Rhonda Bracey: At Random

How to quilt this very geometric and colourful scrappy quilt? I thought about straight line ‘modern’ quilting, then decided to do a variation of ‘graffiti’ quilting. I started in the centre with large overlapping spirals, then a whole slew of flame-style stitching, finishing at the outer edges with a open headband motif. I used a variegated thread in blues, greens, yellows, and purples to match the vibrant colours of the squares.

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Threads used:

• Top: Superior King Tut ‘Cairo’ (40 wt, cotton, colour 932)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (lead gray)

Hexies! Lots and lots of hexies! But how to quilt hexies like this???

I decided to do arcs, as per a cathedral window motif, using matching thread colours for each hexagonal ‘flower’. The inner dark green hexies were too puffy after doing this, so I stitched them down too. And for the outer border, I just did a meandering stipple in a variegated dark green thread.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Affinity ‘Mauve’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 60149);  Robison-Anton ‘Paris Blue’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2283); Fil-Tec Glide ‘Seafoam’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 97494); Mettler Poly Sheen (40 wt, polyester, colour 9405); Gutermann Sulky (40 wt, rayon, colour 2131); Fil-Tec Affinity ‘Forest’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 60293)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white and lead gray)

Hmmm…. how to quilt this one, with all that ‘white space’ in the centre of the blocks? First, I stitched in the ditch around ALL elements, then decided on a free motion checkerboard effect for the small squares, with the dark squares going in one direction and the light squares in the opposite direction. The busy fabric of the outer border was simple — just a meandering stipple was enough. But what to do about those big open spaces?

I grabbed two different size bowls from the kitchen, then marked around each in chalk to create my circles. Then I stitched the circles along the chalk lines and did a flowing continuous-line, cross-hatch matrix inside them. I used a variegated cream, yellow, and mauve thread for all the quilting.

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Threads used:

• Top: Wonderfil Mirage (30 wt, rayon?, colour SD 32)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

Another scrappy quilt. How to quilt it? I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, then did cathedral windows in the outer border strips, followed by extending that motif into the outer cream border. Next I did straight line echo quilting around the central strips, and finished up by doing horizontal and vertical wavy lines through those strips. I used a variegated cream, yellow, and pink/mauve thread.

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Threads used:

• Top: Wonderfil Mirage (30 wt, rayon?, colour SD 32)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

Even though this looked like a red, green, and white Christmas-themed quilt, the fabrics actually contained Hawaiian motifs! I quilted it with overlapping spirals, using two different red and green variegated threads (the first one, a cotton, ran out about halfway through the quilting!).

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Back: 

Threads used:

• Top: YLI ‘Festival’ (40 wt, cotton, colour 14V); Wonderfil Mirage (30 wt, rayon?, colour SD 21)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (candy apple)

A scrappy quilt made up of many 5″ squares. How to quilt it? I opted for a large cathedral window motif (all free motion, no rulers) using a deep red thread.

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Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF 188)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (candy apple)

What a bright quilt this was! The fabrics were so busy that only minimal basic stippling was required.

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Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF129)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (candy apple)