Rhonda Bracey: At Random

This was a very old-fashioned quilt top — an old-fashioned block, old fabrics, and all the star blocks were hand-sewn. How to quilt it?

I started by stitching in the ditch ESS (‘every stinking seam’) — well, not quite every seam, but almost!

Next, were the white spaces. The area where the points all met in the middle was very bumpy for each block, so I needed something to flatten it. I decided to do a stylised flower, using a fairly close spiral for the centre, then radiating out following the shape of the white space for the petals, with a centre vein (these blocks were puffy too), and a couple of swirly bits on the side, followed by an echo line around the outside of the petals. I used a matching 80 wt thread for these as I didn’t want them to stand out too much.

But what to do about those 8-pointed stars? First I stitched in the ditch with an invisible thread through each one to reduce the puffiness and to stabilise them for the big spiral centre — I’ve done big spirals before without stabilising the layers first and ended up with weird effects, a bit like the ‘pointy bras’ of yesteryear that my Mum used to wear ;-). Next, I used the top off a container as my circle to mark the outer line with chalk. Then I stitched around the circle with a variegated mauve/purple/lemon/tan thread, then stitched another ring about 1/4″ from the outer ring, then I spiralled in to the centre and out again. Once I was back on the outer ring of the circle, I stitched flame-style ‘petals’ around the circle with the points almost touching the edges of the start. I thought they looked a bit like sunflowers when I was finished, and I was pleased with how they turned out.

Click on a photo to view it larger.

Threads used:

• Top: Wonderfil Deco-Bob (beige, 80 wt, colour DB 112); Wonderfil Mirage (30 wt, colour SD 32)
• Bobbin: Wonderfil Invisifil (lime green, 100 wt, colour IF 702)