Rhonda Bracey: At Random

The last of the four quilts I quilted this weekend was another appliqued quilt, this time with a theme of angels. Like the bunny quilt, this one had panels where the applique was the most important element, and I wanted to make these appliqued angels ‘pop’. But I was a bit over stippling! So this time I decided to do some McTavishing. If I thought small stippling took a long time, then McTavishing blew that out of the park — it takes MUCH longer. I think it probably took about six or more hours to quilt this quilt.

For those who don’t know what McTavishing is, it’s the flame-like quilting I did in the applique panels. It’s a technique that was developed/promoted by long-arm quilter, Karen McTavish.

I left the borders unquilted as I felt that this quilt didn’t need any further quilting! However, I did ‘stitch in the ditch’ around the blue star fabric border, just to stabilise this area.

Threads used:

• Top: Superior King Tut ‘Papyrus’ (color #972), 40 wt (?) cotton
• Bobbin: Wonderfil Deco -Bob, 80 wt, color DB 205 (pale pink)

Click on a photo to view it larger.

The next quilt in the batch I quilted this weekend was a fun one! Cute little bunnies were appliqued all around the quilt, and the bright sunny yellow sets off the applique work of the maker really well. The child who is likely to receive this quilt will love it, I’m sure.

To make the appliqued objects ‘pop’, particularly in the centre panels, I quilted with a quite tight stipple (not a micro stipple, but not a large stipple either). I used a larger stipple on cream border panels, and a large leaf motif on the yellow outer border. All that small stippling meant that this quilt took several hours to quilt.

I tried to ignore the spelling errors…

Threads used:

• Top: Superior King Tut ‘Papyrus’ (color #972), 40 wt (?) cotton (the cream thread); Isacord, 40 wt polyester, color 0506 (yellow)
• Bobbin: Wonderfil Deco-Bob, 80 wt, color DB 115

Click on a photo to view it larger.

As I already had the thread loaded up for Community Quilt #25, I went straight on to this one as the colours were similar. This was a much smaller quilt (42 x 42 inches I think), so it didn’t take too long to quilt, especially as I used another favourite allover quilting motif — the one I call ‘open headbands‘. This meant I didn’t have to think a lot and could go faster than usual (I think I had the speed set to 60% for this one). I’m glad I kept the lighter bobbin thread in for this one as I think it adds a lot of ‘texture’ to the back.

Threads used:

• Top: Superior Rainbows variegated thread in a blue, reddish tan and cream; 40 wt, color 814
• Bobbin: Wonderfil Deco-Bob pale gray thread; 80 wt, color DB 103

Click on a photo to view it larger.

I had a bit of a quilting binge this past weekend! The weather was pleasantly cool, which meant I could venture into the sewing room (summers here are cruel). I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do that for, so I’m trying to get as many community quilts quilted as I can before the heat of summer really sets in and it become too hot to quilt (ambient temperature plus the heat of a quilt sitting on your lap…).

I was able to get four of the latest batch of my community quilts quilted. I think I’ve got my system worked out now — it worked well for this weekend, anyhow. I ironed the backing and top while watching TV, then pin basted the quilt on the wide kitchen counter still while watching TV (the TV is on the other side of the family room and I have a good view of it when I need to look up). I then roll the quilt up and put it in the sewing room, ready for quilting. Repeat for the other quilts. I’ve only got enough quilting pins to do about four largish quilts. But ironing and pin basting a batch like this (while watching TV) meant that when it came time to quilt I didn’t have to lose an hour or more PER QUILT doing those tasks. It also meant I got some TV programs I’d recorded ‘watched’. In fact, I ‘watched’ the whole 2.5 hours of the movie, “Angela’s Ashes” plus another two hour-long shows, while doing the ironing and basting. Sitting just watching TV always seems like such a waste of time, so combining time like this was a good move!

The first quilt of this latest batch was a large lap (single bed?) quilt, in blues and reds. It was already a pretty ‘busy’ quilt, so I just did a large allover stipple on it. Because I can stipple quite well these days ( my first efforts five years ago looked like jagged brain coral!), I set my HQ Sweet Sixteen to 70% speed (yes, that’s fast for me — I normally quilt about 35% speed) and off I went. A couple of hours later and this quilt was done.

Threads used:

• Top: Superior Rainbows variegated thread in a blue, reddish tan and cream; 40 wt, color 814
• Bobbin: Wonderfil Deco-Bob pale gray thread; 80 wt, color DB 103

Click on a photo to view it larger.