Pink - Ta Da! - Machine Quilting With Style Blog Hop

Here is a new quilt finish, Pink. The pattern is called Lightning and it is from my friend Christa Watson's new book, Machine Quilting With Style. Today is my stop on the blog hop for this great new book. You can read the story behind this pattern over at Christa Quilts today - go here.

I was very excited to be included in Christa's blog hop. Christa and I have become internet friends and we even got to meet in person at Quilt Market and at QuiltCon. She loves machine quilting, and you know I love machine quilting, she wants to encourage more people to show modern quilts at quilt shows, and so do I, well, you get the picture, she is a kindred quilty spirit.

Christa asked many of the participants in the blog hop to make one of the quilt patterns in the book and I chose the pattern called Lightning. I have never made a rail fence quilt, and Christa's modern twist on this traditional pattern caught my eye. My version is about 60" square, the pattern in the book includes instructions for a full bed size version.



Although the book has a number of lovely modern quilt patterns, I especially loved the parts that focus on the quilting. For my quilt, I used two colours of thread, a light pink for the stipple/meander quilting on the pink parts and a soft grey for the lightning bolts. Both my choices were Superior Threads King Tut 50wt cotton threads. I love how the colours add just a little extra to the quilt.

As you can see, I used a stipple/meander quilting pattern for all the pink areas, just as Christa suggests in the book. Originally I thought I would change the quilting for each stepped diagonal part of pink but I was having such a great time stippling that I decided to stick with it.



I took some photos in harsher light to purposely show off the quilting more. You can see that I decided to try a number of the other quilting patterns Christa features in Machine Quilting With Style in the grey lighting bolts. I used switchbacks - a design that I use often and love.



Pebbles, a design I love but seldom use as they are time consuming. But I love they way pebbles look and realize I want to use them more.



I used boxes - a square meander - which is another favourite quilting motif of mine.



Of course I used parallel lines, perhaps my very favourite quilting motif of all.



I did my best to give the quilt an overall balance of quilting density. The lightning bolt areas are a bit denser but not extremely so.

Christa shares a number of excellent tips for walking foot and free motion quilting in the book. A reader could easily work through the patterns and the quilting motif and become a proficient quilter by the end.

I wanted to mention that I quilted Pink on my long arm quilting machine, not my domestic machine. I was able to easily use all the quilting motifs and I think my quilting is much like that done on the home machine for these patterns. My only challenge on the long arm was working diagonally down the quilt - there was a fair bit of advancing and then returning the quilt to the earlier position to begin again. I had not done that before and I learned that it was no big deal to do so. All in all, Christa's book is, in my view, useful for most every quilter.



I pieced my back with some of my favourite Laura Gunn prints. I have been saving her painterly prints and was happy to see how well they worked with this quilt top. As I used the same pink and grey thread in the bobbin, you can see how the lightning bolts stand out on the back of the quilt too.



All of the photos in this post are before the quilt was washed. I have since washed her and may add a photo of it washed later. But since the book is about quilting, the better photos of quilting are before the wash induced crinkle happens.



I bound this quilt with this lovely Maker print. I was originally thinking of a scrappy pink binding but I am glad I went with this one print instead. It seems to gently hold all the scrappy riot in the quilt.



I have to say that I am likely to make more quilts using Christa's pattern and her quilting tips as a starting point. You can get a copy of Machine Quilting With Style on Amazon here.

I have an electronic copy of this fantastic book to give away as part of the blog hop too. To enter, leave me just one comment. Let me know if you are a confident quilter - as opposed to piecer - and if you like the quilting part. I will randomly draw the winner at 6 am MST (first thing) on Saturday morning.



Christa is going to host a quilt along and you can help her chose which pattern from the book to use by competing the survey here.

And here is the full blog hop schedule - there are many inspiring posts along the way for you to check out.

• 9/14 Start here at Christa Quilts
• 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

Plus, there will be additional stops on the hop from the awesome people listed below. They will be sharing their 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 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 fromTerifiCreations
• 9/26 Pellon Projects and Amy Ellis from Amy’s Creative Side

I have truly enjoyed Machine Quilting With Style and I expect you would too. And Pink, well she is just so pretty, I am loving her too.

Besides entering my giveaway for an electronic copy of Christa's book by commenting on today's post, head over to Christa Quilts for links to a couple of other giveaways too. And several of the blog hop stops also include giveaways too, in addition to inspiration.

Edited: My giveaway is now closed.

Pink was also on my Q4 Finish Along list!

Best,

Leanne