Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Whoopee! I’ve now quilted 100 quilts for the Community Quilts program. Others make the tops, yet others sandwich the tops, batting, and backing together and pin baste them ready for me to quilt, then when I’m finished the quilting (i.e. stitching the three layers together with some fancy threadwork ;-)), still more people sew on the binding before these quilts are donated to charitable organisations. I donate my time, my expertise, and my thread.

I wanted the 100th quilt to be a bit special, so I chose this stunning red, black, and white one from the most recent bundle. I decided to ‘custom’ quilt it, with different motifs in each block, different colours, various ruler work, etc. It took me about 12 hours to quilt this quilt from beginning to end.

I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks (what fun — NOT! — but it had to be done), then around all the centre pieces of each block to hold everything down and stabilise the quilt for quilting. Then I did all the stitching in red, followed by all the stitching in black, then finally all the white stitching, before finishing with a charcoal grey thread in the sashing strips and the large borders.

Deciding how to quilt each block was the hardest bit. Some designs immediately sprang  out, but others I agonised over for a while — I even read and reviewed two books while waiting for the inspiration to come for these blocks 😉 I was pleased with all the blocks, but some more than others. And if I did something similar again, I’d stabilise the borders with a light basting stitch fairly early on as the heavy stitching in the blocks meant that the borders got a bit puffy and unmanageable.

(Click on a photo to view it larger; note: it was a windy day when I took these photos AND I was using the camera on my new tablet, which means that some photos are not as crisp as I would’ve liked)

Borders and sashing — large and small spirals joined by a single centreline stitch:

Threads used:

• Top: Red: Robison-Anton ‘Tuxedo Red’ (rayon, 40 wt, colour 2420); Black: Robison-Anton ‘Jet Black’ (rayon, 40 wt, colour 2632); White: Fil-Tec Glide ‘White’ (trilobal polyester, 40 wt, colour 10000); Charcoal: Floriani (rayon?, 40 wt, colour PF488)
• Bobbin: Bobbinfil (white and black, 70 wt, cotton)

This quilt was very dark and sombre, so I sparked it up a little by stitching it with a variegated thread in blue, green, purple, and yellow. I used an all-over continuous line quilting design — the squared-off variation of the headband motif I use a lot.

There was only one problem with this quilt — I don’t think the navy backing fabric had been pre-washed, as I got all sorts of staining over my Sweet Sixteen table overlay. It is particularly bad where pins have lightly scratched the overlay as the staining is in those grooves. I’ve tried a couple of cleaning options with no effect as yet….

(Click on a photo to view it larger; note: photos not super clear — I’m still trying to get used to the camera on my new tablet)

Threads used:

• Top: Superior King Tut ‘Cairo’ (40 wt, cotton, colour #932)
• Bobbin: Bobbinfil (black, 70 wt, cotton)

I had to put my new ruler skills into practice, so I quilted this colourful quilt with wonky stars in a variegated pink/purple thread. After doing the plain blocks, I then did the same with the multi-coloured blocks, then added a little centre flower to each of the blocks to beat the puffiness and lumps into submission.

I sewed free motion stars in a light mauve thread in the border, and did a little bit of scallop work in the sashing border, with a little flame coming out of the dip.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Threads used:

• Top: Superior King Tut ‘Egyptian Princess’ (40 wt, cotton, colour #947); Isacord (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour Fb 3040)
• Bobbin: Bobbinfil (white, 70 wt)