Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I liked this quilt, though it was a bit of a challenge to quilt because it was quite wonky. The reason this quilt top was so wonky was because the maker had used all sorts of plaid shirting fabrics + denim to make it — those different fabrics had different thicknesses and ‘hand’, resulting in the fabric reacting in different ways to being sewn. This was not the maker’s fault – it’s just a consequence of using widely varying fabrics.

But those wonky seams and the puckering in this quilt top needed to be tamed — either by ironing them out or stitching them out. I chose the ‘stitch it out’ method because I didn’t think ironing would’ve worked in the long term. This meant I needed to use fairly dense stitching to beat those puckers into submission 🙂 To achieve this end, I decided to quilt it using a ‘square meander’, crossing lines to form sort of rectangular shapes. And yes, I tamed it!

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Back:

Threads used:

• Top: Madeira ‘Country Kitchen Blue’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 1028)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (lead gray)

This was a pretty pink and green quilt. I started by stitching in the ditch around the main blocks and borders, then did straight lines in the border, following (approximately) the lines formed by the squares in the fabric’s pattern. I quilted the main part of the quilt top with a flower variation on the open headband motif — instead of an arc for the final layer, I stitched half shells, emulating flower petals.

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Threads used:

• Top: Superior Rainbows ‘Wedding Bells’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 818)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks and borders, around the circles containing the birds, around the scalloped edge inside the circles, and then around each bird. I then did a smallish stipple in the white space around each bird to make the bird ‘pop’, and continued the stipple in the brown borders.

I left the cream and green borders unstitched, then did a straight stitch following the direction of the striped in the main border.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Military Gold’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 27407)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

How to quilt this quilt with all those Dresden plates and all that white space?

I started by stitching in the ditch around all the plates and into their centres, where I stitched a little floral motif, then around the brown border. I decided to leave the ‘arms’ of each plate unstitched, letting the ditch stitching make them pop.

For the outer border, I did a large meandering stipple, and for all that white space surrounding the Dresden plates, I did some McTavishing.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Linen’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 10WG1)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

What a bright and cheerful quilt this was! I started by stitching in the ditch around all the main elements. I stitched large bubbles/circles in the yellow sections, and a checkerboard effect in the red. I left the black squares unstitched. In the borders, I outline stitched the black stripes, and finally did a large meandering stipple in the outer border, leaving the black border unstitched.

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Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Tuxedo Red’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2420); Gutermann (40 wt, rayon, colour 1189); Fil-Tec Glide ‘White’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 10000)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (candy apple red, white)

How to quilt this big quilt? I started by stitching in the ditch around all the main elements, as you do. Then I echo quilted around all the coloured strips and borders, and in the outer border. Next, I stitched a ribbon candy motif in the outer border, and some big free-form feathers in the dark coloured strips.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Linen’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 10WG1); Robison-Anton ‘Best Brown’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2566)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white, lead gray)

Despite its simplicity, this blue, grey, and purple quilt is quite dramatic. How to quilt it? I started by stitching in the ditch around all the main elements. Next, I stitched a curved matrix design in the all the dark square centres, and a large ‘u’ motif in the dark borders surrounding the light squares. I kept the border simple by just stitching a single line half an inch from the main quilt top.

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Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF487)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (lead gray)

This large scrappy strip quilt had such a busy combination of fabrics that an all-over motif that didn’t try to dominate the quilt was called for. I started by stitching in the ditch around all the main elements and borders, then did a floral version of my favourite ‘open headband’ motif, with a large meander in the main border. I used a variegated yellow and jade thread, which I thought blended in really well with all the colours in this quilt.

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Threads used:

• Top: Signature ‘St Thomas’ (40 wt, cotton, colour F151)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

This was a bright fun quilt, made up of quirky dogs and cats. I’m sure the child who receives it will love it!

How to quilt it? I started by stitching in the ditch around all the main elements. While I still had the green thread in the machine, I did the borders (ribbon candy motif) and sashing strips (a sine wave). Then I switched to black thread and outlined each block in each panel and the animals inside them.

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Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Ming’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2322); Robison-Anton ‘Jet Black’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2632)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan, black)