Book Review - How Do I Quilt It?

 I was sent a digital copy of How Do I Quilt It? for review. All of the opinions in this post are my own.

If you're anything like me, deciding how to quilt your newly finished quilt top is sometimes a tough decision. I've been known to sit with a basted quilt under the needle of my machine, ready to start quilting and with a deadline looming, just staring at it because I don't know what to quilt. I've even been known to tell myself, "Just start with something!"

Well, Christa Watson of Christa Quilts has written a book to help with those decisions, especially for beginner quilters. Christa is a quilter, fabric designer and teacher who believes that anyone who wants to can quilt their own quilts on their home sewing machine. Her new book, How Do I Quilt It?, offers a ton of suggestions to help quilters decide how to quilt their quilts and it includes both walking foot and free motion designs. You can get a signed copy of the book from Christa's shop here.

All pictures in this post courtesy of C&T Publishing 

I have to say that I fell in love with the book with Christa's first sentence, which says, "I like to call myself a perfectly imperfect quilter." I can so relate to that! When I'm talking about my own quilting, I often say something like 'no two flowers are the same' or 'there isn't a properly straight line anywhere' or something similar. I also usually end off by saying 'but I'm okay with that.' I'm having fun when I'm quilting and trying for perfection would just take all the fun out of it.

In the book Christa covers both the mechanics of quilting (the tools and set up) and the design possibilities. The section on how to get set up gives us a look at all of the tools she uses, plus a step-by-step description of how she spray bastes her quilts. While I've always pin basted and have no interest in changing to spray basting, I still find it interesting to read all the nitty-gritty details of how someone else approaches it. And if you do want to try spray basting, she tells you everything you need to know to be successful.

Then we get into the heart of the book - the quilting! Christa uses a simple nine patch block to show the different designs, both walking foot and free motion, with a picture of it stitched out, plus diagrams showing the stitching path and several variations for each design. There are simple designs and more complex ones as well as some that are dense and others that are lighter. Whatever style a particular quilts needs, you'll likely find something to suit it.

To round things out, Christa includes three patterns - Daisy Chain (shown here), Pinwheel Tessellations and Loose Weave.

For each quilt, Christa shares three different ways to quilt it - one walking foot, one free motion and one custom quilting plan. Again, there are diagrams to show the stitching path for each variation and tips for working your way around the quilt. Those tips for how to move through the quilt would be helpful for figuring out how to make your way around any quilt.

While How Do I Quilt It? is geared more for those just learning machine quilting, there's plenty of eye candy and tips to make it helpful for more experienced quilters, too. And if you are just beginning to learn to quilt your own quilts on your domestic machine, it's an excellent resource for you!