Rhonda Bracey: At Random

The last of the small quilts in the latest batch was a very pretty ‘stained glass’ style quilt in Asian fabrics. Each fabric was quite different so how to quilt it? I thought of doing something different in each block, but figured that might make it too busy (the fabric is busy enough), and I thought of doing a water motif. But eventually I decided on a spiky grass motif in a gold coloured thread (not metallic). I repeated the same grass in each block and used a smaller version of it in the border.

(Click on a photo to view it larger.)

In the border I also used the technique I learned in the December FMQ Challenge of making the centre and corner elements ‘kiss’ each other.

Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton rayon (color 2332 ‘Penny’; 40 wt)
• Bobbin: Wonderfil Deco-Bob (DB 115, 80wt)

The next small quilt in the most recent batch was another child’s quilt.

(Click on a photo to view it larger.)

I looked at the fabric for a hint as to how to quilt it, and found it in the balloons. I hunted out some ancient variegated overlocker thread I had in bright primary colours (plus green) and used that to stitch a big balloon in each block. I didn’t mark the balloons — just stitched them from the end of a tail, up to the balloon, around in a sort of circle, then stitched a small triangle for the knot/mouthpiece, and came back down for another tail. Pretty easy, really.

The fabric also had balls in it, so I did large bubbles in the green borders and sashing emulating the roundness of the balls, again, in the same overlocker thread. Then I stitched one HUGE balloon over the entire quilt in the last of my ‘glow in the dark’ thread. Hopefully, the child who receives this quilt will see it at night 😉

Threads used:

• Top: Variegated overlocker thread I’ve had for years!
• Bobbin: Bobbinfil (white; 70 wt)

My new batch of quilts arrived with the lovely Lisa a week ago! I completed the three smaller ones last weekend but have only just got around to taking the photos and writing blog posts about them.

First was a pretty teddy bear quilt. I wanted to make the hand-embroidered bears ‘pop’ (those blocks had double batting behind them, like trapunto), so I knew that tight/dense stitching around the bears would do that. I also stitched around the main bear shapes to make them pop even more. The bears were the most important element, so I used a cotton thread that blended in with the cream (calico?) background. And I decided to use MacTavishing as the tight stitch.

(Click on a photo to view it larger.)

After doing the bear blocks, the coloured borders of each block were too puffy, so my next decision was how to stitch them in a way that flattened them but with a stitch that a child might enjoy. I decided on big bubbles, in matching threads for each block (I didn’t want the bubbles to stand out too much).

My next decision was what to do with the empty cream blocks (setting squares) in the middle and on the outer edges. For the outer edges, I went with MacTavishing again, and for the inner blocks, I found an outline of a teddy bear on the internet, printed it out, cut it out as a temporary template, centred it and stitched around it, then added MacTavishing to make the outline ‘pop’. The final thing I added was another row of outline stitching around these two bears — in a ‘glow in the dark’ thread! Hopefully, it will show at night and the child who receives this quilt will get great delight in seeing the glowing outlines of the two little bears 😉

The back:

Threads used:

• Top: Superior King Tut ‘Papyrus’, plus various coloured threads to match the borders of each block
• Bobbin: Wonderfil Deco-Bob (colour DB 115; 80 wt)