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)