Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I volunteered to do some quilting at the Community Quilts stand at the annual QuiltWest exhibition, and in the few hours I was there, I quilted a complete quilt and about half of another one, before I was called away to do White Glove and take-down duties.

I finished the other half of the partially completed one this past weekend. At the Community Quilts stand, I was using a Bernina and some supplied thread (a soft variegated pink of unknown composition, though I suspect cotton). Once at home, I used my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen machine to finish the quilting and a similar variegated pink thread, though from a different manufacturer.

As this quilt was very busy with lots of floral fabrics, I decided to quilt it using a ‘flower’ version of my ‘open headbands‘ motif — same as that motif, but instead of a curved line for the second arc, I just add in some petal-like mini-arcs, giving a floral effect (see the picture of the back of the quilt for details). I was talking to people as I was quilting so I wanted to make sure I was using a design for which I had a lot of ‘muscle memory’ so that I could carry on a conversation without worrying too much about the quilting.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Back:

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec ‘Affinity’ (40 wt trilobal polyester, colour 60149 ‘Mauve’)
• Bottom: unknown beige cotton (at Community Quilts stand) and Fil-Tec Magna Glide pre-wound bobbin (white)