Another ‘busy’ quilt. So I decided to quilt it just with a plain and simple large stipple, using a variegated pink, blue and white thread.
And so ends the 12 quilts I’ve quilted since Boxing Day 😉 I go back to work next week and have other stuff to do before then, so I doubt I’ll be as productive as the past week.
Click on a photo to view it larger.
This was a such a nicely constructed quilt top, I had to let it sit for a few days after I saw it — I needed to decide how to quilt it.
I thought of doing something quite formal, but in the end opted for a more fun quilting motif — free motion stars and loops! All in a matching yellow thread. The stars were really easy for me — I’d doodled hundreds of such stars when I was a teenager while listening to teachers prattle on… 😉
Click on a photo to view it larger.
I really liked the simplicity of this ‘Chinese coins’ quilt — I suspect it was made from a jelly roll of fabric. The fabric was a crisp cotton, similar to the fabric used for quality men’s shirts and not like standard quilting fabric at all. Even the tiny patterns on the fabric were similar to that on men’s shirts.
It leant itself perfectly to straight line ‘modern quilt’ stitching, so I used my favourite ‘Line Tamer‘ ruler to stitch the straight lines in white thread. I added an extra line in each strips and in the sashing strips, and extended the stitching on the vertical strips into the top and bottom borders.
Click on a photo to view it larger.
This was such a bright sampler quilt! So many blocks, so many colours. No doubt the little girl who will receive it will love it!
As this quilt top was so ‘busy’ with colours and various blocks, I decided to quilt it using a single colour thread (yellow) and a single all-over quilting motif. The motif is based on the open headbands, but inside of doing a second arc back over the first, I made three ‘petal’ loops or hops, then arced back and started the next one.
Click on a photo to view it larger.
Wow! 50 quilts quilted since the end of June 2012. Not bad for someone who has a day job…
This one looked as though it was a disappearing 9-patch quilt, using all scrap fabrics. It was very ‘busy’ so I decided to quilt it with just a simple large stipple in a matching variegated thread.
Click on a photo to view it larger.
This wasn’t my favourite quilt (something to do with the colours, I expect), though like the other crazy 9-patch quilt, this one looked so much better once it was on the line and viewed from a distance. Again, it looked like an abstract painting to my eyes.
On closer inspection, this wasn’t a crazy 9-patch as I had assumed — it was a crazy 4-patch, 6-patch and 9-patch!
I wanted to try something different so I decided to stitch spirals all over the quilt, as my first efforts with these were pretty dismal. I wanted to break up the sharp edges and angles of the crazy patches, so a rounded motif such as a spiral was just the ticket for that. (I love the little heart in the top left — nice touch!)
Click on a photo to view it larger.
Butterflies on blue log cabins… how to quilt this one? I started by trying to stitch some free motion butterflies on a scrap, but that was a dismal failure 😉 So, instead of getting too technical, I decided to emulate the flight of a butterfly by doing an all-over large meandering stipple in a variegated blue thread. It didn’t take long and I was pleased with how it turned out.
Click on a photo to view it larger.
Well, if I loved the previous quilt because of its fresh bright colours, I loved this one equally for the maker’s brilliant use of colours and fabrics.
The design reminded me of some native American art I’ve seen in places like Arizona and New Mexico. I had to let this quilt sit for a while, while I decided how to quilt it. Then I remembered that I’d downloaded an image of a free motion quilt design some time back of a Navajo sun — that would fit perfectly! In essence the sun design is a spiral in the centre, radiating out into freeform arms.
I started with the ones in the ‘white spaces’ first, thinking I might do something different in the coloured sections. But I ended up staying with the same sun motif in the coloured sections too. However, the border fabric was quite geometric and I thought that the squared off open headband motif would work well there.
I was pleased with how this one turned out. It was a beautifully made top and I wanted the quilting to enhance this beauty.
Click on a photo to view it larger.
I love this quilt! I love the colours, the fabrics (all the same but in different colourways), and the background fabric (like a very small seersucker of old). The large circles just lent themselves to a circular quilting motif, so bubbles/pebbles it was!
I stitched the bubbles in each coloured sector in a thread that matched the fabric colour, and in a crisp white on the background fabric. I had lots of fun doing this quilt — probably because the fabrics were such fun to work with. Even the backing fabric was bright and cheerful 😉
Click on a photo to view it larger.
This purple, blue and black quilt was a variation on tumbling blocks. So that I could perfect the squared off open headband motif, I repeated it on this quilt too — I think it’s in my ‘muscle memory’ now 😉
Click a photo to view it larger.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 