Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I don’t have a design wall for laying out my quilting designs, so today I improvised for a quilt that I’ve designed. The design looked good on paper, but until I cut out the fabrics and pinned them up, I didn’t know whether it would work.

Fortunately, my sewing room (an ex-bedroom) has a wardrobe door that opens into the room, directly opposite the entry door. I swung both doors fully open, put a skirt hanger over the top of each, and strung a large piece of quilter’s muslin between them (a sheet would work too). Voila! Instant design wall!

Unfortunately, I can’t show you pics of the design as it’s part of a challenge and the ladies involved in the challenge read this blog occasionally. We’re meant to keep it all ‘secret squirrel’! 😉

Suffice to say, my improvised design wall worked well. I laid out my fabrics, shifted some around, then took pictures of the layout so I can pull down the fabrics and know where each is to go in the finished piece.

In the past couple of weeks a few items from my Etsy store have been featured in Treasuries created by other Etsy members. Here are the latest (click on the small image to view it full size).

This first one (#38) featured my autumn leaves bookmarks:

The next one (#39) featured one of my journal covers in the ‘Water Reflections’ series:

And #40 featured my pepper coasters:

Thanks to all curators for putting these together and showcasing items on Etsy I wouldn’t normally get to see.

Two Etsy Treasuries in one day! This time a red one featuring items from Western Australian sellers. My ‘Wandering Sheep’ journal cover is featured.

My ‘Oceanic Blues’ fabric art card was featured in this gorgeous ‘Blue Ocean’ Etsy Treasury today:

Here are the magnificent quilts my friends made for Challenge 28 (click on an image to see it full size):

Aren’t they clever?

One of my burgundy fabric luggage tags was featured in this gorgeous burgundy travel Treasury today:

After our first quilt retreat in September 2009, coming up with the challenge theme for our retreat in September 2010  fell to Glenys. In January we received a beautifully hand-made card in the mail, telling us about ‘Challenge 28’. Why 28? Well, it’s the addition of 9 (months to complete the challenge) + 9 (using 9 fabrics only) + 9 (using a 9-patch design) +1 (to create one item).

I’m not a big fan of the typical 9-patch design as it can look very repetitive. But I found a variation on the internet — a crazy 9-patch (details of the technique are here: http://allsorts.typepad.com/allsorts/2006/10/crazy_about_qui.html). Back in January, that idea went into my head as a possibility. Where it sat… and waited… and waited…

Until Easter. I had some time over Easter, the weather had cooled down a bit as we headed into autumn, so it was time to investigate the crazy 9-patch to see if I still liked the idea. I did. So it was off to my stash of fabrics! What to do? What to choose? After auditioning several fabric combinations (and eliminating some because I didn’t have enough to cut a 12.5 inch square from it), I chose four fabrics I didn’t like at all (and had wondered what to do with them!), two I wasn’t sure about, and three I quite liked. I made sure I had lights, mediums and darks, then set about cutting out my squares, then cutting through the squares and restitching them together, before cutting them again and restitching them into the crazy blocks (my Mum always wonders why I take perfectly good fabric, cut it into bits, then sew it together again!).

I ended up with nine crazy 9-patch blocks, then sewed sashing strips to them, then sewed them all together to make the quilt top. I added a border, then created a quilt sandwich with the top, batting, and a backing fabric.

Next came the quilting! following the ‘nine’ theme, I used 9 different free motion stitches — one different stitch for each fabric, plus extras for the sashing strips and the outer border.

By the end of the second day it was almost finished! All that was left to do was square up the quilt, add binding and add a label.

Here are photos of the quilt before those final steps — click an image to see it full size:

We’ve now had our quilting retreat and I’ll post photos of the other challenge quilts in the next few days, as well as pictures of some of the amazing quilts the girls made in the past year, which they showed off at ‘show and tell’ on the Friday night.

This weekend is a long weekend in Western Australia — and the weekend of the girls’ quilting/sewing/’do nothing’ retreat at our friend Bobbie’s house.

My car is all packed, my challenge quilt is all done (I finished it back in May, thank goodness, as I’ve been dealing with lots of computer issues the past couple of weeks and have hardly touched the sewing machine!).

And I’m all packed for the Craft Fair on Sunday, where I’ve put my name down for a stall (not sure if that was a good idea or not). If the weather stays as gorgeous as it has been the past few days, I might be wearing shorts! Definitely a hat and sunscreen.

So, in an hour or so I’m off! Just over an hour’s drive south, then hanging out with four awesome fun ladies for three days. I can’t wait!

Another one! This Etsy Treasury features one of my sale items — a navy blue fabric bookmark with pink dots and edging.

This Etsy Treasury featured my blue and gold peacock fabric bookmarks: