Machine Quilting with Style Blog Hop

Machine Quilting with Style Blog Hop

Today is my day to talk to you about Christa Watson’s new book Machine Quilting with Style. Christa sent me an E-copy of the book to review and talk to you about it.  To be completely honest, with Mom’s passing and the weeks before added up with other projects, I really haven’t had all that much TIME to peruse it, but I want to tell you what I did gather from the book and offer you a little prize at the end of this post, because I know how much you LOVE prizes!

 

So first off, in running through the book, I have to say the photos and illustrations are top notch! Nice clear photos of the quilting and good directions. It is written with a very calm and reassuring voice that I like as well. Christa talks about quilting on a domestic table top machine which I am trying to start up (for awhile I had a Juki on a B-line quilting frame, but it just wasn’t working for me, so I usually hire out most of my quilting because I just don’t have the time. But sometimes I would like to be able to quilt small things and I have not felt very good about my skills in that arena in the past.)  Christa talks about using a walking foot and a free motion foot, but I don’t have a walking foot, so I looked mainly at the free motion quilting.

 

Above is my very first attempt at any of the free motion quilting techniques that Christa talks about. This one she calls “String of Pearls.”  It caught my eye first thing, so I wanted to try it right away. As Christa mentions, practice makes perfect, so these aren’t super great, but I do like how they started out. I found I really needed to oil the Juki up, so I didn’t get very far, but I am looking forward to getting back to it.

 

And I almost forgot, besides some great quilting patterns and advice, there are 12 quilt patterns in the book that are pretty fabulous too. The ones that are at the top of my list are Little Man’s Fancy and Focal Point.

 

Below are two lists of sites to check out for this blog hop. Each of the sites has it’s own set of prizes. Not all of these links work, I discovered and the links that are after today may or may not go straight to that person’s post about the book, but you can have a good time looking around each site and find the goods, right?

• 9/14 Blog Hop Kick off at Christa Quilts where you’ll learn more about her new book, this blog hop, giveaways and more.
• 9/14 Color Crystals – Vicki Reubel from Orchid Owl Quilts
• 9/14 Technicolor Backing – Ida Ewing from Ida Rather Be Quilting
• 9/15 Pearl Gray – Alyce Blyth from  Blossom Heart Quilts
• 9/16 Broken V – Sharon McConnell from  Color Girl Quilts
• 9/17 Candy Pop – Linda Hungerford from Flourishing Palms
• 9/18 Ripples – Melissa Corry from Happy Quilting
• 9/19 Little Man’s Fancy – Tina Guthmann from Mod Geometry
• 9/21 Square in a Square – Stacy Cooper from  Farm Road Quilts
• 9/22 Static – Lee Heinrich from Freshly Pieced
• 9/23 Rain – Cheryl Brickey from Meadow Mist Designs
• 9/24 Lightning – Leanne Chahley from She Can Quilt
• 9/25 Facets – Kristy Daum from  St. Louis Folk Victorian
• 9/26 Focal Point – Amy Garro from 13 Spools

• 9/15 Andover Fabrics
• 9/16 Amy’s Free Motion Quilting Adventures and Leah Day’s Free Motion Quilting Project
• 9/17 Do You EQ? from Electric Quilt and Darlene from Quilt Shop Gal
• 9/18 Jacquelynne Steves’ The Art of Home and Scott Hansen from Blue Nickel Studios
• 9/19 Moda Fabrics – The Cutting Table
• 9/21 – Katy Cameron from The Littlest Thistle
  
• 9/22 Debbie Grifka of Esch House Quilts and Generation Q Magazine
• 9/23 Rebecca Bryan of Bryan House Quilts
• 9/24 Stitch This – The Martingale Blog and Riley Blake Fabrics
• 9/25 Michele Foster of The Quilting Gallery and Teri Lucas from TerifiCreations
• 9/26 Pellon Projects and Amy Ellis from Amy’s Creative Side

 

You can find Christa at:

http://christaquilts.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/QuiltWithChrista/

https://instagram.com/christaquilts/

 

Now for the Blue Nickel Prize pack!

I had the privilege of interviewing Christa for the I am Gen Q feature over at my gig as Community Editor at Generation Q Magazine. And I got my copies just a few days ago, so I thought it would be fun to give you a free issue, plus I am throwing in some scraps from my stash. I have NO Idea what kinda fabric you will get, but I will pick out something in your favorite colors.

 

And how will I know your favorite colors? Well, that’s what you have to tell me to win!  Please leave a comment here telling me what your favorite colors are and I will pull an assortment of fabrics from my crazy stash and send them to the winner with the issue featuring Christa.

 

Also check out Generation Q post on 9/22 where I will have a couple blocks of the quilt pattern, Facets from Machine Quilting with Style. Fellow GenQ  staffer Teri and I are each doing our versions of that quilt for the Generation Q stop on the tour.

 

And make sure to add Machine Quilting with Style to your quilting library. I think that I will be referring to my copy a lot.  You can pick up a copy here or here.

Keep Sewing, Keep Happy,

Scott