Backgrounds and Borders. In my opinion, two of the hardest parts of the quilt to decide quilting designs for. 

Borders you are constantly confined to the same general shape so it often feels like you are constantly trying to reinvent the wheel to find new ways to quilt the same general space. 

Backgrounds often have very little restriction which causes the opposite problem, when you have all the options in the world, its hard to choose and narrow down!

I’ve been on the hunt for some inspiration found myself binge-watching the online quilting class Borders and Backgrounds by Angela Walters and its been so helpful I thought a Craftsy class review was in order.

Let’s start at square one: What is Craftsy?

Craftsy is basically the Netflix of crafting. Class on class on class for all different types of crafts. If there is a craft you want to learn, Craftsy is the place to go to find all the information and tools you need to be an expert on it.

Lucky for you and I, the quilting resources section happens to be the first icon on the screen! 

Kits, patterns, classes, notions, you’ll find them there. 

Who teaches the classes?

This is not a YouTube type situation where just anyone can add a video about a technique whenever they feel like it. There is no gambling on the quality and scope of information included in each class.

Craftsy works with industry leaders and award winning quilters/crafters to professionally film classes. After-production editing and everything. When taking a class from Craftsy, you’ll get tons of information is organized, helpful, and more importantly, plentiful. 

All the Details on Borders and Backgrounds

I originally took this class about four years ago, and the main thing i wanted to drive home in this Craftsy class review was how much amazing information there is in this class and how versatile the concepts are.

The bulk of the class is dedicated to showing step by step instructions on a handful of different quilting motifs, but the real point of the class is to show you how you can take one design that you love using as a border design, and alter it a bit to use it as a background design, or vice versa.

Each quilting motif that is featured in the class is shown in both a border AND a background setting, and even goes as far as to show you different variations on the design for both simpler and more complex ideas.

In addition to learning new uncommon quilting designs, there was a lot of really great tips for when it comes to preparing for the quilting process, on both a long arm AND a home sewing machine. 

Tips on how to adjust for less than perfect borders, wavy borders, turning corners in each design, as well as all of Angela’s different methods on how to attack the quilting process to avoid boredom with quilting the same design for long periods of time. 

She’ll also show you different ways to weave back and forth from the border to the center of the quilt so you can do everything in bits and pieces instead of focusing on doing ALL of the center and then ALL of the border one right after another. 

Mixing up designs within a single quilting session is what keeps us entertained after all, so if you want to check out Borders and Backgrounds more on Craftsy click here.

My personal favorite aspect of the class

Through watching the instructor Angela work the same design in different contexts, it really got my creative juices flowing for thinking about how MY favorite go to designs can be used in different ways. 

There are so many different quilting motifs out there to use that it’s not likely that she will cover all of your favorites in this class, and that was the same for me as well, but hearing her talk through how she adjusts her go to designs to fit different scenarios really provides universal ideas that can apply to just about any design. 

Changing scale or direction here, adding echoing and pebbles there, are all great ideas that apply to many designs, not just the ones she covers in this class. 

Hearing all of her different ideas kept making me think of how her adjustments can apply to my own go to designs which really left me with way more quilting design ideas then the class really advertises, which is a HUGE plus in my eyes. 

So what’s the catch

Usually when I do a Craftsy class review I try to do my best to be real about the class I’m reviewing and cover aspects I wish could change or might be a downside.

For this class, I’m really grasping for straws in this section and being really nit-picky because the class is over all really well done, and super all encompassing. 

If I had to choose one thing to change, I would ask for quilting designs that are not so naturally dense in stitching. Angela will tell you often that she loves to over quilt things and that means very dense quilting so it makes sense that her go to designs are of that nature. 

While I am obviously a huge fan of quilting, dense quilting often feels very stiff to me because of the amount of thread in such a small space. Not to mention the time and effort that goes into physically quilting dense quilting, so while I definitely find it useful to have learned these designs, and will likely use them in the future, I don’t see ALL of them being in my everyday quilting toolbox. 

Thats okay though, learning how to work through altering a design regardless of what that design really is was super helpful and has already come in handy on my current projects. That inspiration to think outside the box was more than worth the time and effort put in to taking the class, and the main reason for this Craftsy class review.

Is Craftsy Legit?

You may see different names for Craftsy depending on where you are on the internet. At one point over the last couple years, Craftsy was bought out and renamed Blueprint, and then at around the start of COVID, Blueprint was bought out and brought back to the original name Craftsy. 

Different names, same content. Regardless of what the logo looks like, the classes are amazingly helpful.

Craftsy offers their content in a couple of different ways, a Craftsy subscription will get you unlimited access to all of their classes including Borders and Backgrounds, or if another subscription is not what you are after, you can choose to purchase classes a la carte, one at a time, without a subscription and watch the one class whenever you like! 

Either way, having a resource like Craftsy at your fingertips when you run into snags is a secret weapon that saves you huge amounts of time (in frustration AND in seam ripping). 

I have the subscription myself, and when I was recently working on a curved piecing project, I was running into issues remembering all the tips and tricks, my blocks were coming out wonky, and I couldn’t figure out why. Out came my laptop and in five minutes of watching pieces of a curved piecing class I was back in action and knew exactly how to fix my blocks. (I’ll be going back for more though, I need more practice :P)

Borders and Backgrounds is one of the classes I’ve referred back to more than once over my quilting career when I just get stuck and don’t know what to do or get bored with my go to designs. 

If this sounds anything like you too, be sure to check out Borders and Backgrounds on Craftsy, and get your quilting mojo back in a hurry. There’s so many ideas out there, we just have to sit down and use them!