Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I won a pack of Tonga Treats 5″ charm squares a couple of years ago when I was in Texas. Having just made a small quilt from 5″ charm squares, I figured I’d make another one while I still remembered what I did!

The 40 charm squares were in gender-neutral shades of blue, green, and yellow, so I added a yellow batik as the sashing. 40 is a bad number for a quilt — you can do 8×5 or 10×4, or another combination with some left over. I opted for 6×6 with 4 charm squares left over that I used in the back. On the back I used a green/blue batik that had what I call a crocodile motif. For the border and binding I used some blue/green batik I had in my fabric stash.

I stitched large spirals for the quilting to counter the geometric shape.

The finished quilt is 36 x 36 inches (~90 x 90 cm), and is perfect for a cot/crib quilt, baby play mat, or a small lap quilt (it’s all cotton, so can be thrown in the washing machine). It’s available for sale in my Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/au/listing/249693275/yellow-and-green-crib-or-lap-quilt

Threads used:

• Top: Superior King Tut ‘Nile Delta’ (40 wt, cotton, colour 934)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

I’ve had fun this weekend. I had in my mind to turn some of my scrap fabrics into circles (using my AccuQuilt Go! circle die) and then make a space-themed art quilt. I ended up making two! If they meet the OMG Guidelines, I’ll submit them as OMG Quilts, but if not, then I still had fun making them. And I was really pleased with how they turned out, especially #2.

Almost all the circles I die-cut were from batik fabrics, with a couple from a small sheet of sheer gold metallic fabric and some white satin, and a few from a heavyweight bright orange felt. The trick with cutting circles on the die cutter is to stabilise the fabric with fusible first, otherwise the edges will fray. I used MistyFuse on the backs of each; even so, the gold fabric would’ve frayed had I given it any more time before stitching it down. And I used fusible Pellon for the batting.

Update: These art quilts were accepted as OMG #54 and #55 respectively! And are both now available for sale from my Etsy store:  https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/605104028/interplanetary-space-1-art-quilt and https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/618942075/interplanetary-space-2-art-quilt

Interplanetary Space #1

The background fabric for this one was a piece of upholstery fabric I’ve had for decades — I re-covered two 2-seater sofas with this fabric back in the 1980s! I had about half a yard left, and so used it for the background and the binding. It was nice and strong so was perfect for lots of stitching, but a bit thick for the binding. No matter. It’s almost all gone now — yay, busting the stash!!

I made the quilt sandwich from the background fabric, the Pellon, and a cream backing fabric I had plenty of. Then I quilted it graffiti-style, using a variegated thread in cream, purple, and pink. After quilting it, I arranged various circles on the top and fused them down with the iron. Next, I stitched around each (and in some cases, inside each) with either invisible thread or gold metallic thread. Then for some of the large circles I stitched rings (like Saturn’s) using gold metallic thread. Finally, I fused on some more circles and raw-edge stitched them down, before trimming the art quilt and adding the binding.

Final dimensions: 15 x 20 inches; can be hung vertically or horizontally — there’s no top or bottom.

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glisten ‘Gold’ (metallic, colour 60088); Wonderfil Mirage (30 wt, colour SD 32)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

Interplanetary Space #2

For the second one, I used black as the background fabric to get that feeling of deep space. I made a large circle of gold metallic fabric (lame?) the focus, arranging the other planets and moons around it but not touching it. After fusing everything down, I stitched around each circle (and inside some) with invisible thread.

I also stitched around the gold circle with gold metallic thread, and then started coming out from the ‘sun’ with some flame-like stitching. I was originally only going to do a couple of layers but then figured why not continue this flame stitching out to the edge? So I did! I liked the overall effect of the gold metallic thread on the black. Finally, I went around the gold sun a couple of times with some gold metallic couching yarn — the purpose of this was two-fold: to hide a couple of fraying edges, and to give even more emphasis to the ‘sun’. I finished off with plain black binding.

Final dimensions: 20 x 20 inches; can be hung any way.

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glisten ‘Gold’ (metallic, colour 60088)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

When I took out fabrics for the Kaffe Fasset baby quilt, I realised I had quite a few bits and pieces of solid colours in various fabrics (including some pink linen!) that matched each other. So, spurred on by the improvisational technique I used for my Challenge piece for 2015, I hunted out more, including small, awkward pieces from my stash boxes and started putting them together.

Much sewing, slashing, rejoining etc. later, and I had the improv blocks for this quilt. I added a border of the same aqua blue fabric from the Kaffe baby quilt, and a maroon and aqua binding. The backing fabric wasn’t quite big enough so I used a fat quarter (also slashed and rejoined) to join the backing fabric. Then I quilted it in an all-over spiral to counteract the geometric lines of the blocks, with a wave pattern in the border.

The end result is a small lap quilt, a large crib quilt, or a floor quilt for a baby to play on.

Click on a photo to view it larger)

Threads used:

• Top thread: Robison-Anton ‘Mint Julep’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2310)
• Bobbin: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound (white)

I received a bundle of 5″ charm squares as a gift (Kaffe Fasset fabrics from the Rowan Spring 2014 collection by Westminster). I’m not a fan of charm square packs as I never know what to do with them. So I laid these out and auditioned some fabrics as sashing strips, deciding on a clear aqua blue cotton I’ve had for decades. I used an offset arrangement, whereby I added sashing strips to only two adjoining sides of each charm square, then arranged them so they looked wonky.

I quilted this quilt with a square meander, and added a mixed fabric binding using offcuts from the aqua fabric and some coordinating maroon fabric (also from my decades-old stash). The backing was also fabric from my stash.

The end result is a small lap quilt, a large crib quilt, or a floor quilt for a baby to play on. And I’m no longer scared of charm packs 😉

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Threads used:

• Top thread: Robison-Anton ‘Mint Julep’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2310)
• Bobbin: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound (white)