Christa Watson is a wonderful creative force in this quilty business of ours. She is incredibly skilled at machine quilting, creative with her quilt patterns, and a master in the world of color. Christa has been a dedicated Aurifil gal since first giving our threads a try back in 2013, stating “When I noticed that all my friends and those I follow were raving about them on social media, I had to give them a try. Once I did, I quickly cleaned out my thread stash and got rid of everything else!”
Christa has worked tirelessly to build her brand and people have taken notice. She is an author, a teacher, an award-winning quilter, and she even has two curated Aurifil Thread Collections! She just published her third book, Piece and Quilt with Precuts, with Martingale. We love how she so effortlessly breaks down the process, making a professionally finished quilt something that is achievable for us all.
Piece and Quilt with Precuts features 11 quilts with 18 different machine quilting patterns. Techniques range from quilting using a walking-foot to free-motion to a combination of the two. Christa walks readers through the process, from the initial planning, to selecting fabrics, to piecing, deciding on a quilting pattern, auditioning threads, and more. It’s truly everything that a beginner or even an already skilled quilter needs to hone those quilty skills.
PIECE and QUILT WITH PRECUTS QUILTS
We are simply head over heels for some of the quilts featured in Christa’s book. We don’t want to give everything away, so we’ll just feature a few favorites here. For more on all of the quilts, don’t forget to follow along on Christa’s blog — and of course, go grab a copy of her book for easy access to everything!
TODAY’S FEATURED QUILT
To learn more about today’s featured quilt, Twinkling Diamonds, head over to Christa’s blog.
We just love the contrast between the fluid waves and the straight line doodles!
CHRISTA’S CLASSES
If you’re lucky, you’ve already been a student of Christa’s. She travels around teaching her fabulous techniques and we’ve heard the classes are simply fantastic. Our very own Hilary Jordan (Aurifil’s Social Media and Quilt Guild Coordinator) is a member of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild. Christa gave a hands-on workshop for the guild last weekend and Hilary was able to attend. We’re thrilled to have a first hand account of what Christa’s classes are like!
Hi everyone! I am so excited to talk a little about what it is like to take a class with Christa. I’ve been a member of the Houston Modern Quilt Guild for four years, and I always love the opportunities that being a quilt guild member brings!
The class was all day, and it was split between walking foot quilting and free motion quilting. In total we learned almost 2 dozen different quilting motifs! The absolute best part is that everyone learned how to do these techniques on their own sewing machine. Pictured you can see my Janome. The opportunity to learn quilting techniques I can tackle on my own machine was absolutely amazing!
Going into the class I’d say I was on the fence between being a beginner to intermediate quilter when it comes to the actual quilting. The manner in which Christa teaches made it so easy to connect the dots when it came to figuring out how to do certain motifs. I had several aha! moments throughout the class! When the day was done, I felt so empowered that I wanted to go home and tackle the stack of languishing UFO quilt tops I have in the closet. You know you have some of those too. 😉 If you ever have the opportunity to take a workshop or class with Christa, do it!
— Hilary
To find out if Christa is teaching somewhere near you, check out her schedule here. If no local events are planned, we’d recommend checking out one of her Craftsy classes: Startup Library: Quilting & The Quilter’s Path.
FREE PATTERN
For more info on the pattern for this gorgeous Baby Geese Quilt Pattern, check out Christa’s launch post. It’s a terrific way to get you started on your quilty journey with Christa:).
GIVEAWAY!!
Excited to get started with your own machine quilting? We are excited to offer up a fab giveaways. Two lucky winners will each receive one of the above collections by Christa Watson. Released last year, the Piece and Quilt Collections, Colors and Neutrals, feature all of Christa’s absolute go-to colors for piecing and quilting. It’s like a perfect starter kit to both build your stash and provide you with the necessary tools to get down to business;). To enter to win, click here to head to the Rafflecopter entry page or simply click on the image above. You don’t have to complete all of the entries, but the more you complete, the greater your chance is of winning! This giveaway will be open from now until 11:59pm on Thursday, August 31. Winner will be announced and contacted on Friday, September 1. This giveaway is open to all of our International friends as well!
UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winners, Allison and Dee! (Winners have been emailed 🙂 )
ABOUT CHRISTA
Blog — Instagram — Facebook — Quilt With Christa on Facebook
Christa Watson is an award winning quilter, pattern designer, EQ artist and author who loves to teach others how to successfully quilt on a home sewing machine. She considers herself a cheerleader for the DIY modern aesthetic. She’s heavily involved in both modern and traditional quilt guilds and loves to encourage everyone to enjoy the style of quilting that appeals to them. Christa lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and three children who all think it’s normal to have a house full of fabric.
Would love the Aurifil thread to continue my adventures in machine quilting.
Thanks so much for providing such fabulous threads to work with!!! xoxo
LOVE FMQing HEARTS! JUST LEARNING, BUT THIS IS GOING TO BE MY GO-TO PATTERN! THANKS CHRISTA+AURIFIL THREADS!
What gorgeous colors! Love aurifil.
My fav quilting technique is wavy lines with my walking foot.
I use my walking foot for quilting most of the time. Trying to get brave enough to free motion.
I love just wandering with FMQ….it’s a total mental escape for me!
Love these fabric & thread colors-very nice! I love paper-piecing-this method is very easy & the results are precise & awe-inspiring! Thank you, Susan
I have my own version of stippling that is just OK but works for me.
Love Aurifil thread,l have been quilting wavy lines,and practicing fmq,christa’s book looks great for beginners. Thanks for the giveaway would love to win.
I love making paisley shapes with feathers!
I love doing wavy or straight line quilting with the walking foot.
My mood changes, so i dont know if i have a “favorite”. I go through stretches sometimes of wanting to do lines, wavy, straight, dot to dot and echoing. Then i may get fancy for a while and stick with lots of feathers for some time. I am a weirdo. But if i have a quilt that specifically NEEDS something I go with what it needs obviously or if someone asks me to do little hearts or a lot tight meandering, thats what i srick with on that quilt. I think i must really like wavy lines, i have a lot of quilts like that, but i do a lot of modern quilts and that looks clean.
It depends on what I want to achieve on my quilt. Sometimes FMQ is the only way to go, and then sometimes. the walking foot does the trick.
Thank you for the wonderful giveaway of threads to work with. I’m new to using Aurifil, but love it and would love to win one of the sets. At this point, most of my quilting is still straight lines, but I’m starting to branch out into other patterns.
As a real beginner, I mostly stick to straightish lines or little waves. I get confused when I try to do loops! But I’m willing to give it a go, that’s for sure, because I’m inspired by what I see my favorite bloggers doing.
I love this thread so much! I’m always afraid I will run out of a color mid project, so I usually buy the large cones. So much more economical when you break it down to cost per yard. I love using it for my walking foot quilting. It melts into the fabric. Lovely!
My favorite is wavy lines with a walking foot.
I love the look of wavy lines with my walking foot, but I will always love to FMQ. It’s so calming to me! Thanks for the chance to win such an awesome prize.
I love to FMQ- I never am very good at staying in the ditch. When I learned FMQ, I felt set free! I do love Christa’s walking foot wavey lines- that is my style. Thanks for opportunity to win!
i don’t do muchfmq but i do like organic wavy lines.
I love to FMQ with my walking foot. I am still learning! I hope to get this book soon! Would love to win! Thanks for a great giveaway!
I usually hand quilt my projects. When I’ve used the machine I’ve only done straight line quilting
I love quilting with wavy lines and using my favorite—Aurifil thread!
My machine-quilting skills are limited — I only use a walking foot. Since I find stitching in the ditch to be a bit of a challenge (new to sewing), I prefer diagonal grids on my quilts. Christa has opened my eyes to more walking foot possibilities — I’m eager to try wavy lines and outward spirals soon!
I like to use a variety of machine quilting , depending on the quilt. My fav is a question mark type of design that looks good as a filler. Thanks for sharing the awesome giveaway!
Thanks for the fun review! I am still learning to machine quilt, so the only thing I know to do it straight line and stitch in the ditch. I guess those would be my favorites! 🙂
My favorite machine quilting stitch is the serpentine stitch. Thanks for the chance to win!
Great week of tips and information. Abd now great colors of wonderful thread! Straight stitch and walking foot! So much to learn about machine quilting yet! Pratice, pratice!
I mostly use my walking foot for quilting but do some FMQ too!
My favorite machine quilting technique is free motion with rulers, especially the swirly ones.
I’ve tried only straight lines so far.
I like to meander and straight lines.
Machine quilting is still smething i didn’t try until now!
I don’t have much experience so I hope to practice some free motion quilting and get out of the ditch. thanks!
I’ve just started free motion quilting! It’s fun!
Wavy lines with my walking foot is a favorite and I plan to learn more walking foot patterns. Thanks for great giveaway.
djcutting2(at)gmail(dot)com
I love FMQ!
Love the quilts made from this book. Just might have to pick this book up.
I’m just beginning to use rulers and I really like the effects!
I do both machine walking foot and free motion quilting, both with Aurifil 50 wt. thread. Love it for piecing as well as quilting, especially love the neutrals for piecing since they blend in so well with most any color fabric you want to combine into your pieced blocks.
I like to use the walking foot to echo details.
I love doodling!
I’m learning to fmq, I do a lot of practice pieces, I love all of your tips and information. I love the colors in the thread boxes.
Right now, I’m just starting ruler work. Even though I’m not very good at it, it’s my new favorite.
I would love to have This collection of Aurifil threads! My favorite quilting design to do is free motion circle loops!
I do all my quilting with my walking foot, mostly straight line with some wavy lines.
*Beautiful!* thread collections!
I enjoy free motion quilting (I sew and quilt on my sweet vintage Singer 301), and will do whatever the quilt/project seems to ask for!
My first attempts (I’m self taught) were calligraphic-like “petals”, leaves, vines… After learning from generous teachers like Christa, I’ve branched out a great deal!
I have lots of free motion techniques that I enjoy now!… Probably my favorite is organic wavy lines… (And, I *still* like the looks of my old, first, “self-taught” calligraphic-like “petals”, leaves!!)
Pat T.
My favororite way to quilt is with my walking foot as I don’t have to fiddle with the tension as much. Spirals are especially fun. But I am working on my free motion techniques…slowly.
My favorite quilting technique is a simple meander.
I have only made a patchwork quilt. Ready to learn more!
Echoed paisley is my go to design.
I’m still learning so straight lines and wavy lines are my go to 🙂
Checkbook – my fav machine quilting technique (lol) seriously, that’s the way I go for large quilts. On small wall hangings I do my own & like variety – try something new each time.
I do a lot of free-motion quilting, but sometimes I really enjoy a simple diamond grid quilt design.
I like spiral quilting with the walking foot.
My FAVORITE machine quilting is with a longarm, making feathers. Since I can’t do that now, I’m slowly learning to at least WFQ. I am rotten at FMQ. Straight lines are really easy and usually come out okay with the walking foot. =) Thanks so much for the chance to win either one of the thread boxes. I use Aurifil all the time, on the cones, for piecing, but I’d like to applique with matching threads!
I like making feathers and ribbons. Thanks for the great blog hop and great giveaways.
Wavy lines using my walking foot. I haven’t ventured into the world of FMQ yet.
Cool techniques! Awesome colors. I have quilted with my walking foot so far. Always learning though!! angielovesgary2 atgmail dotcom
Nice
I will definitely have to buy that book. I often buy precuts just because it’s pretty and not because I have a project in mind. Hence the multitude of precuts in my stash. Hopefully Christa’s book and hopefully new thread will help me de-stash lol.
My walking foot is my favorite…I do some designs from your first book!!
Thank you.
I love quilting with free motion quilting as its versatile but also use the walking for quick quilting. I hanever used Aurifill threads so would love to win so I can try out.
I tend to be a in the ditch stitcher, but I really am trying to expand my skills. Pretty thread definitely helps.
love to make loops and swirls with my FMQ foot. Thanks.
I love to use my walking foot for various designs for quilting my quilts.
I just got a walking foot and have only used it for simple quilting, mostly straight lines.
I’ve learned so very much from Christa. It is great to see that you have featured her. I’ve not tried Aurifil thread and would love to win the Christa set and give it a try. Christa has inspired me to quilt all my quilts on my own home machine. I’m doing a queen sized one right now, and growing more confident as I go. Thanks for the opportunity.
I’m learning to free-motion quilt and I love it. It’s my favourite machine quilting technique.
My favorite technique is quilting small sections at a time – learned from a Craftsy class. I have only used one technique so far, but I think I can now tackle my stacks of quilt blocks now.
Straight line quilting. That is all I can do at the moment!
Organic wavy lines done with a walking foot are my default technique currently, using Aurifil thread of course!
So far all my quilting has been with the walking foot, but I would really like to learn to do free motion quilting.
I love free motion quilting and am gradually learning more techniques including walking foot quilting
My experience has mostly been limited to straight line quilting with my walking foot and my FMQ has been limited to ruler work. I have grand plans to try more FMQ.
I still haven’t tried free motion quilting, but maybe someday. I have finally found a local quilt shop that carries Aurifil thread
I’ve always liked stipple and meander quilting, but my latest favorite is serpentine stitch. I love the look, especially when using a variegated thread. I love Aurifil thread and use it for all of my piecing and almost all of my quilting. Thank you for the opportunity to win a lovely of your thread.
I’m just beginning to practice. I’ve followed Christa and read her books. Now it’s time to give it a go. Thanks grinnie1961 at gmail dot com
Still a Newbie…I do Stitch in the Ditch…and have done some meandering, and wavey lines. More practice needed 🙂 Thank you for chance to win your Give-a-way too! 🙂
I love machine quilting…on my longarm but not so much on my domestic. Just can’t get the same flow that I can with my longarm. thanks for your giveaway.
I do stipple or straight line quilting most of the time, but teachers like Christa are encouraging me to try new things. Thanks for the great post and for the chance to win wonderful thread!
Beautiful quilts. Love the colors.
Beautiful work. I tend towards straight line or echo quilting. But I’d like to be more adventurous.
Love the patterns in Christa’s book. My go to machine quilting is wavy lines and echo quilting.
I love FMQ, and often do feathers. I just finished a top that has more variety, though.
I do a lot of thread sketching and multimedia quilts and LOVE Aurifil!
My favorite technique would be using my walking foot to enhance the piecing and starting to play around with a little ruler work!
I am a beginning machine quilter. My favorite go to method of quilting is cross hatch quilting. I place masking tape on the prepared quilt and stitch along both sides. Then I move the tape and continue to stitch along the sides until the quilting is done. Easy and no marking! Thanks!
My favorite quilting is walking foot quilting. I love the look of combining walking foot with free motion designs, but I need practice with free motion. I would love to try this thread!
I can only do straight or wavy lines with a walking foot. I need to practice more on my FMQ!
I love matchstick quilting, wavy lines, straight lines! Dense quilting is my favorite!
I like to do straight line quilting using my presser foot as a guide and always with Aurifil thread.
I’m a straight-line quilter because I’m too chicken to try anything else 🙁 Thanks for the great giveaway!
I love to do swirls and spirals when I free-motion quilt! Thanks for hosting the giveaway!
Straight lines are about all I can do right now.
So far, I’m pretty good at straightish line quilting 🙂 with my walking foot. Christa has been my inspiration from the very beginning of my quilting journey.
I really love making free-motion feathers on my quilts. I will often use them in border areas.
I have only done the meandering quilting with my machine.
I mostly do straight line quilting but have attempted some free motion. I need more practice and love Aurifil thread.
I love doing fmq with loops and wavy lines.
My favorite technique is the one I can get my machine and thread to behave with. One that looks good with the quilt.
I am a beginner at machine quilting. So far I do straight line quilting with a walking foot.
Wavy/organic lines w/my walking foot….taught by thee best: Christa Watson!
Thank you Aurifil and Christa for all the buzz during her 3rd book debut. I’m stoked!
I love quilting wavy lines! So quick, and goes with almost everything.
The thread colors are lovely!
I love piecing with precuts and quilts that showcase Great quilting. I’ve been into rulerwork lately.
I love a simple meander!
I love FMQ. Especially geometric designs.
I haven’t done much machine quilting, mostly straight line quilting with my walking foot.
Since I still consider myself a beginner I don’t really have a favorite – I do a lot of straight line or stitch in the ditch. When I’m feeling really brave I try a little FMQ!! Aurifil threads are just gorgeous! Thanks for the chance to win some xo 🙂
I am definitely a walking foot quilter! I use an elongated zig zag stitch on my machine that comes out looking like a serpentine line and gives great texture quilted about 1″ spacing. I also love to matchstick the heck out of smaller quilts!
I love to quilt with more control so I use a walking foot or rulers. This Christa Watson book would be ideal to help me break out of the same patterns.
I either straight line with a walking foot or FMQ a meander.
I’m a beginner in machine quilting. I use a walking foot and I’m trying to convince myself to try freemotion quilting but still collecting my corage.
I use lots of free motion quilting designs, but my favorite is doing a sun with flames design especially on any New York Beauty quilts. The one I use a lot is an all over stipple, sometimes plain, sometimes hearts or flowers.
My favorite quilting technique is stippling/meandering. My friend thinks it is stressful, but I find it very relaxing.
i love using my walking foot as well as free motion quilting – I always use Aurifil – my machine just seems to like it best!!!
So far I’ve only done straight line quilting with my walking foot, but hope to venture into free motion quilting soon.
Stippling is my go to quilting design, unless I’m in a hurry, than it’s in the ditch with my walking foot.
Have never done it before, and want to learn how. This would be great incentive
I am determined to quilt my own quilts and practice every day FMQ I’m comfortable with straight line and walking foot quilting and I’m working on circle quilting too. And of course Aurifil is the only thread I use !
I’m fairly new to FMQ, but with practice I’ll gain the confidence I need. Thanks for the wonderful giveaway!
My favorite machine quilting stitch is using a blanket stitch on the binding and matchstick.
I mostly stick to straight line stitching.
I would like to make a table topper & napkins out of the blue & white fabric.