Free Motion Quilting--Ruler Work--Quilting Sizzle Quilt

UPDATE NOTICE--lots of photos have been added showing how I quilted the Cool Sizzle quilt.

For a lot of quilters, deciding HOW to quilt our quilts is the biggest challenge. It certainly is for me. I really like Ruler Work so do as much of it as I can.

This week I finished quilting the Cool Sizzle quilt, with the pieced borders:

While quilting it, I thought "who can I give this to?" Our niece, Kallie, who is expecting her first baby in just a couple weeks did not get the traditional "college graduation Super Star quilt" I make for all our nieces and nephews--she wasn't an official part of the family then. A couple years ago she told me turquoise was one of her favorite colors. It just seems like she is the right one to get this quilt.

Sizzle was designed by Becky Goldsmith for The Quilt Show. It was the 2019 Block of the Month. Now Becky has the rights to her pattern back and is working on having it published. She enjoyed seeing some of the border variations members of TQS did on their quilts and this is a border she wants to include. So good photos are a must.

Once the quilting was done on Cool Sizzle, I jumped on to Foothills:

I really love this quilt and am keeping it for  myself. See these posts for more information:

Last Chance

Change Your Mind

I worked with plexiglass and a dry erase marker, trying out a variety of design ideas after going through a lot of Free Motion Quilting books and YouTube videos:

I also played with paper and pencil:

When I had a plan, I just started. Only have a few blocks done so far but I am happy with the designs overall:

For Free Motion Quilting, I am working to master a few designs I really love and those will become my "go-to" designs for most quilts. Feathers are high on the list so I might quilt a simple feather border on the narrow outside border. On second thought,  it really might be too  narrow for feathers so loopy leaves is another design I enjoy--that is fast and fun.

I will enjoy quilting several blocks on Foothills each day, now that I know what the plan is.

What are you working on? Does the quilting part come naturally to you or is it hard to decide what to quilt?

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Paper Choices for Paper Piecing Quilt Blocks

I love Paper Piecing, especially complex blocks. Currently, I am making two Sizzle quilts, so I am getting lots of practice. I have written about paper piecing before--if you want lots of tips for this technique, Read this Tutorial.

The paper I use for piecing has to have certain qualities:

It has to be easy to print on a home printer
The ink cannot smear once dry
It has to be easy to sew on
It  has to be easy to press the sewn fabrics flat
It has to be easy to remove

I am testing 3 different "vellum" papers on a Sizzle block:

 Here are my results:

1. C&T Simple Foundations Translucent Vellum Paper--this is the product Becky Goldsmith recommends and it is included in the Accessory Kit for the Sizzle quilt, the 2019 Block of the Month for The Quilt Show.

   This is the medium weight of the 3 papers I am testing. It works well, is easy    to  run through my printer, the ink doesn't smear, and tears off pretty easily. It curls just a bit but not enough to be a problem.

2. Master's Touch Tracing Pad, 25 lb., 9" x 12"--bought at Hobby Lobby.
This is the thinnest of the 3 papers I am testing. I had to trim to 8.5" for the printer. Even though I separated each of the 8 sheets from the stack to "un-stick" them, each time I printed 8 copies, one page stuck to another and I had to re-print that one--and had one page printed on regular paper. The ink also smeared a bit even days after printing. It curled the most of the 3. It was easy to remove.

3. Vellum Paper Value Pack, bought from Amazon online. Amazon
This the thickest of the 3 papers I am testing. It printed easily, the ink did not smear but the thickness of the paper made it difficult to press the fabrics as they were added. It took a hard press to get the fabrics as flat as possible, without having a pleat at the seam. It was more difficult to remove than the other two papers, I really had to pull the paper away from the stitches.

I know a couple people who like to use lightweight tracing paper. They have to print one page at a time since the thin paper does not feed easily in their printers. This would be inconvenient for me--the printer is on the other side of the house from my studio where my computer is.

So, for now, I am sticking with the C&T vellum paper. It does what I need it to do and is dependable.

If you search online for "vellum" be aware there are many weights and levels of transparency. Much of the vellum I saw online was being marketed for Wedding Invitations--the little page that goes between the fancy papers. Those are most likely too thick and not transparent enough for paper piecing quilt blocks, especially complex designs like these.

This is half of a Sizzle Block, showing where a lot of seams come together. You can see it is important that the paper work well with this kind of project:

Paper Piecing allows for the kind of precision I just could not get with regular piecing. Here is the center of that block, finished:

If you have a paper you love, please let me know about it.

Le'ts quilt.

Barbara

SIZZLE Fabric Selection and Preparation

This is an exciting time--selecting and preparing fabrics for SIZZLE--the 2019 Block of the Month from The Quilt Show.

Here is the Cool Kit I will be using, it looks so neat, tidy and pretty all packaged:

Here are the fabrics, separated into lights, greens, and blues:

Then I separated them into lights/darks, relatively speaking:

While I don't usually pre-wash my fabrics, the instructions recommend pre-washing so I'll do it  to as part of this process:

I snip off a small corner of each fabric before pre-washing to cut down on raveling, especially if I plan to wash fabric with clothing. The other advantage to this method is I always know these fabrics have been pre-washed:

Shake out each fabric flat, don't put into the washing machine folded. I used the Express Wash cycle, it's not dirty, after all, and just a bit of Orvus Paste, a mild soap I use to wash my quilts. AND I added a Shout Color Catcher to each load. Do not use hot water, cold or warm is fine.

Here is the result of the Color Catchers: light load on the left, dark load on the right. There is some color loss in each load but not enough to worry any more about:

After drying the fabrics, I intended to smooth them flat and press them before using each one, as the instructions recommend. I found the solid woven shot cotton fabrics really needed pressing now and fabrics just look so much more scrumptious pressed flat so I pressed them all.

NOTE: Great tip from one of the Sunday Sew and Sews--hang the shot cottons to air dry on a rack--don't put them in the dryer--much less pressing to do.

MY BEFORE shot cottons:

AFTER.  I recommend not letting your fabrics get bone dry, about 99% dry is best, they press nicely then:

The hardest part for me now, is to NOT start on this--Christmas needs some work at  my house; otherwise...:

Last week I helped a few students select their SIZZLE fabrics at Huntsville Sew Creative:

Sheila started with the small piece of batik on the lime and pulled fabrics in those colors

Peggy is going black, white, gray and Royal Blue

Terri is working with this lovely palette

Several other people stopped in to ask questions and see my additional palette--I am also making a Cool/Warm combo version:

Some of these fabrics are more than 10 years old--the colors are perfect for me. Here is my fabric inspiration, I went heavier on the purple, less of the darker blue:

Kauai Rooster

Class begins January 5 at Huntsville Sew Creative, 256-536-3757. There is still some room in this year-long adventure, call today to secure your spot. You will learn so much, I promise. No sewing in class, I lecture/demo/help you for two hours each month, you do all your sewing in the comfort of your home. I hope you'll join us.

Here is a 10 minute conversation with Becky Goldsmith, the SIZZLE designer and well-known quiltmaker, author and teacher--she will get you excited about our new journey too:

Becky Goldsmith Video

Let's Quilt!

Barbara

Sizzle--It's a Wrap!

We have made it to December and Sizzle is coming to an end. My Warm version is done and gifted, it now lives in Texas:

SIZZLE--HOT!

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are not done, and that's OK, BE SURE you download/print/save ALL the instructions by December 31, 2019. After that date they are ALL removed from The Quilt Show and become the sole property of Becky Goldsmith, the designer. Any you are missing you will have to purchase directly from Becky when she has the pattern available for sale. That's the legal, contract, and copyright rules and we have to abide by them.

Let's talk about assembly of the top. It's pretty simple:

1. Sew 9 blocks together into rows, 3 x 3
2. Add Left and Right borders on the sides
3. Add Top and Bottom borders--Done!

Now it's time to quilt. I did this one myself on my Bernina Q20 Sit Down Longarm. I pin-basted it with safety pins, using my dining room table, doing first one side, then the next.

I selected threads that would blend with the various fabrics. I used a tan Bottom Line thread for the back, that blended completely with the back fabric:

When I am quilting my own quilt, I make a test "sandwich" of the same back and batting and several of the fabrics in the quilt. This allows me to test the thread and tension before working on the quilt. This one is pretty skimpy, I recommend a larger "sandwich":

While in Denver in August taping The Quilt Show, I was able to see and photograph both the Cool and Warm versions made by Becky Goldsmith. The Cool was quilted by Becky and the Warm by Angela Walters. This gave me a few ideas for quilting designs.

First, I stitched in the ditch between the rows of blocks. This helps to stabilize the quilt and quite a few of the pins can be removed as this step is done.

Second, I stitched around the large circle of each block. It took me until block 6 to realize I had to SLOW DOWN--I took out quite a lot of the stitching as I veered off course going around the circles. If doing this on a domestic machine, with feed dogs, I would have been more successful from the beginning. Once I slowed down and kept my hands close to where I was stitching, things were much better.

Now it was time to add more quilting to each block. I love ruler work so chose then whenever possible and appropriate:

Stitching in the Ditch where the border meets the quilt

For each block, I used a piece of plexiglass and dry erase marker to "audition" free motion designs I wanted to try:

Ideas for the Background

For the purple wedges that are along the outer circle edge, I wanted to use a design that was easy to quilt and would be continuous around the the block. All 9 would be done the same. Here is what I decided to do:

As I went around the circle, I used the ruler to go down the right side of the wedge, then did a double loop from the point up toward the outside of the wedge, then I used the ruler to move up the left side of the wedge, back to the curved outside edge. If you are really good at free motion, you could do those straight lines without a ruler.

The most important decision was how to quilt the yellow/orange/rust backgrounds. In the photo above you see the path I selected. Here is the result:

I used white school chalk to make marks at the places I needed to hit. To keep it continuous, the center line was stitched up then back out so I could keep going.

When the first pass was done, I decided it needed more quilting so I did a second pass that echoed the first and traveled in the ditch. Yes, that puts a good bit of stitching in the ditch in places, but you can't see it unless you really look close. And that beats starting and stopping all the time.

Each block got additional quilting, some ruler work, some free motion, depending on what I felt it needed. Some were better than others, some I kept adding to, usually after thinking I was done. The next day I would realize more quilting was needed.

For the Borders, first I echoed each applique' shape. Then I filled in with swirls and loops, all of this with thread that closely matched the rust fabric. Then I used thread that matched the applique's and did some decorative stitching on each shape.

All in all, it was fun, I was pleased with my quilting and the overall quilt is one of the best I've ever quilted myself. The entire job took less than 20 hours over 5 days.

Here are shots of each block:

Feel free to quilt yours however you like.

Finishing the quilt requires binding, adding a sleeve and a permanent label. I have written about these topics before. And there are many videos online that show these important steps. My links:

Finishing and Binding and adding a Sleeve

Adding a Permanent Label   I am a believer that every quilt needs a label, just do it.

The label I put on mine, showing the back fabric:

When my Sizzle--Hot! was completely done, I machine washed and dried it with a Color Catcher--if it was going to bleed I wanted to find out before giving it to my friend. That got rid of the chalk marks and left it soft and cuddly. She likes it and I am happy she will enjoy it.

Next up for me is quilting Sizzle--Cool. I will do the backgrounds the same but have a few other quilting motifs in mind for this one:

Pin basted, ready to go

Test sandwich, ready for thread and tension adjustments

I hope you have enjoyed this year-long journey. We have Becky Goldsmith to thank for a wonderful design, and The Quilt Show to thank for giving it to us for FREE!

Let's quilt.

Barbara