On my morning walk I see lots of livestock (horses and cattle mainly) and birds. The cattle usually hang out in a couple of paddocks and are often quite some distance from the path. But this morning several of them were close to the fence, and while wary, didn’t run away when I approached with my phone to take some pictures of them. Unfortunately, photographing black cow faces is as hard as photographing black cats 😉
Sometime around Christmas, a neighbourhood property (5 acres) got a few new residents. First were two miniature horses, followed a few days later by about six Dorper sheep (one ram, some ewes, and some juveniles). The horses are very friendly and will come running to the fence when I walk by on my morning walk.
I got to meet the owner this morning, and he said they just love carrots and he would be fine with me bringing some to feed them when I walk past. He also told me the names of the horses — Sandy (the female with the blond hair and tail) is about four years old, and Angus (brown mane) is about a year old. They are just the cutest things!!!
Some quilts (like #182) sing to you; others make you want to get them off your machine table ASAP… #183 was one of those. I didn’t like the fabrics (I suspect some were quite old), the colours, or the HUGE amount of biased edges and wonky blocks. It was one of those quilts that has to be stitched into submission.
Normally for a smallish quilt like this, with this many fabric variations, I’d just stipple it all over nin a neutral thread and not worry about stitching in the ditch. But it was obvious as soon as I put this quilt on the machine’s table that I’d have to stitch in the ditch otherwise I’d end up with massive puckers if I just stippled it, even if I started from the centre (as I usually would).
So, even though I wanted this one off my table ASAP, it had to remain on there long enough for me to stitch in the ditch for almost ESS (‘every stinking seam’), and then for the stippling.
I was glad to be done with it. Fortunately, it was small and didn’t take too long.
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Threads used:
Sometimes a quilt just sings to you — this was one of those. I loved its simplicity and how the quiltmaker had used all solids in graduated colour ranges in each rail fence block. And the use of various widths in the white sashing strips.
I decided to quilt it with a yellow thread — enough to show up on the white, but not enough to be overbearing and dominate the simple beauty of the coloured strips.
First, I stitched in the ditch around each coloured strip. Then it took me a while of looking at it to figure out how best to quilt it. I went through lots of options in my head and drawing over it with my finger 😉 Eventually, I decided on an all-over squared stipple motif and was about to start, but at the last moment I decided on really big swirly spirals, with about a half inch between the lines in each spiral.
I didn’t mark anything — all these spirals were free-motion.
I really like how it turned out. And I liked how the yellow added just a bit more life to an already vibrant and colourful quilt. The back looks pretty awesome too 😉
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Back:
Threads used:
This was a very ‘busy’ quilt, with lots of tiny half-square triangles and many many different fabrics, including an equally busy fabric in the border.
How to quilt it? I realised that doing anything other than a simple all-over motif would be lost in the ‘busy-ness’ of this quilt, so I opted for a variation of my ‘go to’ open headband motif. Instead of arcs, the centre part of each motif is a paisley (or a really big comma!).
I used a variegated thread in autumnal colours in all parts of this quilt, including the stippling in the border.
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Threads used:
I liked the colours in this quilt — they were very cool and calming. And fresh.
How to quilt it? As usual, I started by stitching in the ditch around the main elements — the white strips in the middle and the borders. Then I tackled the white strips. I emulated the diamonds in the coloured strips stitching straight lines (with my Line Tamer ruler) from point to point (matching the side points of the diamonds in the coloured strips). Then I did a tight up and down ribbon stitch in the ‘background’ of these diamonds, causing them to ‘pop’.
Next, I did a wavy matrix in each coloured diamond (on-point square) in the coloured strips. But the setting triangles were too puffy, so I stitched a 3-petal flower in those to subdue the puffiness.
In the white border, I repeated the up and down ribbon motif, and then did a very large version of it in the widest border. In that border, I didn’t want the outermost points to be even, so I varied their length.
In the other borders I either stitched straight lines about a half inch from the seam lines, or left them unstitched (all the spotted green borders).
I was pleased with how it turned out — this was quite a ‘modern quilt’, and I hope my stitching showed that. And the back looked pretty awesome too 😉
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Back:
Threads used:
This was a big quilt with a lot of empty space. Each block was different but most had stars or diagonal lines, which helped me decide how to quilt the empty blocks.
First, I stitched in the ditch around each of the blocks, then around the main elements within each pieced block. To make these elements ‘pop’, I quilted the background only, in a simple smallish stipple.
To give definition to the empty blocks, I echo quilted about half to one in from the joining seam lines, then stitched a wonky 8-point star in each to stop them puffing too much. Finally, I did a large stipple in the main border and left the green framing border unstitched.
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Back:
Threads used:
Someone had spent a lot of time cutting out and carefully appliquing all those little hearts and big bows to create wreaths inside each block of this quilt.
How to quilt it? I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, then I echo stitched about a quarter inch out from each heart and bow. Next I used my Line Tamer ruler to stitch diagonal lines inside each heart ‘wreath’, then stippled in the remaining white space.
I kept the border simple, just stitching a straight echo line a half inch from the seams.
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Threads used:
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
