Rhonda Bracey: At Random

My friend Bobbie forward me the link to this fun site! The Quilters of South Carolina created one-of-a kind bras for Breast Cancer awareness; the exhibition is touring South Carolina until October 2009. Details and all pictures (and clever names) of these fabulous bras are available from:
http://www.quiltersofsc.org/artfullbras/artfullbras.htm

Here are just a couple of these gorgeous creations copied from the website:

'Fall Festival'

'Look at them melons!'

'Boo-bies!'

Problem: My new laptop is a big one — 17″ I think — so my old laptop bag was too small and I had to get a new one. It’s like a mini-suitcase so is quite bulky and heavy. The old laptop bag had an inner sleeve which was very handy in aircraft — you just pulled out the sleeve and you were ready to go without having to pull down the whole laptop bag from the overhead compartment. Not so the new one. No sleeve. And pulling this mini-suitcase down from the overhead locker is not a viable option.

Solution: I created a quilted laptop bag using some really nice Celtic fabric I had! Problem solved — I can now grab this bag out of the larger carry-on bag, and have ready the power supply, mouse, and even space for a notebook and pen… all without disturbing others and without ending up with the big bag on my head!

I adapted a pattern for a Tote Bag I already had from Michelle Pearson at Raggedy Stitches. I made it smaller, and didn’t do all the fancy piecing, though I did quilt the fabric. It’s fully lined and I adapted the front (lined) pocket so that I had room for the power supply, an A4 notepad, and a shorter and narrower pocket for my mini-mouse and a pen or two.

Here’s the finished laptop bag — click on each thumbnail to get a larger picture:

One of the ladies on an email discussion list I’m one was chatting the other day about how her mother made fancy dress costumes for her and her sister when they were kids. Nothing unusual about that for those of my vintage. And then she said this:

She also made us matching bathing suits out of orange plaid seersucker. Her sewing machine was a weapon of mass humiliation.

I’ve never thought of a sewing machine like that, but I can see how for some people home-made clothes were more than an embarrassment. Orange plaid seersucker bathers? Wow.

An American quilter based with the US military in Alice Springs (Australia) decided to do something for the families left homeless and without possessions as a result of the devastating bushfires in Victoria.

So she put out an appeal to all her quilting friends for blocks, and it has spread far and wide (see http://campfollowerbags.blogspot.com/2009/02/bushfire-quilt-project.html).

Her suggestion was for 12.5 inch maverick or wonky star blocks, and someone else put up a tutorial on how to create a wonky star. She has a team of quilters who will put the blocks together in a ‘quilt-a-thon’, but she must receive them by the end of March 2009 as she’s due to return to the US soon.

I did two blocks, and will post them on Monday. Here are the photos:

Wonky Star 1: Peppers

Wonky Star 2: Chillis

It’s finished!

Well, it’s been finished since mid-January for a few weeks, but the day I was due to collect it from Judy (the quilter) was the day we had a bushfire come close to town and Judy was exhausted from helping feed the firefighters and we were packing up essentials in case we had to evacuate.

Once I got it back from Judy, I had to make and add the binding, and hand stitch it down. Not something you want to do in hot weather! I finished that a couple of weeks back, but until today, I hadn’t done the final clean up of loose threads, fluff etc. nor put it on the bed and taken photos of it. But today was the day!

Judy did a fabulous job of the quilting — she used a variegated thread on the top and black in the bobbin (my choice) and she lined the back up really well so it’s square with the border. This allows me to flip the quilt over and display the back if I feel like coffee colours for a change.

Here are some pics of the finished quilt.

Log cabin quilt on bed

Judy's great quilting (front)

Back of quilt (disappearing 9-patch)

Back of quilt showing quilting

See also:

• Log Cabin Quilt: 1
• Log Cabin Quilt: 2
• Log Cabin Quilt: 3 (mini quilts—side project)
• Log Cabin Quilt: 4 (sewing the blocks)
• Log Cabin Quilt: 5 (putting the top together)
• Log Cabin Quilt: 6 (making the back)
• Log Cabin Quilt: 7 (the completed back)
• Log Cabin Quilt: 8 (finished — this post)