Rhonda Bracey: At Random

This quilt was a real challenge. It had a high-loft polyester batting in it, which, while it may make the quilt very warm to snuggle under, is an absolute sod to quilt as it’s SO puffy. However, the maker had hand basted it, so it stayed together reasonably well. But even with that, there’s no way you can keep it from puckering, except by quilting the life out of it.

To control the puffiness, I stitched in the ditch (in a pale blue thread) around all the blocks and borders, and then around and within all the appliqued centres of each block. But still there was a lot of puffiness in those centres and in the borders. I decided to leave the plain blue border and the appliqued centres puffy so that they remain very tactile.

For the outer border, I just did a large meandering stipple in the blue thread to hold the layers together. This was a ‘busy’ fabric, so there was no point in dong anything very clever in this outer border. Besides, the polyester batting wanted to escape so I had to stitch in such a way to hold it in and to not cause puckers in the border.

For the blocks, I decided to beat the puffiness in the white areas into submission by McTavishing around each appliqued centre. It took quite a bit of time, but I think it was worth it.

Did I mention it was big?

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Still very puffy even after stitching in the ditch around everything

Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Paris blue’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2283); Wonderfil Silco (40wt, white, colour SC03)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)