Rhonda Bracey: At Random

How to quilt this quilt? I thought of doing an overall motif, but those straight strips kept calling me 😉 Instead, I decided to do straight lines extending past the straight strips in both vertical and horizontal directions.

The border fabric was so ‘busy’ that a large stipple was all that was necessary to stitch the layers together.

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Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Raspberry’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2426)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (dark gray)

This quilt had bias edges on the diamond shapes that needed to be dealt with as they were causing quite a bit of puffing as they were stretching out of shape.

I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, borders, and stars. Then I echo stitched (in red) inside each of the diamonds, filling every alternate diamond with ribbon candy and the others with some more ruler work. All this stitching was successful in stopping the puffiness caused by the bias fabric.

I finished off with a wonky star in the centre square and some basic stippling in black backgrounds around each star, leaving the sashing strips and borders unstitched.

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Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Tuxedo Red’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2420); black
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (black)

This cute panel quilt of Australian animals and birds was easy to quilt — it was small, had obvious motifs to stitch around, and obvious designs in the borders to follow. I think I finished it in under an hour.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Harmony ‘Tweed’ (40 wt, cotton, colour 14076)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

Another BIG quilt, this time a jelly roll strip quilt in lovely blue batiks.

How to quilt it? To counter the straight lines of the strips, I decided on an old favourite — an all-over spiral design. I think I can do that one in my sleep! I left the purple border unstitched, and in the blue border I stitched Vs/Ws, but instead of points, I squared off the bases to match the design in the fabric.

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Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF373)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (dark gray)

Compared to the most recent quilts I’ve done, this was a tiny one 😉

Again, a scrappy quilt, this time set off with yellow sashings and borders. As it was such a busy quilt, I decided to keep it simple, stitching wonky stars in each block (using my Line Tamer ruler) and mountains (or Vs or Ws) in the borders.

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Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF546)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

Another big scrappy quilt, this time set off with black. I decided to keep with the geometric theme of this quilt and so quilted it all over with a squared-off meander using an aqua thread. I liked the end result, both the motif and the thread colour I chose.

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Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF373)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (black)

This was a HUGE quilt, and it had been partially hand quilted by its creator. My job was to finish the quilting, which took many hours (especially the McTavishing in the large border on three sides). I started by stitching in the ditch around each block, border, and applique piece that wasn’t already hand stitched, then stitched various quilting motifs to fill in the backgrounds of the borders and the unstitched blocks. I still can’t figure out the connection of the horizontal angel in the waves with the other blocks…

Note: In the photo of the whole quilt, one of the borders is folded over the clothesline to prevent the quilt dragging on the ground, and the quilt is sideways on the clothesline too. It was a big quilt!

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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)

This big log cabin quilt was created with some lovely autumnal scrappy fabrics.

How to quilt it? I stitched in the ditch around the large blocks first, to stabilise it. Then countered the geometric nature of the log cabins with large spirals in a variegated thread, morphing into squared-off headbands, and then into open headbands. So there are three quilting motifs in this quilt. In the border I echo stitched a straight line (using the Line Tamer ruler) about half an inch from the seam line.

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Back:

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Harmony ‘Tweed’ (40 wt, cotton, colour 14076)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

This bright colourful quilt was lots of white space, some applique, and a patterned fabric that looked like it was applique.

How to quilt it? I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, applique pieces, and borders to stabilise it. I then echo quilted the appliqued and fake applique pieces, and did a stipple in the white space behind the fake applique blocks. In the setting triangles, I stitched a very simple fleur de lis type of motif, and then just some wavy lines in the borders. I left all the green sashing strips unstitched.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘White’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 10000)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

How to quilt this bright quilt?

I decided on stylised flowers, starting with a couple of arcs, then tracking back with rounded ‘petals’ and an echo, before starting a new ‘flower’. This is a variation on the open headband motif that I’ve done many times before.

The thread was a variegated pink, even though it’s called ‘Mauve’, which is a light purple where I come from!

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tex Affinity ‘Mauve’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 60149)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)