The flight was long (it always is) but totally uneventful. Not a spot of turbulence for 14.5 hours (yes, we had a great tailwind!). The Qantas First Class experience was exactly that – first class. But then with 3 flight attendants to look after 14 people, and two loos just for us, you’d expect that.
I haven’t processed all my photos yet, but here’s a taste of the suite and the food. The photo of the plane is of another A380 that left a few hours before ours did.
I got my points upgrade to First Class on Qantas for the long leg from Sydney to Dallas. Woohoo!! And this time I was notified early, not at the gate on boarding, which meant I got to experience the First Class Lounge at Sydney airport.
This is an all-day lounge, meaning you can check in as early as you want on the day you’re flying and take advantage of the services on offer.
I checked in about 9:30am, had breakfast of Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, then had a spa treatment (back massage). Later I had lunch – three tasting plates of salt and pepper squid with green chilli and aoili, buffalo mozzarella with heirloom tomatoes, black angus minute steak, followed by pavlova with lychees and raspberries in a glass topped with pashmak. Delicious. And table service too.
A quick shower about an hour before boarding and I’m all ready and relaxed for my 16-hour non-stop flight, in First Class on an A380.
And we’ve just got the first boarding call…. See you on the flipside….
This was the last of the latest batch of Community Quilts, and the last done before I travel to the US on Thursday.
It was a bright ‘eye spy’ quilt and all those straight lines just told me to stitch it with a rounded motif! I went for an all-over design of very large spirals (lines about half an inch apart) in a matching yellow thread.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
Threads used:
This brightly coloured scrappy quilt was very puffy — I think there were lots of bias edges in the blocks.
I started by stitching in the ditch with a thin Deco-Bob thread around all the large blocks and their yellow borders to stabilise the puffiness as far as possible. For the main part of each block, I stitched a large ‘wonky star‘ in yellow, with a secondary smaller wonky star inside the square made by the larger star.
My aim was to keep the geometric look of the blocks while stitching them enough to flatten out some of the puffiness.
I left all the borders and sashings unstitched.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
Threads used:
This quilt was made up of fairly traditional blocks and colours, so the only option was to quilt it using fairly traditional motifs.
After stitching in the ditch around every block, sashing strip, border, and applique piece, I then stitched a different design in each block.
I kept the border simple by just stitching a double straight line about half an inch from the seam and then another quarter inch out from that stitched line.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
Threads used:
If you keep your eyes open, you’ll see patterns in all sorts of places. I spotted this pattern on a feminine hygiene product!
This was a small scrappy quilt, made from all sorts of fabric squares. The main colour theme seemed to be a purple/pink, so I decided to quilt it in purple. Several of the seams were uneven, so I needed to use a motif that ‘stitched them into submission’ without causing too many puckers. To counteract the squares, I decided to do a rounded motif, and chose an old favourite — swirly spirals.
I liked the end result.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
Threads used:
Another big quilt — this time for a soccer-mad kid 😉
After stitching in the ditch around the blocks to stabilise the quilt, I outline stitched the soccer balls in those blocks, using an Invisifil thread. Next, I ‘matrix’ stitched the blocks with fabric that had soccer nets behind the shoes, shirts, etc. I left the soccer balls unstitched so they ‘popped. Finally, I switched to a green thread to stitch large circles (emulating soccer balls?) in the blue, yellow, and green blocks and in the dark blue border. I left the green sashings unstitched.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
Threads used:
This was a big quilt, with big pinwheel-type blocks. It was nice and square and well-constructed using some lovely fabrics (colour as well as ‘hand’).
How to quilt it?
First, I stitched in the ditch around all the blocks using a matching Invisifil thread to stabilise the quilt. Then I free-motion stitched big brown leaf motifs in the brownish pinwheels, followed by big green leaf motifs in the green pinwheels. I used the same green thread for the large circles in the border.
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
Threads used:
This was a BIG scrappy quilt, made up of lots of 2″ squares in a sort of chevron pattern.
My first task was to stitch in the ditch to stabilise it (there were quite a few wonky seams, especially by the time you got to the border). I stitched in the ditch every 3×3 ‘block’, which helped hold it together. Then I stitched diagonally across every second chevron, following the pattern of the fabrics, and pivoting at the apex and returning down the other side of the chevron. I used a variegated purple thread.
The overall effect is of very large chevrons, which is what I set out to achieve. My Line Tamer ruler got a good workout 😉
(Click on a photo to view it larger)
Threads used:
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
