What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It’s been almost a year since I started my family preservation project, consisting of digitizing all our photos and keepsakes.

I returned to it this month and became a scanning robot for about three weeks – totally worth it, though, because all this stuff will soon be out of the house.

My recent teaching trip to Alaska was amazing! If you’ve never experienced full daylight in the middle of the night, I can tell you it sort of messes with your mind, LOL! I flew into Anchorage and landed at about 10:30 PM local time. My body was tired after a long day of travel that started at about 6 AM, but my mind kept saying, “you can’t be tired – it’s still bright outside!”

It was about an hour drive to Palmer, which is where I was staying for my visit with the Valley Quilter’s Guild ...

I was recently unpacking from my latest quilty travels and as I was putting my quilts away, I realized I’ve made 5 different versions of the same quilt. How does that even happen?? LOL!! So today I thought it would be fun to share all of them together in one post, plus a few more bonus ideas!!

Click here to get my Bling pattern – PDF version
Click here to get my Bling pattern – paper version

The original version of Bling shown above was created for a magazine and originally came in one size only. I made it to showcase ...

I am enjoying sharing the making of this quilt in real time with no strict deadlines. If you’d like to follow along as I make this quilt, click here to read about Positive Direction Part 1.

Once I sewed the blocks together, I quickly got them up on my design wall following the quilt pattern layout. This wasn’t the final arrangement, but it let me see at a glance what it was going to look like.

Next, I spent a bit of time rearranging all of my blocks in a pleasing order. I wanted to keep the colors ...

I love traveling all over the country teaching my machine quilting methods and I pretty much say yes to any group who invites me. Over the next few months I’ll be traversing California at a couple of big shows. Next up is 4 days of workshops at Pacific International Quilt Festival, July 24-27, 2024. As of this writing one of my workshops is full, but there are still a couple spots left in 3 of them.

Click here for the most updated list of my workshops and to register for what’s still available.

Road to California Schedule – January ...

It’s fun to share some of the reasoning behind the fabrics I’ve designed. With my Good Vibes collection, I wanted to create a group of fabrics with an equal number of lights and darks so that they’d work well in lots of precut friendly patterns.

Click here to view all Good Vibes fabrics.

Speaking of precut friendly patterns made from light and dark, have you downloaded my FREE Puzzle Box quilt pattern? It’s made from 2 sets of 2 1/2″ wide strip rolls – half light and half dark! The picture below was taken at our ...

Update: the giveaway is now over. Congrats to Cheryl C. from New York who won and picked the Duchess Blue chair. I’m sure it will look great in her sewing space!!

I’ve been thrilled that so many of you love my Christa Cabinet from Arrow Sewing. Once I started using the cabinet, I needed a chair to go along with it! So I picked out their hydraulic sewing chair in grey. I’m telling you, this is hands down the most comfortable chair for sewing I’ve ever tried!

Actual view of my sewing table with hydraulic chair ...

I’m just got back from teaching in Paducah, Kentucky and had an amazing time. One thing that the pandemic made me realize is how much I love teaching live and in person. When I wasn’t able to do that, it truly felt like something was missing. If you missed seeing me last week, your next opportunity to do so will be at Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, California, July 24-27, 2024.

I’m excited to be teaching a full slate of workshops, including two of my signature full-day classes: Walking Foot Bootcamp & Free Motion Bootcamp. Taken ...

While I’m away teaching at the AQS show Paducah, KY this week, I thought it would be fun to reminisce about one of my early “modern” quilts I made several years ago. It’s called Facets, and it’s extra special because it got a 2nd place ribbon at the show back in 2016.

This was shortly after they first introduced the modern category to the show, AND this was the first quilt I designed and made for the first book I ever wrote called Machine Quilting with Style. (The Facets pattern begins on page 90).

Although this book ...

One of my favorite things about being a designer is getting to be a spokesperson or ambassador for many different companies in the quilting industry. I love telling folks about things that I use in my sewing room every day. Probably one of the most important supplies I use in *all* of my quilts is my collection of Aurifil threads.

Click here to see all of the colors included in each box of my Aurifil threads.

I curated my favorite grouping of colors, neutrals, and variegated threads I use for both piecing AND quilting. They are all size 50 weight ...

Later this month I’m stoked to be heading out to teach at AQS quilt week in Paducah Kentucky. As of this writing, 2 of my workshops have sold out, but there are still a few spots left in my 3 workshops below along with my lecture. If you haven’t yet registered, it’s not too late.

Click here for AQS workshop descriptions, supply lists and registration info.

This has been a bucket list event for me, ever since I won a ribbon at the show for my quilt Facets way back in 2016!

This was the first quilt ...

My latest YouTube video is a 2-fer! In this week’s video I’m sharing 2 fun techniques: foundation paper piecing and free motion quilting. I’ve made 2 different versions of my Party Time quilt in 2 different colorways of Dazzle Dots fabrics. I think you’ll love them both. Click the image below to watch!

This is one of those quilt patterns that has evolved and improved over the years. It now includes 4 different sizes and like all of my current patterns is available in print or PDF format. Click below to grab one or the other ...

I made my Swanky Spirals quilt a few months ago to promote the launch of my Dazzle Dots fabric, and I took lots of videos and pics as I made it, so I could share them with you! Take a look at my newest machine quilting tutorial by clicking the video below:

Click here to grab the Swanky Spirals quilt pattern.

I created what I call a “free-motion mashup,” quilting lots and lots of different free motion motifs all over the quilt. After all, why quilt just one design, when you can do them all, right?? I’ve highlighted just ...

I’m excited to revisit a quilt that I designed and made many years ago called Positive Direction. I plan to share updates about this quilt in real time, so there’s no telling how many posts it will take until I finish! But I’ll share my progress and answer any questions you have, each step of the way! My original version is shown below, made from fun fabrics that I chose before I became a fabric designer:

The Positive Direction quilt pattern is still available as a pdf download and it includes instructions in multiple sizes. The version ...

I’m thrilled with how the Turquoise version of my Ticker Tape quilt turned out.

Click here to get the Ticker Tape quilt pattern.

I really enjoyed quilting it densely with combination of designs that are easy to do with a walking foot: decorative stitches combined with wavy lines. Don’t you love all this yummy texture?

To see how I accomplished this, plus a completely different design that I did on the navy version, click below to watch my latest video tutorial over on my Christa Quilts YouTube channel:

I still have a few quilt kits available made from ...

A recent social media prompt had me thinking about all of the fun pieced backings I’ve made over the years. Whether for thrift or artistry, I find it a really fun thing to do. I thought I’d gather up a few of the images and match them up to their fronts. Don’t tell anyone – but sometimes I like the backing as much (or more) as the fronts!

Swanky Spirals Back & Front

I made Swanky Spirals from fat quarters + the dark grey backround of my Dazzle Dots fabric. Although the focus was meant to be the front of ...

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be teaching at PIQF this summer in northern California. This is one of those shows that I’ve had my eyes on for quite awhile. They’ve invited me to come teach several times in the past when the show used to be held in the fall, but the timing never worked out. Now that it’s being held at a new time in the summer, the stars magically aligned and I’m excited to attend!

Click here to register for any of my workshops at PIQF

Click play below to watch ...

This past weekend I was able to take a really fun trip to California and hang out with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims for a day! They invited me to be a guest on The Quilt Show – an internet TV show they’ve been producing since 2007. Full disclosure: I was a guest on an earlier episode back in 2018 so it was fun to return!

I thought it would be fun to share a few behind the scenes pics that we took while filming. I shared some of my best tips and tricks for domestic machine quilting. It’s ...

Now that I’ve been back from QuiltCon for over a week I’ve had time to process my thoughts, feelings and pics and vids from the show. I’ve compiled them into a 30 minute video below. Click the image to play the video and check out my fave 100 quilts from the show!

Although I’ve been to EVERY SINGLE QUILTCON, last year is the first year I started making a video log of my time at the show. Click here to see how my experiences compared year over year.

Now I’m curious – did you get a ...

Weather you are quilting along with me making your version of Ticker Tape, or any other quilt for that matter, basting is an important part of the machine quilting process. Take a look at the video below to see how I spray basted 2 of my earlier quilts, both made from my Black, White & Bright fabric from Benartex.

I used this same technique for my larger Ticker Tape quilt shown on my design wall below. Now it’s time to quilt it!

Here’s a bonus tip when basting: trim up the edges of the quilt, so there’s only ...