Rhonda Bracey: At Random

This Ohio Star variation was nicely put together. I liked the colours too!

My first step in quilting it was to stitch in the ditch ESS (every stinkin’ seam). Painfully tedious but necessary to stabilise everything. I did this with an 8o wt Deco Bob thread.

Next, I stitched wonky 8-point stars in the centre square of each big star and each block surrounding the big star. Yes, that was a LOT of stars — nine in each of the 16 blocks, so that’s 144 stars! Each star has eight lines, so that’s 1152 straight lines! Thank goodness for my Line Tamer ruler, which made the process of stitching all those straight lines MUCH quicker.

For the border, I just stitched straight lines down the centre of the squares. I left the yellow sashings and the maroon borders unstitched.

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Back:

Threads used:

• Top: Robison-Anton ‘Shimmering gold’ (40 wt, rayon, colour 2471); Wonderfil Deco-Bob (80 wt, colour DB 414)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

This was quit a large quilt, but fortunately it didn’t have any bias edges and most of the seam joins were nice and flat. First, I stitched in the ditch along every diagonal strip (painfully tedious, but had to be done).

Then, because there were a lot of floral scrappy fabrics in this quilt, I stitched an 8-petal flower motif in the centres of each each on-point block. Instructions for doing these flowers are here: https://rhondabracey.com/2015/01/27/quilting-an-8-petaled-flower/

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Back:

Threads used:

• Top: Wonderfil Deco Bob (80 wt, DB 414)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

Some quilts (like #182) sing to you; others make you want to get them off your machine table ASAP… #183 was one of those. I didn’t like the fabrics (I suspect some were quite old), the colours, or the HUGE amount of biased edges and wonky blocks. It was one of those quilts that has to be stitched into submission.

Normally for a smallish quilt like this, with this many fabric variations, I’d just stipple it all over nin a neutral thread and not worry about stitching in the ditch. But it was obvious as soon as I put this quilt on the machine’s table that I’d have to stitch in the ditch otherwise I’d end up with massive puckers if I just stippled it, even if I started from the centre (as I usually would).

So, even though I wanted this one off my table ASAP, it had to remain on there long enough for me to stitch in the ditch for almost ESS (‘every stinking seam’), and then for the stippling.

I was glad to be done with it. Fortunately, it was small and didn’t take too long.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Harmony ‘Spring’ (40 wt, cotton, colour 14062)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

Sometimes a quilt just sings to you — this was one of those. I loved its simplicity and how the quiltmaker had used all solids in graduated colour ranges in each rail fence block. And the use of various widths in the white sashing strips.

I decided to quilt it with a yellow thread — enough to show up on the white, but not enough to be overbearing and dominate the simple beauty of the coloured strips.

First, I stitched in the ditch around each coloured strip. Then it took me a while of looking at it to figure out how best to quilt it. I went through lots of options in my head and drawing over it with my finger 😉 Eventually, I decided on an all-over squared stipple motif and was about to start, but at the last moment I decided on really big swirly spirals, with about a half inch between the lines in each spiral.

I didn’t mark anything — all these spirals were free-motion.

I really like how it turned out. And I liked how the yellow added just a bit more life to an already vibrant and colourful quilt. The back looks pretty awesome too 😉

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Back:

Threads used:

• Top: Isacord (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 0600)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (light tan)

This was a very ‘busy’ quilt, with lots of tiny half-square triangles and many many different fabrics, including an equally busy fabric in the border.

How to quilt it? I realised that doing anything other than a simple all-over motif would be lost in the ‘busy-ness’ of this quilt, so I opted for a variation of my ‘go to’ open headband motif. Instead of arcs, the centre part of each motif is a paisley (or a really big comma!).

I used a variegated thread in autumnal colours in all parts of this quilt, including the stippling in the border.

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Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Harmony ‘Autumn’ (40 wt, cotton, colour 14081)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (gray)

I liked the colours in this quilt — they were very cool and calming. And fresh.

How to quilt it? As usual, I started by stitching in the ditch around the main elements — the white strips in the middle and the borders. Then I tackled the white strips. I emulated the diamonds in the coloured strips stitching straight lines (with my Line Tamer ruler) from point to point (matching the side points of the diamonds in the coloured strips). Then I did a tight up and down ribbon stitch in the ‘background’ of these diamonds, causing them to ‘pop’.

Next, I did a wavy matrix in each coloured diamond (on-point square) in the coloured strips. But the setting triangles were too puffy, so I stitched a 3-petal flower in those to subdue the puffiness.

In the white border, I repeated the up and down ribbon motif, and then did a very large version of it in the widest border. In that border, I didn’t want the outermost points to be even, so I varied their length.

In the other borders I either stitched straight lines about a half inch from the seam lines, or left them unstitched (all the spotted green borders).

I was pleased with how it turned out — this was quite a ‘modern quilt’, and I hope my stitching showed that. And the back looked pretty awesome too 😉

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Back:

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Linen’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 10WG1)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

This was a big quilt with a lot of empty space. Each block was different but most had stars or diagonal lines, which helped me decide how to quilt the empty blocks.

First, I stitched in the ditch around each of the blocks, then around the main elements within each pieced block. To make these elements ‘pop’, I quilted the background only, in a simple smallish stipple.

To give definition to the empty blocks, I echo quilted about half to one in from the joining seam lines, then stitched a wonky 8-point star in each to stop them puffing too much. Finally, I did a large stipple in the main border and left the green framing border unstitched.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Back:

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Linen’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 10WG1)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

Someone had spent a lot of time cutting out and carefully appliquing all those little hearts and big bows to create wreaths inside each block of this quilt.

How to quilt it? I started by stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, then I echo stitched about a quarter inch out from each heart and bow. Next I used my Line Tamer ruler to stitch diagonal lines inside each heart ‘wreath’, then stippled in the remaining white space.

I kept the border simple, just stitching a straight echo line a half inch from the seams.

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide ‘Linen’ (40 wt, trilobal polyester, colour 10WG1)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin (white)

This was a BIG quilt, and my first done using Karlee Porter‘s graffiti quilting method. It’s a quilt for a West Coast Eagles fan (one of the two Australian Rules Football teams based in Western Australia).

I stitched in the ditch around the centre strip of rail fence blocks, then echo quilted an inch out from these blocks, using a navy thread on the dark blue fabric and a yellow thread on the yellow fabric. I thought about quilting the yellow side in contrasting navy thread and the blue side in yellow thread, but decided against it, instead quilting each side in a matching thread for the fabric.

In each large blue and yellow sector, I quilted several instances of ‘eagles’ in cursive script, echo quilting around each one. But most of the quilting is free-form graffiti quilting, with me deciding at the last moment what motif to stitch next. I used McTavishing in the white centre, though it’s hard to see in the pictures below. I also thought about using a contrasting thread to emphasise the word ‘eagles’ on each side, but decided against that too as I thought it would spoil the effect.

This quilt took about 10 hours to quilt.

(I used to be a member of the Fremantle Dockers, the other Western Australia AFL team, so I’ve quilted about 10 small Dockers anchor symbols  in this quilt as well 😉 They are so well disguised I couldn’t find any of them the next day!!)

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When on the machine:

Back of the yellow section:

Update May 2015: This quilt was featured in the Community Quilts display at QuiltWest 2015, and I believe it attracted a lot of attention 😉 The Community Quilts organisers used it as a talking point for the Community Quilts program  and mentioned that I’d had the last laugh by stitching some Freo anchors into the design. They pointed out one anchor and challenged people to find more! It seems the men, in particular, were very interested. And everyone thought I had a good sense of humour as well as good quilting skills 😉 The quilt will go to the Wirrapunda Foundation as a raffle quilt later in the year at their 10th anniversary dinner.

Freo Dockers supporter looking for anchors! (note the anchor on the back of his Fremantle Dockers branded sweater)

Hunting anchors

Found one!

Threads used:

• Top: Fil-Tec Glide in yellow, navy, and white (‘Mango’ colour 80116, ‘Navy’ colour 32965, ‘White’ colour 10000) (40 wt trilobal polyester)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbins in Light Tan, Black, and White

This is likely my last Community Quilt for 2014. It was the last of the most recent bunch I had received, and I won’t get any more until I go to Perth on Dec 19 to pick up a US friend from the airport. As she’s staying with us until Dec 28, I doubt I’ll get any/many of whatever is coming to me in the new batch.

Like the previous quilt, this was a ‘busy’ scrappy quilt of many colours and wonky log cabins. I decided to soften the geometric lines by doing an all-over circular motif in red thread, opting for my ‘open headbands‘, which are lodged in my muscle memory 😉

(Click on a photo to view it larger)

Back:

Threads used:

• Top: Floriani (40 wt, rayon, colour PF188)
• Bottom: Fil-Tec Magna Glide Classic pre-wound bobbin