Rhonda Bracey: At Random

This was such a bright sampler quilt! So many blocks, so many colours. No doubt the little girl who will receive it will love it!

As this quilt top was so ‘busy’ with colours and various blocks, I decided to quilt it using a single colour thread (yellow) and a single all-over quilting motif. The motif is based on the open headbands, but inside of doing a second arc back over the first, I made three ‘petal’ loops or hops, then arced back and started the next one.

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Wow! 50 quilts quilted since the end of June 2012. Not bad for someone who has a day job…

This one looked as though it was a disappearing 9-patch quilt, using all scrap fabrics. It was very ‘busy’ so I decided to quilt it with just a simple large stipple in a matching variegated thread.

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This wasn’t my favourite quilt (something to do with the colours, I expect), though like the other crazy 9-patch quilt, this one looked so much better once it was on the line and viewed from a distance. Again, it looked like an abstract painting to my eyes.

On closer inspection, this wasn’t a crazy 9-patch as I had assumed — it was a crazy 4-patch, 6-patch and 9-patch!

I wanted to try something different so I decided to stitch spirals all over the quilt, as my first efforts with these were pretty dismal. I wanted to break up the sharp edges and angles of the crazy patches, so a rounded motif such as a spiral was just the ticket for that. (I love the little heart in the top left — nice touch!)

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Butterflies on blue log cabins… how to quilt this one? I started by trying to stitch some free motion butterflies on a scrap, but that was a dismal failure 😉 So, instead of getting too technical, I decided to emulate the flight of a butterfly by doing an all-over large meandering stipple in a variegated blue thread. It didn’t take long and I was pleased with how it turned out.

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Well, if I loved the previous quilt because of its fresh bright colours, I loved this one equally for the maker’s brilliant use of colours and fabrics.

The design reminded me of some native American art I’ve seen in places like Arizona and New Mexico. I had to let this quilt sit for a while, while I decided how to quilt it. Then I remembered that I’d downloaded an image of a free motion quilt design some time back of a Navajo sun — that would fit perfectly! In essence the sun design is a spiral in the centre, radiating out into freeform arms.

I started with the ones in the ‘white spaces’ first, thinking I might do something different in the coloured sections. But I ended up staying with the same sun motif in the coloured sections too. However, the border fabric was quite geometric and I thought that the squared off open headband motif would work well there.

I was pleased with how this one turned out. It was a beautifully made top and I wanted the quilting to enhance this beauty.

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I love this quilt! I love the colours, the fabrics (all the same but in different colourways), and the background fabric (like a very small seersucker of old). The large circles just lent themselves to a circular quilting motif, so bubbles/pebbles it was!

I stitched the bubbles in each coloured sector in a thread that matched the fabric colour, and in a crisp white on the background fabric. I had lots of fun doing this quilt — probably because the fabrics were such fun to work with. Even the backing fabric was bright and cheerful 😉

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This purple, blue and black quilt was a variation on tumbling blocks. So that I could perfect the squared off open headband motif, I repeated it on this quilt too — I think it’s in my ‘muscle memory’ now 😉

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I wasn’t too fussed by this crazy 9-patch quilt’s colours etc. However, when I viewed it hanging on the line, I changed my opinion — I quite like how it looks like an abstract painting.

This was a busy quilt with all those solid colours, so I just did a squared off variation of my open headbands motif using a variegated thread in gold, green, and tan autumnal colours.

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After moving my Sweet Sixteen into the living room to take advantage of the air conditioning there, I tackled the pile of community quilts with a vengeance! There’s nothing like a stinking hot heat wave to keep you inside. In the week between Christmas and New Year I quilted some 10 or so community quilts 😉 As a result, I didn’t keep track of all the threads I used…

Here’s quilt #43. It was a little one, and I think the pink/green fabric is ‘Strawberry Shortcake’. As this quilt will likely go to a young girl, I quilted it using pink thread, in an all-over hearts and flowers motif.

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This is the last quilt I quilted in my HOT sewing room 😉 I’ve now moved my Sweet Sixteen into the living room, where there’s air conditioning and where I can keep cool.

I love this quilt — I think my main attraction is the creator’s use of colour.

But how to quilt it? The easy option would’ve been stitch in the ditch. Instead, I decided to do feathers in the checkerboard ‘arms’ of each block, in variegated threads that matched the block’s colours.

Then a central feather in the inner checkboard piece in the same threads, followed by ‘sort of’ feathers in the outer white spaces — these I did in either pale yellow or pale green thread, depending on the block’s colour. I went with a similar motif in the same colours around the central checkboards. I didn’t quilt the sashing strips, the borders, or the floral fabric stars.

Oh, and no marking except for the small central circle in the centre checkboards. Everything else was purely free motion quilting.

Threads used:

• Top: Yellow, green, purple variegated (King Tut, ‘Passionfruit’ colour #931); green variegated (King Tut, ‘Oasis’ colour #988); pale yellow (Isacord, colour #5650); pale green (Isacord, colour #0640)
• Bobbin: Various maroon and cream Invisifil and Deco-Bob threads from Wonderfil