Rhonda Bracey: At Random

This month’s challenge tutorial was from Paula Reid. Like Don Linn’s piece earlier in the year, this one used a design that we had to mark on to the fabric. Paula suggested several options for transferring the design and I ended up using a sample piece of Transdoodle from MistyFuse (received in my pack of MistyFuse several months ago).

I was pretty impressed with Transdoodle — you just lay it between the pattern and the fabric, chalky side down, then using a ball point pen or similar and a hard surface to write on, you go over the pattern and the chalk transfers to the fabric nice and neatly. There’s a bit of chalky residue transferred from where you press down with your hand etc. too, but it brushes off very easily. You can use the sheet over and over again.

Here’s my design transferred onto the fabric, ready for stitching –I didn’t transfer all the lines for the feathers, thinking I could do them without the marks.

Here’s the first lot of stitching — I used a white thread so that it would stand out against the deep red/maroon of the fabric. I was wrong about not marking the centre feathers. I could do the outside ones easily enough (though I’m much happier making commas a la Diane Gaudynski’s method), but I got a bit caught up on the inner feathers. I may have better off just doing them without the markings. I added some tiny pebbles in the centre and at the edges (the whole design fits an 8″ block).

Here’s the back:

I thought it needed a lift, so I added some variegated green ‘veins’ to the feathers and the teardrop motifs. Then went around the outer bumps and edges in the same green, about 1/8″ from the original stitching.

I’m glad I tried this technique, and especially glad I tried the Transdoodle paper as I think it has a lot of potential for anyone marking quilt designs.

However, having now done a couple of marked designs, I realise that they are not for me — I much prefer to create my own designs and patterns freehand on the machine. That said, I’m glad I’ve tried various marking methods as I’m sure I’ll use some marked designs at some point. So thanks Paula for stretching my bounds.

Threads used:

• White: Madeira Rayon, 40 wt, Colour 1001
• Green: Superior King Tut Egyptian cotton, 40 wt, Colour 988 (Oasis)
• Bobbin (navy): Wonderfil Invisifil, 80 wt, Colour IF 608