Thread

You've heard me speak of my particular thread love before. Today I am sharing, with the inspiration from Sew Mama Sew, a bit more about thread.

How do you select colours for your personal thread collection?

Unlike fabric, I don't have a thread stash. Rather, I have thread that I've purchased for specific projects and maybe there are some leftovers.

Do you always match the thread perfectly to your project?

Well, that depends on the project. For piecing I use a cream or grey 99% of the time. For quilting it depends on the project at hand and my goals with the quilting.

Do you ever use contrasting thread?

Indeed, I have. I've outlined by hand with black. I've used colour on white, more than once. Or, when you've got a project with strong contrast in fabric choices, you can go one way or the other and you get contrast.

Do you use the same colour in the bobbin as on the top?

Usually, I do. You have to be very good with your tension if you use different threads, and even now I still struggle with this. For example, I constantly fought with tension on my Roots quilt, and it really mattered because I used grey on the back and constantly changed the top thread.

What if a fabric has big areas of very different colours?

Over time I've discovered that I stress way too much about the quilting pattern and thread choice. Especially when it comes to very colourful pieces. The truth is, in many, many quilts the thread and quilting pattern will get lost in a busy design. So, on a multicoloured or busy piece pick one colour and go with it.

Do you have any tips or suggestions on picking thread?

Experiment! Until you know what your machine likes and you've quilted a few times with it, it is hard to narrow down a specific choice of thread based on someone else's recommendation. So, try a few brands, a few needle sizes, and just play. The right thread will make itself known.

Do you ever buy thread because you fall in love with a colour? As an investment?

Nope.

What types of thread do you have?

I stick entirely to cotton.  My latest obsession is Precensia Mercerized Egyptian Cotton. I love the colours, it works well in my machine, and it doesn't produce a lot of lint. And it doesn't break! I do have some embroidery floss that the girls and I use to play around with embroidery. Thanks to Jen for that!

What about you? What are your thread favourites?

Prepare yourself, I'm contemplating making a quilt from a single fabric line.

Shocked, aren't you?

You see, I won this gorgeous Daisy Jane organic fabric from the Blogger's Quilt Festival. And when it arrived I got to thinking about making a solely organic piece. I know I could mix in some other lines, or at least some solids. It would be a bit of a statement, and somehow it seems wrong to mix it with the conventional stuff.

Kind of like getting organic, local strawberries and making shortcake with Bisquick mix.

Focus Girl, Focus

Have you been paying attention lately? There hasn't been much quilty goodness shared here of late. It isn't for a lack of quilting, just a lack of anything to actually share. Despite my commitment to no obligation, I feel a tad bit guilty. 

The reason for little to share is that I've been buried under commission quilts. Namely, 13 doll quilts and 1 baby quilt. I haven't nearly made the progress I've wanted. Here are 8 of the doll quilts in various states. 2 finished, 2 with binding ready to hand stitch (yes, I still handstitch on commission quilts), 2 waiting for binding, and 2 waiting for quilting. I have the remaining 5 designed and waiting to be sewn.

As for the baby quilt, the special order fabric has arrived, the sketch is made, and the plan is set for a spree starting in a week. It must arrive before the baby!

And after all this, I can get back to the outstanding projects I just want to finish. Like this one, this one, and even this one.

Four

The Monster turns 4 today.  Holy crap, 4! She is a wild and crazy girl. She has two positions - awake and asleep. If her body isn't moving her mouth is. That makes her about a perfect combination of her parents.

Although she did actually ask me for a quilt last week - for the first time no less - and she has added quilter to her career aspirations (along with doctor, paleontologist, rockstar, vet, jogger, and sometimes Spiderman) this was the last quilt I made specifically for her.

A quilter carries around a lot of guilt when she doesn't get to make her own first baby a quilt. I spent 9 weeks on bed rest before she arrived in a flurry of doctors. Yes, she was gifted quilts, but it wasn't the same. So, for her first birthday I made this Monster Eye Spy.

It actually started as a challenge among some quilty friends. We exchanged charms and FQs for the eye spy fabrics. And we set ourselves the additional challenge to add the alphabet. After months, literally, of trying to make it work by using one letter to one fabric I came up with this design. The colour changes work, I think, but I did pick the wrong fabric for the letters. They get lost when viewing the quilt as a whole. Ah, lessons in value... But they are totally visible to The Monster and I up close. We play with it frequently still.

Happy Birthday Monster!