Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I made this quilt top back in February, and got it back for quilting! The spots in many of the fabrics meant it was easy to decide a motif — large circles/bubbles/pebbles in the main top (in yellow thread), then a motif I made up in my head of odd-length ‘pipes’ ending in round shapes (bobble heads?). I quite like the effect of those bobble heads and will likely do them again. And yes, I just coined a name for that motif — ‘bobble head’. You heard it here first, folks!

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Marigold’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 80130); Madeira (40 wt, rayon, colour 1047)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

This was a big quilt, with lots of elements in it. It took several hours to quilt.

How to quilt it? As usual I started by stitching in the ditch around the main elements. For the square corner and centre blocks containing flowers, I stitched a flower motif. Then I followed the log cabin seams in the yellow border, stitching straight lines from one side to the other. Still with the yellow thread, I stitched a single line down the middle of one the yellow borders, and a ‘u’ motif in the other. I left the blue border unstitched.

After switching to a dark grey thread, I stitched a squared-off motif in the large and small black borders, and a small stipple in the setting triangles in the centre block; I left the black borders in the centre unstitched.

Lastly, I switched to pink thread and did a large meandering stipple in the pink border.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Marigold’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 80130); Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF488); Robison-Anton ‘Crimson’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2416)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan, lead gray, candy apple red)

As with most quilts, I started by stitching in the ditch around all the sashings and borders. For the centre panel, I stitched a square stipple; for the middle ‘circle’ of blocks, I stitched a square spiral in each; and for the outer ‘ring’ of multicoloured blocks, I stitched a big X, then lines sort-of echoing those Xs. I left the blue sashings and borders unstitched. I only used my Line Tamer rule for stitching in the ditch and the big Xs — everything else was free motion.

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Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Tuxedo Red’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2420)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (candy apple red)

This was a difficult quilt to quilt. I think there was a heap of high-loft polyester batting behind the main top, even though the borders only had standard low-loft batting — the main top was very puffy, usually an indication of fluffy polyester batting. Then there were the buttons in the centre of all the flowers, plus the applique, plus seams that hadn’t been pressed one way. All of these add to the difficulty in quilting a quilt.

To stabilise it as much as possible, I first stitched in the ditch around all the main elements, including around all the fused applique pieces, and the borders. Then to reduce the puffiness, I did a meandering medium-sized stippled in the white space around each teapot and mug. I was going to do spaghetti lines, but the stripes in the white tone-on-tone background fabric went in different directions, so that wasn’t going to work.

I left the green and gold  border unstitched, and stitched different length ‘u’ shapes in the yellow border.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘White’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 10000); Fil-Tec Glide ‘Marigold’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 80130)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white, light tan)

What a bright and cheerful quilt! I think it used a disappearing nine-patch pattern, with the large blocks featuring deep pink orchids.

I decided to quilt it using an all-over, continuous line favourite of mine — open headbands — using a deep maroon thread.

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Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour PF192)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

Someone had fun making this convergence quilt! Nice bright colours, and a pond scene.

But how to quilt it? As usual I started by stitching in the ditch around all the seam lines and borders, then decided to stitch horizontal lines about 0.5 inches apart in the main block with bright orange thread. I used my Line Tamer ruler for the stitch in the ditch straight lines, but just eyeballed the lines in between, so there’s not a true half inch between each. I did a similar treatment with the horizontal lines in the green borders.

In the purple borders, I stitched ‘u’ shapes, leaving the borders either side of the purple border unstitched. And in the orange border, I stitched a ribbon candy motif, also with bright orange thread.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Neon Orange’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 90811); Isacord (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 2900); Robison-Anton ‘Ming'(40 wt, rayon, colour 2322)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan, lead gray)

This pink and grey quilt was very different, and posed some challenges for quilting. The centre circles were quite raised and I suspect had been filled with even more batting to make them puffy. And the diamond shapes separating the blocks were loose — they’d been stitched into the seams, but the whole piece floated above the surface of the quilt. I certainly didn’t want to stitch them down, not after the quilt maker had gone to all that trouble to get that floating effect!

So, how to quilt it? As usual, the first step was stitching in the ditch around all the blocks and borders (using a light grey thread), avoiding the floating diamonds. Then to emphasise the raised centre of each block, I free-motion stitched flower petals (in pink thread) around each one. In the main border, I stitched swags and petal shapes, with a flower in each corner block.

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Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF484); Fil-Tec Glide ‘Pink’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 70189)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (lead gray)

This was a big nautical-themed single bed quilt, with lots of blocks ripe for different styles of quilting. As usual, I started by stitching in the ditch around all the main blocks and elements. Then I stitched different motifs in various areas of the quilt, leaving the inner border and sashings unstitched.

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Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Paris Blue’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2283); Robison-Anton ‘Shimmering Gold’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2471); Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF 487)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white; light tan; lead gray)

For this quilt, I stitched a continuous line, all-over pattern — squared-off ‘open headbands‘, one of my ‘go to’ motifs that’s stored in my muscle memory.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Shimmering Gold’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2471)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

For this scrappy quilt, I started by stitching in the ditch around all the main elements. In the long blocks made of horizontal fabric scraps, I stitched long vertical lines, and for the chevron block, I stitched in the ditch every few chevrons. The border fabric was on a consistent angle, so I stitched straight lines (free motion, so not perfectly straight like you’d get with a ruler!) following the pattern of the fabric. I left the other areas unstitched.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF 487)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (lead gray)