This one was very similar to Community Quilt #68, so I quilted it in the same way, using an all-over flame design in a bright orange for the main top, and just emphasising the large white dot paths in the border in black.
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Threads used:
What a cheery quilt this was! Bright colours, complemented by the white. I suspect a young girl/teenager will love it. In keeping with the bright cheerful colours, I quilted it with an all-over design variation on ‘open headbands‘, in a bright fluoro orange thread.
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Threads used:
Here’s a great idea I saw on Facebook the other day — using ice block trays for storing bobbins! I happened to have an old tray with large openings, just perfect for three of my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen M size bobbins. This particular tray will hold 48 bobbins, and I only have about 20 or so, so there’s plenty of room for more 😉
Even better, this storage system slides neatly onto the shelf under the HQ Sweet Sixteen table.
Suggestion: As this ice block tray came with an old fridge, and I’m not sure they make trays with this sort of depth or width these days, perhaps try a secondhand store or op shop.
Another fun and bright quilt for a child, this time featuring characters from the movie ‘Cars’, and fabrics to match. As there was a flame motif on one of the fabrics, I decided to quilt the main top in bright orange flames.
I really like the large border fabric and only quilted black outlines around the heaviest of the white dotted lines — just enough to hold the layers together.
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Threads used:
What a bright eye-spy quilt this was! Whichever kid gets it will have hours of fun identifying all the animals, characters, etc. on it. Of course, being so bright and ‘busy’, and as it will likely be well loved by a child, I decided to keep the quilting design to a basic all-over ‘open headband‘ motif, but in a matching bright fluoro orange thread!
Even the backing fabric was bright — red, with the names of animals printed on it.
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Threads used:
And after finishing the second turtle quilt, I made another one! This one will go to my nephew as they’re having a baby in a few months’ time.
This time, I used the same raw edge applique and shading techniques I’d used in the second one, but with much more contrasting fabrics. I think this one is my favourite of the three.
For the quilting, I stitched bubbles all over the background, emulating the round shapes on the pretty aqua batik fabric. The top fabric was a deep pink/purple/blue wavy leaf pattern, which I shaded with a deep purple Copic marker. The quilting in the border was sort of seaweed/kelp-like.
(The Herd of Turtles pattern I used is available from here: https://www.pacificrimquilt.com/2faq/)
Threads used:
I wanted to try another turtle quilt using the Herd of Turtles pattern (available from here: https://www.pacificrimquilt.com/2faq/), but this time using the raw edge applique technique. This method was much quicker for me, and I saved even more time (and a lot of anguish!) by NOT cutting out the areas around the sections on the carapace. Instead, I got out the Copic markers I’d purchased when I was in the US, and shaded the carapace sections to give the illusion of dimension. I was quite pleased with how the shading turned out. I had the green jelly roll fabric I’d made up a few weeks ago and that I didn’t particularly like, so I used that as the background, and for the turtles I used one of the metre-long batik lengths I’d bought in Bali last September. Because this is raw edge applique and because this is a quilt likely to be hung in a child’s room or used for a child, I wanted to stitch down those raw edges a bit more securely, so I used the same thread I’d used for the raw edge and stitched those edges down using a blanket stitch. Finally, I added some wavy kelp using a fluoro lime green thread, then followed the waviness of the kelp into the border. 
Turtle with Copic marker shading done, including shading on the overlap with other turtles.Kelp stitched too.
Shading done with Copic markers
Without the shading, the turtle’s carapace was ‘flat’, but I wasn’t going to cut out those tiny sections between each hexagonal shape!
Border detail – flames to emulate wavy kelp
Detail of the shading, kelp, blanket stitch edge over the raw applique edge, and the binding
Doing the shading with the brush end of the Copic marker
Turtle without any shading
Threads used:
I unpicked the orchid from the thin batting last weekend, then I put it on tearaway, used the thin batting in the turtle quilt, and then I surface stitched the orchid with matching threads. It’s now ready to be framed with a background fabric and finished off, though I’m not sure what I’ll do for either yet.
Meantime, here are some photos of the surface stitching I did in matching thread colours:
I added extra ‘vein’ stitching in a light pink thread on the large petals, as well as stitching with various darker threads on the deeper veins. On the lower petals, I used a pale variegated cream/blue/yellow thread and quite like the added ‘texture’ it gave.
On the back petal, I used lots of different coloured threads to reflect the paint colour going up the petal. I curved the stitching lines a little around the centre line to add the illusion of dimension.
In addition to the variegated cream/blue/yellow thread for the long slightly curved lines in these petals, I used three different threads for the tips — a yellow, a neon lime green, and a soft cream extending into the main part of the petal.
Again, I used a neon lime green thread in the green part (though only a little), and a lot of various coloured threads (from deep purple to pale pink) on the curved pieces to add dimension and ‘curviness’ to them.
When I got home from the US a week ago, I just dumped all my sewing/quilting stuff into my sewing room, knowing I’d sort it out later. It’s only a small room, so there’s not a lot of room to move… Here’s the sewing room looking like a bomb had hit it after I returned:
And here it is after I did a bit of a clean-up and put things back where they belong. The current projects (the orchid and the green batiks) are on the ironing board.
I quilted this quilt just before I went to the US, but didn’t have time to photograph it or write up the blog post for it then.
I love this quilt! The bright coordinating colours were just ‘me’. And I had the perfect thread for it too — King Tut ‘Passion Fruit’ — a blend of yellow, purple, and green. The quilt needed to shine, so I just decided to do an all-over funky, floral open headband variation in keeping with the floral fabric in the border and the centres. (This quilt was perfectly square too, so many thanks to the maker.)
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Threads used:
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 