I loved quilting this Community Quilt. The colours were just gorgeous and I knew it needed special treatment and quilting that emphasised the richness of the colours and design.
I ended up using three top threads — a variegated brown Sulky rayon thread (Gutermann; colour 2120) in the centre section, the light border, and the outer border; a maroon rayon thread (Madeira; colour 1385) in the maroon border and the centres of the feathers in the black border; and a metallic gold thread (Madeira; colour Gold 6) for the large feathers in the black border. I used a maroon Deco-Bob thread (Wonderfil; colour DB245) to disappear into the rich brown batik fabric on the back.
I didn’t know how I was going to quilt it until I started, then just added designs as I went.
For the centre section, I arced from one centre diamond point to the next in the 4-patch blocks, then back again, followed by the edges, creating a ‘cathedral window’ effect with internal petals. For the setting triangles, I did half flower motifs. Then roundish bubbles for the first border in the same thread.
I quilted the next border in the maroon thread, doing a single line of feathers. These are hard to see in the photos.
The next light border I quilted with a ‘banana’ motif using the variegated brown thread. I left the gold/tan border unquilted.
For the maroon border, I did a square edged stipple following a singular wavy line down the centre of that border.
Then it was time for the wide black border. I hunted out some gold metallic thread that had always given me bother in my sewing machine. However, it went through the Sweet Sixteen really well and didn’t snap once. I deliberately started the feathers in the centre of each border and went out to the corners, instead of doing a long single set of feathers around the border. After doing the gold feathers, I put the maroon thread back in the machine and did little inner fronds inside each feather.
The outer border was quite ‘busy’, so instead of making a feature of it, I just did open headbands in it with the brown variegated Sulky thread.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
There is so much going on in such a simple quilt but it all ‘works’ so well! Your thread/pattern choices look to be such fun to do (of course, my fave is the black border…..feathers with the purple is awesome!!!)! All the pics are very clear and so helpful! Love it heaps!
Thanks Doreen!
Very well deserved;-b
Beautiful work! I’m just learning FMQ, so I use 1 thread to “blend” in to hide my stitches. I can’t wait to get better since I got my Sweet 16, and will be confident enough to use different colored & different weight thread. It just adds so much more dimension.