I loved this quilt! If you’d told me about a quilt in aqua/teal blue and tans, I’d have said ‘Yuck!’, but I just loved how these colours played so well together.
It was a big quilt, with lots of rectangles of various sizes, and multiple coordinating fabrics, some of which were curvy lines with dots/circles in them. That became my overall theme for quilting this quilt.
Because the edges were all so straight, I decided NOT to use any rulers for any of the quilting. Even the so-called ‘straight’ lines in the sashing strips are wonky free motion lines. That was a deliberate choice. I wanted the quilting on this quilt to be organic and not to rigidly follow the straight lines of the blocks. I quilted a different motif in each block — some with wonky lines, some with circles, some curvy lines, some with a combination… I repeated some motifs (e.g. the rectangular spiral), but avoided two motifs the same in any one block or two the same next to each other. I used the same soft blue thread throughout.
For the border, I did big loopy things, sort of like figures of eight/infinity symbols, but without any crossing lines.
It took me about 10 hours to quilt this quilt, running at 50% speed on my Sweet Sixteen for all the stitching (and with very few thread breakages – that might be because I used a new size 18 needle). Had I been using rulers, it would’ve taken much longer.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
Threads used:
- Top: Robison-Anton (40 wt, rayon, colour: ‘Sprite’)
- Bottom: Fil-Tec Glide pre-wound in white
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
Wow – love your quilting, Rhonda. I’m getting use to my SS16 and starting to enjoy it. They are great machines, aren’t they. Wonky straight lines – ah, that is a good idea – must try doing that instead of using rulers. Great quilt, Rhonda. Take care. Cheers, Rhonda.
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That’s nice and a great way to get a charity quilt done quickly! I like the fabrics!
Thank you so much for sending such detailed pictures of your stitches. They give me a lot of great ideas for practicing on my Tiara. Your work is so good – there is hope!
Very nice Rhonda!
Love that thread (and color!!!)! Avoiding the ruler-work really does cut the time and produces such a soft/organic finish. Your stitchings are so beautiful. It’s always a joy to see your finishes……an inspiration for so many!!!! Hugs……………………………
I’ll have to try that color combo! Beautiful quilting, as always!
Great quilting! And I like the pattern, too.
[…] Quilting can be done ‘free motion’ (no markings, no rulers, no pattern to follow except what’s in your head or how you guide the fabric under the needle — think of doodling with the needle being a static pen and the fabric sandwich being the paper that you move under the pen… try it with a real pen and paper to see how hard it is!), or can be done using markings, rulers, and other tools. I reckon life’s to short to mark quilts 😉 so I prefer free motion quilting (FMQ), which means not all my lines are perfectly straight, not all my circles are perfect circles etc. I’m looking for an overall ‘feel’, not perfection, so I’m OK with slightly wonky lines — in fact, in some quilts I’ve deliberately stitched wonky lines for effect (see this one: https://rhondabracey.com/2014/04/21/community-quilt-137/). […]