Creative Spark Event Team
6.5 Hours of Content
6.5 Hours of Content
Quilt Finishing Fest is a live, virtual event of quilting and quilt finishing techniques taught by expert instructors. We have gathered quilt and binding experts to share all their pro tips, tricks, and techniques with you. Our opening keynote speaker, Christa Watson, is an award-winning quilter, enthusiastic industry ambassador, modern fabric designer, and author of numerous books, articles, and patterns on piecing and machine quilting. She will set the stage for the event by sharing the importance of prepping the quilt, basting, and making a quilting plan.
Next, you will take part in 40-minute workshops to learn various subjects, such as stress-free binding, walking foot techniques, working with BERNINA Q20 technology, free-motion quilting, and so much more! Whether you’re looking for new skills and techniques, technologies to explore, or inspiration for your next project, there is something for every quilter at this event to elevate your projects.
Let’s break down the breakout rooms:
You’ll get 6 1/2 hours of content in four hours using the magic of technology. Quilt Finishing Fest will have ten 40-minute breakout rooms. You’ll pick three you want to see LIVE and choose your own learning adventure with just a click. Recordings of the other rooms will be available to watch through your Creative Spark account.
Discover stress-free steps to prep and sew bindings to your quilt
Learn new techniques on walking foot quilting, free-motion quilting, machine quilting, and more!
Find inspiration in unique binding and finishing options for your quilts
Discover the magic of free-motion thread painting with the BERNINA Q20 sit-down mode
Get 6.5 hours of content at your convenience, a Swag Bag, and enter Giveaways!
Quilt and finish your quilts with confidence! Join us for a day full of quilting, stress-free binding, exciting giveaways, and inspiration for your next project.
THIS EVENT IS NO LONGER FOR SALE.
The Virtual, Live Event is on Thursday, September 7th from 9 am to 1 pm Pacific Time.
ALL of the content is RECORDED and available without expiration after the event.
SPONSORED BY:
Christa Watson is a fabric designer, educator, and prolific pattern producer who believes that quilts don’t have to be perfect to be functional and beautiful. She travels worldwide, empowering others to take ownership of the entire quilting process. As an enthusiastic cheerleader for the quilting industry, Christa provides plenty of inspiration and resources so you can have as much fun making your quilts as she does!
How Do I Quilt It
Prepare your quilt, choose your designs, and find your path! Christa will dive into the essential steps of quilt preparation, basting techniques, and crafting a quilting plan. She will also share insightful ideas to consider when quilting your own masterpiece. While primarily geared towards domestic machine quilters, the lecture will also be relevant for longarm machine enthusiasts, too, except for the basting aspect.
Becky Goldsmith, the owner of Piece O' Cake Designs, is an award-winning quilter who travels to teach worldwide. Becky's classes are always exciting and informative, emphasizing teaching techniques that help you improve your sewing skills without feeling overwhelmed by the details. She loves sharing the joy—and sewing techniques—with her students.
Binding Made Simple: Stress-Free Techniques for Excellent Results
Discover the simple steps to prep and sew binding to your quilt! Join Becky in conversing about layering, thread-basting, and tidying up edges on quilts. Becky will compare single-fold straight and double-fold binding to find the correct binding for your project. With expert tips on binding prep, sewing corners, and joining ends, this demonstration will give you techniques for stress-free binding.
Carolina Asmussen is an architect who discovered textile art and quilting in 2010 in Switzerland. As an awarded professional Quilt Artist, Teacher, and BERNINA Ambassador, her work has been in several exhibitions worldwide. Carolina’s goal with the students is to make them able to recognize the vital elements of their creative work and highlight tools and techniques to make them improve and grow with confidence in their sewing and quilting journey.
Thread Painting Magic: Discover the Art of Free-Motion with BERNINA Q20
Explore the possibilities of the BERNINA Q20 longarm quilting machine! Learn how to free-motion thread painting with the BERNINA Q20 sit-down model. Thread painting is all about drawing with threads and fabrics, and it is a fabulous way to add unique details to your quilt or sewing project. Carolina will also offer expert tips and tricks for free-motion couching work!
Catherine Redford is a national award-winning quilter, international teacher, and author. Dragged into the Zoom era, she has been teaching classes coast to coast, sometimes both coasts on the same day. Since 2003, Catherine has been teaching Walking Foot Quilting and wants to inspire her students to get quilt tops finished into quilts. With basic guidelines, some original ideas, and a love of self-deprecating humor, her classes are fun and practical for all experience levels!
Walking Foot Quilting: Beyond the Basics
Learn how to finish your quilts on a domestic machine while enjoying all the control of your walking foot! Providing expert tips, Catherine will demonstrate stitched samples of different styles, including matchstick quilting, combined stitches, and serpentines. She will also explain how to elevate your quilting techniques with beautiful organic curves.
Jenny K. Lyon is a fiber artist, author, and teacher from Northern California. Her work focuses on free-motion quilting on whole cloth and has been juried into various shows and galleries. She teaches and lectures on free-motion quilting across the country. She inspires her students to find joy and confidence in free-motion quilting!
Celebrate Quilt Completion: The Success and Joy of Free-Motion Quilting
Wouldn’t you love to confidently finish your own quilts and free-motion quilt? Jenny shares her best tips, techniques, and tools to help make your free-motion quilting successful and joyful! Drawing on her 24 years of experience, let Jenny be your guide to help you create a personalized plan to boost your free-motion skills and finish those quilts!
Lee Chappell Monroe is a BERNINA Ambassador and Creative Spark Instructor. She comes from a family of quilters and learned everything from her mother, affectionately known as The Guru. She loves all things fabric—from a zippy pouch to a queen-size quilt—and everything in between. With a love of color and bold graphic shapes, Lee enjoys designing patterns and teaching classes while sharing her adventures on her blog, maychappell.com.
Little Quilts, Big Dreams: Crafting Smaller Projects
If you make minis, pillows, runners, or placemats, this lecture demo is for you! Dive into free-motion quilting, with the occasional walking foot pass, and learn to tackle small projects. You’ll learn the basics of simple free-motion designs to be confident in quilting all your small projects on your domestic machine. Lee will show you how to use the seam lines as your guide (no marking is necessary)! These approachable techniques are perfect for a free-motion newbie or someone looking for simple quilting ideas for smaller projects.
Lisa Archer is the Designer at Pickle Pie Designs and loves sharing happiness “in the hoop” of your embroidery machine. She is the author of Modern Machine Embroidery and a Spokesperson for Bernina of America. Lisa (and her machine embroidery designs!) have been featured in several publications, including Creative Machine Embroidery Magazine. Lisa lives in North Carolina with her kids (two humans and two felines!)
Let Your Embroidery Machine Quilt Your Quilt!
Join Lisa Archer from Pickle Pie Designs to learn a fun and easy way to get professional quilting results - using your embroidery machine! Whether your quilt top was made on your sewing machine or your embroidery machine, you can use these quilting designs to finish your project and give it a professionally quilted look and feel. You'll learn tips and techniques for starting your quilt's first section, lining up, and stitching the next section with a continuous flow. Lisa will also share some “in the hoop” quilt blocks that integrate the piecing and quilting in a "quilt-as-you-go" technique. You'll love watching your embroidery machine do most of the work!
Lori Kennedy is the author of three books on machine quilting and the popular instructional website Lori Kennedy Quilts. She is best known for her whimsical quilt motif tutorials and video shorts found on BERNINA’s We All Sew blog. Lori makes quilting fun by breaking up the process into small, manageable steps every quilter can achieve. She prefers quilts with a hand-drawn look (over ruler perfection) and teaches quilters to doodle their way to better quilt design.
Machine Quilting Magic: Simple Steps for Endless Fun
Machine quilting is easy and fun when you know a few tricks. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced quilter, Lori will share tips on turning unfinished quilt tops into cherished heirlooms. First, learn practical tips for setting up your machine to make quilting easier. Next, review why choosing the right thread and batting is so essential. Finally, delve into quilt design by choosing fun motifs to add personality to your quilts. Remember, quilts with personality become heirlooms--not perfect quilts! You can become a better, more confident quilter in less than one hour!
Quilt projects can have a mind of their own, and Marci Baker is open to the possibilities. With over 35 years of teaching internationally, Marci is a resource for student success. She has published eight books, created ten tools and rulers, and developed unique methods for strip-piecing 60-degree designs, chain-pieced set-in seams, foundation piecing, and successful binding.
Beyond the Basic Binding
Is your project begging for something special? Does that extra detail complete the design? Try a different finish to the edge with Marci as your expert guide! Find inspiration in these unique and varied options: self-binding, raw-edge, knife-edge, or pillowcase edge. Bindings can be straight-grain, bias, single-fold, double-fold, wide, narrow, hidden, stripe-on-grain, barber pole stripe, piped, or accented. Edges can have prairie points, ruffles, lace, piping, or petals. And finishes can be hand-sewn, machine stitched, embroidered, or big stitched. One of these is bound to finish your quilt with the perfect touch!
MJ Kinman’s passion for over 25 years has been creating quilts inspired by beautiful diamonds and colorful gemstones. She is delighted to share her techniques with students around the world through classes, lectures, articles, and her book "Gemstone Quilts: Creating Fire & Brilliance in Fabric, Step by Step.” MJ’s goal is always to say YES to joy, leaving fear behind.
Exploring Complex Quilt Designs for the Modern Quilter
Join MJ as she shares her journey into the many ways to quilt complex-pieced quilts! MJ shares the wide variety of quilting patterns that enhance the complex piecing that makes up the patterns: stipple quilting, matchstick quilting, repetitive-pattern quilting from beautiful longarm quilting, and more!
Shannon Leigh Roudhán and Jason Bowlsby are the dynamic DIY duo from Seattle, Washington. Shannon and Jason have published 11 books, including the best-selling Boro & Sashiko and the newly released Contemporary Kogin-zashi from C&T Publishing. Their mastery of the subjects they teach (including history and evolution), enthusiasm, quirky sense of humor, and relatable teaching style have made them sought-after teachers in local and national venues. The “edu-tainment” experience of a class with Shannon & Jason will leave you informed, empowered, and in stitches (see what we did there?).
Face It, Bag It, Bind It
You spent hours picking colors, cutting, trimming, and piecing. Then came the sandwiching (not a pastrami on light rye, unfortunately) and the carefully planned quilting. There is a final step before your creation will be ready to be unleashed on the world! Now is the time to decide: do you face it, bag it, or bind it? Each has its purpose, and each has its drawbacks. Shannon and Jason will answer burning questions about binding, bias-cut binding, and more. Let’s talk about it! If you know the dynamic duo, you know they have juicy secrets to spill.
PRIZE SPONSORS
I thought it was very well organized with useful information. I'm looking forward to finding the presenters on social media and delving into some of their techniques.
I really enjoyed the assortment of topics and presenters. Came away with LOTS of great info and the recorded option is perfect. Thanks for a great program.
Really enjoyed the classes!
I learned quite a few new things. Excellent speakers. Always look forward to these events so please keep them coming!
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