Rhonda Bracey: At Random

This pretty quilt was almost perfectly square, which was some achievement considering the triangular/bias blocks in the border! How to quilt it?

I started by stitching in the ditch around every stinkin’ coloured piece of fabric… Yep. Every one.

Then I auditioned some designs by putting a plastic sheet over the top of the quilt and marking on it with a marker, erasing, marking again, etc. until I got something I thought would work. The borders were always going to be cross-hatched to match the fabric seams and the angles of the little coloured squares in them, so that was easy. And I decided not to stitch the coloured fabrics, just the white space.

For the main star blocks, I did all sorts of things — 3-petal half flowers with a curlicue in the centre of the central petals; art deco style triangular type things in the squares (some facing one, some facing out), then finally big art deco style lines in the odd shapes.

I used my Line Tamer ruler for the cross-hatching in the borders, and for the very large outlines of the odd-shaped diamonds; everything else was free motion, including the stitch in the ditch straight lines.

I quite liked the overall effect.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec ‘Glide’ (40 wt trilobal polyester, colour ‘Cream’ #20001)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna-Glide pre-wound bobbin (white)

How to quilt this large quilt? I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks to stabilise it. Then I tackled the sashing strips and border as the fabric design ‘told’ me to do vertical stripey things. I added a spiral at each green corner join.

For the main blocks, I did a 3-petal flower type thing in the cream triangles. And then I came to a screeching halt. What to do in the 3-strip centre blocks?

I decided to alternate the motif, doing a curvy matrix in one, then a star in the other. The star goes from mid-point to opposite corner, to opposite mid-point etc. and I think it was quite effective. I used a soft green thread for these centres.

No rulers or marking pens were harmed in quilting this quilt 😉 It was ALL free motion. Even the stitch in the ditch… I’m getting much better at almost straight lines on my Sweet Sixteen.

This was a big quilt. I think it took about 6 hours to quilt.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

The back:

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec ‘Glide’ (40 wt trilobal polyester, colour ‘Cream’ #20001); Madeira Rayon (40 wt rayon, colour 1047)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna-Glide pre-wound bobbin (white)