Machine Quilting With Style, and Giveaway

Welcome! I'm glad you stopped by on my day to tell you about Christa Watson's new book Machine Quilting With Style: From Walking-foot Wonders to Free-motion Favorites, and enter the book giveaway at the end of this post. This giveaway is now closed.

"Candy Pop" is the quilt I made from Machine Quilting With Style. It's pattern number nine of 12 in Christa's book. Obviously, I'm a fan of rainbow gradations, so it was fun to choose an assortment of prints from my stash.

Candy Pop, 44" W X 45" 

The background blocks were pieced with Kona Snow and Kona Silver. Silver is my new favorite shade of grey solid.

I didn't follow Christa's instructions for making the circles as she did with fusible, raw-edged appliqué. My fabric circles have finished edges. I made them using my most favorite quiltmaking tool - a 12" set of 1/8"-thick, acrylic nested rings (I swear, I used them all the time!) I picked the proper ring size to trace.

Adding 1/2" to the diameter when I cut circles from fabric, I then hand-basted with quilting thread around the perimeter of each fabric circle, gathering it around a finished-size template cut from iron-able template plastic. A word of caution when pressing heat resistant template plastic... don't set your iron too hot. My T-Fal iron actually warped the plastic! 

Machine appliqué was fun and easy. Threading my machine with monofilament thread on top, and 50-weight Aurifil in the bobbin, I remembered to put the thread through the bobbin case finger, to give a little extra tension on the bottom. (A feature on Bernina sewing machines.)

You really can't see the tiny, nearly invisible zig-zag stitches all the way around each circle.

A note here. When I finished machine appliquéing the circles, I cut away the background fabric behind the fabric circle, about a quarter inch from the appliqué stitches. That way, there's less bulk to my quilt - another reason I prefer turned-under appliqué. If you use fusible web, you can't cut away the background. 

After each block was finished, putting the top together was a snap using my favorite Web method of assembly. If you're not familiar with it, here's my How to Sew a Web tutorial. The quilt sandwich was  made with Quilter's Dream select loft poly.

The beauty of Christa's book - actually a somewhat unique feature for a quilting book - is that she has  not only has 12 great designs, but she offers lots of helpful instruction for quilting - numerous straight line and free motion suggestions - and she peppers the book with practical and helpful tips.

For her Candy Pop quilt, Christa quilted a spiral in the center of each appliquéd circle. I copied that design, sit-down quilting on my Pfaff Grand Quilter.

Next, I quilted a ring of approximately quarter-sized pebbles around each circle appliqué. They're not all perfectly round, but from a distance - while riding on that proverbial horse - they look just fine.

And last, I quilted hooked swirls in-between the circles, occasionally improv-quilting designs Christa refers to as "box texture" and "triangle texture."

Never one to leave a quilt unlabeled, and believing more information is better, I added this.

Then I was off to take pretty, styled photos in the entry to the Big Cypress Rec Center, where my Big Cypress Quilters group meets every Tuesday afternoon. Perfect! How about that hot pink table?!

Candy Pop should take up permanent residence.

To get your own copy of the book, here are two suggestions: 

For a print version get it on Amazon.

For an eBook version, go to Martingale Press.

Or, if you like to first take a chance at winning an eBook, Martingale Press is allowing me to give one away. By the way, an eBook makes it super-easy to follow patterns on your computer, or just print the pages needed for the project you want to make.

This giveaway is now closed.

To enter my giveaway, comment below to answer my question:

How do you quilt your quilts? By domestic machine? By longarm? By check?

Also, please be sure I know how to contact you. If you're a "no reply" commenter, I can't tell you that you've won! A winner will be drawn Saturday night, September 20. The giveaway IS open internationally. This giveaway is now closed.

In the meantime, check out the other 11 patterns made by quilters. You'll enjoy visiting each of them, and you'll also find additional opportunities to enter giveaways!

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 You are here!
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

Visit the blogs below too! You'll find additional insights including book reviews, interviews, sample blocks, and other interesting content you won’t want to miss.

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 Krista Hennebury of Poppy Print and 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

P.S. If you're in Central Florida, beginning in late February, I will be teaching this "Candy Pop" quilt at the Lifelong Learning College. Watch my "Schedule" (see tab above) for more information.