How I quilted Cool Sizzle

[Barbara B.]

I finished my Cool Sizzle quilt, the one with a pieced border. Here is today's blog with lots of photos showing how I quilted it. I love ruler work so that is lots of that and some free motion quilting:

https://bbquiltmaker.blogspot.com/2020/04/free-motion-quilting-ruler-work.html

[Helen W.]

Barbara, Lucky Kallie!!! She will love having a cool looking quilt to keep her warm. Your ruler work really looks great in the background fabrics and on the pieced borders.
Hope Becky Goldsmith uses pictures of your quilting too. It is like you say, deciding how to quilt a quilt is often the hardest part. I think a lot of quilters will be inspired to
do ruler work as an option for quilting their Sizzle quilt. What thread did you use? I really like the circles where you did the free motion designs, not just the stitch it ditch.
Looks like you probably did a lot of ditch stitching too. When you get the binding on and post more pictures, could you include some of the back too. You did a beautiful
job on every aspect of the qullt. Love following your posts on your quilting. HelenW

[Kathryn S.]

Barb, this is perfect timing! Friday, i finally finished the cool Sizzle top. I did the applique border, using straight stitch turned edge with freezer paper on top. This might have been a little above my skill level but it turned out nice. And I was thinking about how to quilt it. I like your quilting- it is related to the piecing, just dense enough, but doesn't draw your eye away from the block centers. Ruler work quilting is fun, I use my Handi quilter sweet 16 sit down machine. Thank you so very much for posting these pics on your blog. Kathy

[Barbara B.]

Kathy, I love that the timing was perfect.

If you didn't see this post, it shows how I quilted the Warm Sizzle I made and gave to a friend--it is similar to this one but I did a better job on it:

https://bbquiltmaker.blogspot.com/2019/12/sizzle-its-wrap.html

[Kathryn S.]

Those are great photos of your quilting. I usually spend some time drawing out designs like you do, and this will give me a place to start. Your colors in the warm one are gorgeous.

After about 5 years of recovering from various broken bones, mom's illness, etc, I've lost a lot of my skills. Now that I'm mostly retired and now home bound, I want to work at getting back the skills. I so appreciate your mentoring and cheerleading us through these BOM's. I remember when Sue did that with her earlier BOM's and it was wonderful. We are fortunate that you have given of your time to TQS.

Kathy

[Barbara B.]

Kathy, you will get your skills back as you work on the quilt. Glad I can help. Since 3 travel jobs went “poof” from this crazy virus, this is how I can still teach quilters. Five local classes are on pause right now too. At least quilters have plenty to keep us occupied.

[Barbara B.]

Helen asked to see the back. Now that this quilt is completely done, including the label, here is a photo of the back. I used a tightly woven back, thinks it's Grunge by Moda, and it was pretty thick--hard on the needle. I have no idea why the photo is upside down and can not fix it. Oh, well, you get the idea.

[Helen W.]

Barbara, Thank you for taking the picture. The backing fabric with the large polka dots is perfect. Small circles to complement the large circles on the other side.
The color gives a nice calm, cool feeling to the quilt. The density of stitching is even throughout which also gives a calming effect to look on the back side.
I love seeing the quilting from the back side, It gives a more overall layout of the stitching, because for me it is hard to get past all the designs in the many fabric
pieces and quilters are so good at matching threads, I can't tell is they stitch in the ditch or just outline certain parts etc. The quilt and quilting is beautiful. HelenW