There’s quite a movement at the moment for colouring books for adults and the meditative benefits of colouring in. I’m sure it springs from the Zentangle and mandela movements.
Anyhow, I found some line drawings on the internet (as you do…) and decided to spend a gorgeous spring day off work sitting outside just colouring in.
I used Copic markers — they have great colour and coverage, but they do bleed a bit. I was really pleased with both pieces I did, especially the owl 😉
This was a HUGE quilt. Like, really HUGE. And it had a lot going on in it.
How to stitch it? I did a LOT of stitch in the ditch around the main elements (sashings, borders, blocks, applique, flying geese, stars, houses, etc.), then some basic stippling in the cream border with tighten stipping in the centre block, followed by ‘cathedral windows‘ in the small 4-patch borders, curved up and down lines in the setting triangles surrounding the 4-patch blocks, then some spirals in the area near the big sunflower applique, some straight lines (no ruler) on the other side, then more straight lines for the huts at the bottom, and finally some large meandering for the clouds at the bottom.
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Threads used:
This was a big quilt. How to quilt it? As usual, start with stitch in the ditch around the main blocks and borders.
Then I did a free-motion flower/leaf motif in each of the burgundy blocks, and repeated that in the cream blocks. In the border, I free-motion stitched a half petal/leaf motif.
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Threads used:
This bright yellow and blue quilt will suit a West Coast Eagles supporter!
How to quilt it? As usual, I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, then I echo stitched about a half inch in inside the plain blue shapes, filling the inside area with a ‘ribbon candy’ motif. I then stitched a square about a half inch in from the centre of the paler blue shapes. I stitched a similar square — though with two rows of stitching about a half inch apart — inside the yellow shapes.
For the border, I stitched a quarter inch echo around the main top, then another straight line 6″ out from that line. Inside, I stitched large looping ribbon candy.
I used my Line Tamer ruler for the straight lines, and free-motion stitched all the ribbon candy.
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Threads used:
This was a smallish, bright quilt. I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, then echo quilted around each of the appliqued pieces. In the border, I stitched a squared-off stipple, which is almost impossible to see against the fabric.
I left the brightly coloured sashing strips unquilted.
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Threads used:
Yes, I just finished quilting my 200th Community Quilt!
This was a big quilt, so to stabilise it I stitched in the ditch around all the coloured strips. I then echo stitched about a half inch inside the coloured strips using a variegated pastel thread.
And I finished off the centres of each block with a free-motion (i.e. no rulers) square spirals.
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Threads used:
Someone had fun finding all sorts of striped and checked fabrics for this small quilt. I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks and sashing strips, then I did free-flowing up and down and side to side stitching in each block, creating a checkerboard effect.
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Threads used:
This cute little dog panel will be ideal for a young child. I loved how the backing fabric and the border fabric matched the central panel, so I expect the maker either purchased all the fabrics together, or purchased it as a kit.
I started by stitching in the ditch around all the borders and the dog, the crayons, and the lettering. Then I echo stitched around the central elements, followed by a small shell filler.
I then stitched some motifs in a couple of the borders, followed by a meandering stipple in the outer blue border.
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Threads used:
This quilt’s colours reminded me of citrus (lemon, lime, orange), so I decided to stitch large citrus segments as the motif in the main body of the quilt.
I free-motion quilted squared-off blocks in the black border, and left the unusual flying geese unquilted (these had been folded and stitched into the seams, so I didn’t want to stitch them down).
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Threads used:
How to quilt this big quilt? I decided to do a variation of ‘cathedral windows‘, by doing ‘S’ curves from point to point, covering the entire quilt with them. The overall effect is of large flower petals (see the photo of the back).
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Threads used:
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
