

Jason loves scouting out interesting places for photographs. He saw these surfboards and thought they’d make an interesting backdrop. See the photo below…

Speaking about being more thoughtful about how I share my finished quilts, Jason had the brilliant idea of bringing a few of them with us so we could photograph them in cool beachy locations on vacation. I loved that idea, especially since there wasn’t much time for photography before quilt market. 

So be on the lookout my official “Ta-Da” blog posts a little later on. I usually like to have a landing spot for the finished quilts I make which includes all of the pertinent details: size, materials used, quilt designs I chose, etc. I also enjoy writing up a little more about the process of making them so at least I can get a little more mileage out of each quilt, since there are fewer quilts to share. For some people, their quilt isn’t finished until it has a label. For me it’s not done until I’ve blogged about it.

Quilts on the Beach - Dot n Dash made from Fandangle by Christa Watson

This is an “outtake” of our photo session showing my son’s feet, who’s our official quilt holder.
He’s pretty good about hiding all of his body parts while we shoot, LOL!!
Kits for this quilt are available here.

While we are having a great time at the beach, (after a super busy spring and summer of teaching), you can be sure I’m also planning out the next round of quilts and patterns I’ll be working on later this year – and how I’ll be able to finish step of the process in a limited amount of time. After two rounds of fabric design (and working on my third!!), I think I finally have a handle on what a realistic timeline looks like, and feeling happy that I’m not biting off more than I can chew!

Now I’m curious – which parts of the quilting process do you enjoy most? Do you like to just piece, quilt, or do the whole shebang like me? Remember – it’s your quilt so there’s no wrong answer!!

The Quilter’s Planner 2017 – Now Available for Pre-order

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Let me tell you how I met my friend Stephanie Palmer, creator of The Quilter’s Planner. We both had been invited to tape a series of machine quilting demonstrations for QNNtv’s Quilt It – The Longarm show back in the summer of 2015.

We were picked up from the airport at the same time and immediately connected. By the end of our 30 minute car ride we had swapped life stories and become instant friends! She told me all about the creation of The Quilter’s Planner, and it was such fun to listen to her describe her project with such passion and enthusiasm.

stephanie_quiltit

Stephanie shows me one of her projects in the large “green room” while we take turns being filmed.
Several quilts from my books  are laid out flat on the table beside her.

When Stephanie invited me to participate as one of the designers for the 2017 Quilter’s Planner, of course I jumped at the chance to participate. Not only is the Quilter’s Planner perfect for keeping track of day-to-day things like a regular planner, it has specialty planning pages just for quilters.

quilters-planner-2017-cover

The 2017 Quilter’s Planner features this awesome cover, which will also be included as a pattern!

And to top it off, The Quilter’s Planner comes with a pattern pack of 14 downloadable PDFs. I was thrilled to make Feathered Chevrons as my contribution. It’s a remake of my older Charming Chevrons design, updated with a new layout using my Kona Solids palette.

feathered_chevronsPhotography taken in scenic Maine by Kitty Wilkin of Night Quilter.

I was even more thrilled with the photography, beautifully taken by our talented friend Kitty Wilkin (who can photograph your quilts, too if you are interested.)

feathered_chevrons_styledPhotography taken in scenic Maine by Kitty Wilkin of Night Quilter.

I especially love how Kitty got some great closeups of the quilting on this quilt. I used two of my favorite machine quilting designs, “Switchbacks” and a variation of “Swirls ‘n Pearls.” As I do with all of my quilts, I love to include machine quilting suggestions with my patterns.

feathered_chevrons_quilting

Photography taken in scenic Maine by Kitty Wilkin of Night Quilter.

feathered_chevrons_swirls

To learn more about each of the featured designers, click each name below to go to their blog and follow them!! Many have already included pictures of their quilts that will be included.

Amy Friend of During Quiet Time, Amy Sinibaldi of Nana and Co., AnneMarie Chany of GenXQuilters, Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs, Karen Lewis of Karen Lewis Textiles, Kari Vojtechovsky of Craft-Happy, Katie Blakesley of Swim Bike Quilt, Lee Monroe of May Chappell, Lindsey Rhodes of LR Stitched, Rita Hodge of Red Pepper Quilts, Stephanie Palmer of Late Night Quilter, Yvonne Fuchs of Quilting Jetgirl

igg-monthlyspread-1

Order your copy of the quilter’s planner today!

 

Book Review – Splash of Color by Jackie Kunkel

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Today I’m excited to tell you about Jackie Kunkel’s brand new book, Splash of Color! Both Jackie and I chose Martingale/That Patchwork Place as our publisher (because they are the best) and our books both released at about the same time. So we thought it would be fun to tell our readers about each other’s books this week. (Check out her blog on Wednesday for her review of my book.)

splashofcolor_coverSplash of Color by Jackie Kunkel, Hip to Be Square on the Cover

First a quick background if you haven’t met Jackie yet. She runs the super awesome online store Canton Village Quilt Works, is a certified Judy Niemeyer Instructor, and she’s also a pilot. Isn’t that cool?

jackieJackie Kunkel standing in front of Lava Lamps – such an awesome quilt!

Jackie’s Book, Splash of Color really hits home with me because of its graphic combinations of black and white prints with color. In fact, I love the book’s subtitle: A Rainbow of Brilliant Black and White Quilts. I love high contrast, geometric quilts and this book is just full of them. To see what I mean, check out these gorgeous images (photography by Brent Kane):

01-80_B1319_Finals.inddSeeing Spots

My favorite quote from Jackie is in the introduction to this book: “When I combine black and white with bright fabrics, something magical happens. My heart begins to sing. It’s like eating candy – I want more. I hope the projects in this book will affect you the same way.”

Yes, Jackie, they do affect me in the same way. I couldn’t have said it better myself!

01-80_B1319_Finals.inddJumpin’ Jax

In her book, Jackie successfully teaches you how to combine a splash of color with black and white prints without it all looking jumbled up or too busy. She also includes several techniques that are a must have for every quilter: paper foundation piecing, curved piecing, strip piecing, and applique.

01-80_B1319_Finals.inddTwirling

The book includes a total of 12 fantastic quilt patterns and most of them include alternate versions for inspiration, so you can really see how versatile Jackie’s designs are.  I think the alternate version of Proud Mary, shown below is my favorite quilt from the book, but really they are all fantastic!

proudmary_altProud Mary

I also like that Jackie mentions it took time to collect her large stash of blacks, whites and brights. I love it when designs are versatile enough to use any prints so you can recreate them even if you don’t have the same exact fabrics.

01-80_B1319_Finals.inddCrossroads

Be sure to add Splash of Color to your book library, you’ll be glad you did. And now I want to know – have you ever made a black and white quilt?

Video Review – Why Quilts Matter

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I am extremely pleased to review the DVD series, Why Quilts Matter: History, Art & Politics presented by the Kentucky Quilt Project. I first heard about this series while reading designer Thomas Knauer’s blog and thought it was pretty serendipitous when the folks from Why Quilts Matter contacted me a few months later to share my thoughts about the series with you.

Why Quilts Matter DVDOriginally produced by renowned quilt expert Shelly Zegart as a PBS television series, it’s now available as a 2 disc DVD set. This fabulous series has a total running time of just over 4 hours and is broken up into these nine episodes:

  1. Quilts 101 – Antique and Contemporary Quilts
  2. Quilts Bring History Alive
  3. The Quilt Marketplace
  4. What is Art?
  5. Gee’s Bend: “The Most Famous Quilts in America?”
  6. How Quilts have been Viewed and Collected
  7. Empowering Women One Quilt at a Time
  8. Quilt Nation: 20,000,000 and Counting!
  9. Quilt Scholarship: Romance and Reality

Why Quilts MatterThis series will truly change the way you think about quilting! Each episode takes you on an amazing journey and gives you a feel for for the scope, depth and influence of American quilting culture.

It features video interviews with some of the most amazing quilting artists in the industry as well as museum curators and quilt collectors. It’s enlightening to listen to their take on the quilting industry as a whole and why they think quilts matter.

Click the video below to watch a preview of the series, and be sure to visit the WQM website for a host of other resources including discussion guides, summaries, and images of quilts from the series. It’s a lot of quilting “eye candy” to explore!

My favorite episode of the series was the one about Gee’s Bend quilts since they are considered one of the major influences of the modern quilting movement. I gained a lot of new respect for these quilts as well as plenty of inspiration to make one of my own!

Be sure to stop by my blog later in the week for your chance to win a copy of this fabulous series!

My Word of the Year for 2014 – Quilt!

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Have you read about this trend of picking a word for the year? It’s been catching my notice recently, but I was finally inspired to pick a word for myself after reading Pat Sloan’s recent blog post about her words for each year.

Christa Quilts

Christa’s word of the year for 2014 – Quilt! (Duh!)

I thought about many ideas for what my word could be: health, patience, love, balance, organization, timeliness, etc., but finally realized that “Quilt” embodies all of this for me in this new year. “Quilt” really will be at the forefront of my thinking 24/7 as I strive to meet my goals for 2014. I will need to incorporate all of these other words in order to achieve them!

So how about you? What is on your mind for this year? Can you sum it up in a word?

Christa’s Soap Box – I am a quilter.

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I am a quilter. Obvious I know, but I’ve been spending the last few weeks and months determining what this really means to me and why I enjoy doing what I do.

It means I love to make quilts from start to finish. I love coming up with a design, choosing the fabrics, cutting them into little pieces and sewing them back together again. I absolutely love the texture that machine quilting adds to a piece, and I don’t even mind basting since that’s a necessary part of the process.

I am a quilter.

I am a quilter.

I’ve come to enjoy finishing the binding by hand, curling up on the sofa watching a good movie while I do so. I’ve even gotten to the point where I can add a label and a hanging sleeve without too much stress.

Thinking about the quilt-making process has caused me to reflect on what I’m not really into, either. I finally came to the understanding that it’s okay not to do it all. Really, it is. I’m not interested in embellishment. I have no desire to dye my own fabrics. And, as beautiful as machine embroidery is, it’s just not my thing.

Quilting for Kids

My sister’s kids and their quilts. I love that they get used!

Although I love to create original quilts and share them with others, I haven’t become a serious pattern designer. I’m just not good at graphic design. (That’s one of the reasons I enjoy getting published in magazines and why I want to write a book – so I can leave the professional-looking layout to the experts!)

This reflection has caused me to be a little more open-minded. For a long time I had a really hard time wondering why everyone in the world didn’t quilt their own quilts. By the same token, I’m sure the art quilters, embroiderers and graphic designers can’t understand why I’m not as passionate about their hobby as they are. The answer? We each have our  own interests and thank goodness there’s room for all of us!

Quilting

Teaching my daughter to quilt.

So although I will try to convince as many people as possible that they really can quilt their own quilts, it’s okay if you aren’t interested. You can still be my quilting friend and I will continue cheering you on! 🙂

Christa’s Soapbox – 300 Words About Quilting Published

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I am very excited that I am actually working through my list of quilting goals that I listed at the beginning of the month. I will post updates every month or more often if applicable.

One of the goals I stated was #2. Get Published in a Quilting Magazine. 

Although this goal has not been achieved exactly as planned QNM Dec 2012yet, I am getting closer! An essay that I wrote about Dreams and Goals for my quilting was accepted by Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine as part of their Web Extras for their December/January 2013 issue. While there wasn’t enough room for my essay in the magazine, they published it on their website along with a few others. What a thrill!

What I learned from this is by setting goals, I may actually take steps to accomplish them! Here is my essay below. You can read other essays here, with rules on how to enter.

SECRET DESIRE by CHRISTA WATSON

Whenever I see a beautifully quilted masterpiece at a show, my heart skips a beat. I can feel the pounding in my chest and I have almost a shortness of breath. The painstaking application of precision piecework or applique, combined with the most intricate of quilting designs literally takes my breath away. While others around me exclaim, “I could never do that!” I secretly whisper to myself, “I can’t wait to do that.”

To say quilting makes me happy is an understatement. I never feel such peace and serenity as when I’m stitching alone with needle and cloth. I do have other habits that are supposed to help me stay balanced – I keep fit and healthy, spend quality time with my family and read a lot of good books. But is it too selfish to say that sometimes I just want to toss all my cares aside and make my masterpiece quilt? My magnum opus?

My award-winning masterpiece of a quilt is somewhere inside me, just waiting to escape.

So why haven’t I made it yet? In a word, FEAR! Fear of failure. Oh sure, I’ve entered quilts into my local guild’s show and have accumulated my fair share of colorful ribbons to show for it. But I’ve never entered a quilt into one of those big-time, knock-your-socks-off, national or international shows.

This is my secret desire—to enter and win a prestigious award at a major judged and juried show for the entire world to see. Do I dare say that out loud? What if my dream never comes true? I guess I’ll never know until I try.

Christa’s Soapbox – Why I Quilt

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I have been thinking a lot lately about why I quilt.

From the moment I made my first quilt I was in love with this craft! That was almost 18 years ago, but I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what I want to do!

I’ve read that to truly pursue your passion, you need to find your “voice.” I am still searching for my voice, but I do know that I have two different quilting personalities. The competitive side of me wants to make beautiful, knock-your-socks-off award winning original quilts that take hundreds of hours to complete.

The teacher side of me wants to create simple patterns that even the most novice of quilters can make in a weekend. So can I have such a split personality when it comes to quilting? I guess the answer is yes, because it makes me happy.

Sometimes I just want to finish a project in a hurry for the mere satisfaction of completion.  Other times I enjoy the ooh’s and ahh’s of my friends and fellow quilters when they admire my intricate machine work.

That is the beauty of quilting – at different times in my life I can go in totally opposite directions. But above all, it satisfies my need to create. That is why I quilt!