Rhonda Bracey: At Random

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)

Another scrappy quilt, with lots of patterns and colours competing for attention. I decided to quilt it with an all over ‘squared off’ open-headband motif, in a blue/teal coloured thread.

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Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Wonder Blue’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2577)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (lead gray)

How to quilt this very angular quilt? I decided to counter all those angles with some circles — in this case, large bubbles in a continuous line, extending into the border.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Celery’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 60580)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

After stitching in the ditch around the big banner blocks, I decided to do some simple straight line ruler work in the blocks. I stitched three banners horizontally — stitching in the ditch in the seams and across the centre of the fabric; and two banners vertically. I left the borders and sashing unstitched.

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Threads used:

• Top: Superior King Tut ‘Passion Fruit’ (40 wt, cotton, colour 931)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

Someone spent a lot of time doing the redwork embroidery for each of the alphabet letters in this quilt. I just hope they washed the red embroidery thread and the border fabric very well before making it, otherwise there’s a good chance the red will run into the cream when this quilt gets washed. As I was quilting it, I could see quite a few red thread tails behind the cream blocks — if the dye runs, it will ruin this lovely quilt.

How to quilt it? I started by stitching in the ditch around each block and the outside of each letter. Then I did a smallish stipple in the ‘white space’, which lets the letter pop out, almost like trapunto. I left the red sashing strips and borders unstitched.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Linen’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 20001)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

For this quilt, I decided to counterbalance the square and angled geometric shapes with large overlapping spirals, using a variegated brown thread.

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Threads used:

• Top: Signature ‘Woodlands’ (40 wt, cotton, colour SM003)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)