I haven’t stitched free-motion feathers for ages, but it’s amazing how that muscle memory came back very quickly! I started by stitching in the ditch around all the borders, then stitched freeform feathers in each block. Each feather has between two and five spines, and none are the same.
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Such a very simple quilt of 6-inch squares, but with a variety of fabrics that ranged from heavy-weight cottons (similar to gabardines) to very light-weight cottons (similar to lawn) and everything in between. To stabilise it, I stitched in the ditch around each square, then because the puffiness was very uneven owing to the different weights of the fabrics, I decided to do a checkerboard pattern to sew the puffiness into submission!
No rulers were harmed — in fact, none were used. All the ‘straight’ lines were done free motion, so while the stitching lines might look even at a distance, up close many are quite wonky. And I’m OK with that.
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With such busy patterns in the fabrics, I opted for an all-over motif — a slight variation on the open headband motif (I added a sort of hook to some of the inner points).
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What a bright quilt this is! In keeping with the ‘modern’ lines of it, I just did some simple straight line stitching in the ditch following the verticals.
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What a colourful quilt this was! I didn’t do any stitching in the ditch; instead, I started in the middle and worked my way out stitching circles inside circles with connecting loops in a bright orange thread.
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My apologies for the washed out photos — this quilt was much brighter than it appears in these photos.
I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, then around the big circles, segueing into petals around each one to create the illusion of a large flower or a sun. I repeated the petal/fire motif in the border, using a charcoal thread.
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What a stunner of a quilt this was! The person who made the top used colours that I would never have dreamt of putting together to create the illusion of a colour wash, and it was all done with faux pinwheels too.
How to quilt it? I thought about graffiti quilting it, but decided against it, instead choosing to go a bit more formal. I decided to closely quilt the lightest colour of the central area, using McTavishing. For the next layer (light to mid tone pinwheels), I segued into a larger open headband motif in the same variegated cream thread, then finally into a medium-size meandering stipple in a matching variegated cotton thread for the mid to dark areas.
Even though I’m not a fan of traditional applique, this quilt is a real stunner and I hope I’ve done it justice with the quilting I’ve done on it.
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At first glance, I thought this scrappy quilt was too busy, but on stepping back from it a little, I realised how cleverly constructed it was with the offsetting of the lights and darks creating various optical illusions.
I started by stitching in the ditch along all the diagonal lines, then filled in the dark parts only with a large ‘n’ and ‘u’ stitching pattern, keeping about a half inch between the up and down strokes of the motif. I didn’t use rulers — I just eyeballed the distance, so some are a little closer or further apart than half an inch, but the overall effect is of similarly spaced parallel lines.
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For this batik quilt, I used a bright yellow thread to stitch large overlapping spirals on the main part of the quilt, and large ‘ribbon candy’ in the piano keys border. I left the inner and outer borders unstitched.
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To counteract the rigidity of the horizontal stripes in this bright jelly roll quilt, I decided to go a bit more organic by stitching all over with circles (aka bubbles or pebbles) of various sizes, in a fluoro orange thread. I left the border unstitched.
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Rhonda Bracey: At Random 