Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Back in April, I attended a 5-day ‘Empty Spools’ workshop with Cindy Needham, at Asilomar, Pacific Grove, California. She’d asked us to bring along a large-print fabric, and she also provided us with plenty to choose from. I chose an odd-shaped scrap piece from my stash and took it with me. Using Cindy’s techniques, I free motion quilted it quite heavily, leaving some of the flower petals unquilted so that they ‘popped’. Here’s a picture of part of the piece — be aware that it was an odd shape, I didn’t quilt it all, and I’ve cropped the photo so it looks complete, but you can see on the far top left of the photo that it’s not all stitched:

A friend of mine saw the picture I posted on Facebook and told me how much she loved it! It was just a practice piece for me, no big deal. But I figured I’d gift it to her if she really wanted it. When I returned to Australia, I trimmed it so that it was rectangular and only the quilted parts were visible, and then I gave it to her. She told me she’d get it framed and hang it in her summer house in Vermont. And she did! And she sent me some pictures of it framed and hanging in a main hallway. The frame and mounting certainly adds to it.

I really needed a decent design wall in my sewing room. I’d been making do with a ‘portable’ one I’d created from the Australian equivalent to foam core board, which I’d bought some years ago from a picture framing business.

(Aside: Australian hardware stores don’t sell foam core board; in fact it’s very hard to get here. Why? Because we build and insulate our houses differently to those in the US. Most housing in my state is double brick outer walls, with single brick inside walls. We don’t build with timber, though some cheaper houses may have an internal timber frame, and many have timber struts/frames for the roof, though steel is more common in newer houses. Our insulation tends to be ceiling insulation [not wall — it just doesn’t get that cold here] and comes as batts or blown-in fibrous material. As a result, it’s almost impossible to buy the sort of ‘foam core board’ that’s readily available in US stores such as Home Depot.)

I’d been toying with the idea of creating my own design wall based on something I’d seen on the internet (see: https://thequiltshow.com/daily-blog/142-newsletter/27057-hope-yoder-easy-quilting-design-wall-tutorial/). And I finally got around to it. Off I went to Bunnings (the Australian equivalent of Home Depot), and purchased several sheets of acoustic panelling (principally used for pin-up/bulletin boards) in various sizes, then wrapped them in batting, stretching then stapling the batting down, and finally using duct tape to cover the staples on the back. Next, I stuck down some 3M Command Strips (the ones that hold 7 kg weight) on the back—one at each corner, so theoretically capable of a 28 kg load per design wall panel.

Then I stuck the two narrow panels to the wardrobe door in my sewing room (using every available space!), and the 3 larger panel to the only spare wall in my sewing room. Finally, I pinned up some of my art quilts—both finished ones that I can’t hand anywhere else, and those in progress.

I’m pleased with the result! And so far (several week on), the Command Strips are holding up beautifully.