Cleaning out the threads

Last Tuesday, I told you about learning that I had been threading my Sit-Down Longarm WRONG for a long time!!

While I was thinking about thread, I decided it was time to clean some of my “iffy” threads.

These are some threads that I purchased when we were in China….

I loved the colors and weights of the threads, but after 10+ years, I hadn’t tried using them yet!!

IT WAS TIME……

I loaded up three different threads, and each one of them broke within 2 minutes of quilting.

NOT A GOOD SIGN!!

I knew when I bought them, that they were of “iffy” quality, so it is time to get them out of my studio!!

NOTE TO SELF….don’t buy unknown threads!!

Do you need to have a thread clean-out day?

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Prepping to quilt!!

One of my goals for the next 4 to 6 weeks is to start and finish the quilting on this bad boy…….

It is a BIG quilt and it will be a BIG job to quilt!!

Over the last 2 years (since I finished the top), I have thought a lot about how I was going to quilt it and have drawn out SO many ideas!!

My first thought was to use lots of colored threads, but the more I thought about it, I am thinking that I will go with lots of straight lines in the background colors, maybe something like this…..

Even though this is just a rough idea, it still means that I need to decide on threads and get them organized.

Fortunately, I had three of the colors needed…..

Light Grey Omni for the inside circle…..

(I won’t need much of this one).

Omni Medium Grey works perfectly for the next color gradation……

….and this Signature Black will be great for the darkest area…..

So that leaves one gradation to fill and an Omni Dark Grey should fit the part!!

It has been ordered which puts me ONE step closer to actually starting to quilt!!!

The next decision is what batting to use. I have toyed with using a double bat, but it would make a very large quilt sandwich even LARGER and I am not sure that I want to deal with that!!

I have been dreading this project for a long time and I need to make sure that the green circle doesn’t come into play with it…..

So readers…..keep on me to make sure that I get this done SOON!!!

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The worth of a good grey thread….

Last month I had the privilege of judging the quilts at the Georgia National Fair. Check out THIS POST to read about my insights from the “other side of the table”!!

One of the things that I noticed was how much difference it made when the piecing thread matched the fabrics….or at least didn’t CONTRAST with the fabrics.

Now, I am the queen of putting one BIG spool of thread on my machine….

…….(Signature Natural White) and using it for everything.

But as I was preparing to work on the Retreat scrap quilt, I got to thinking about whether the white thread was appropriate for the myriad of colors that would appear in my piecing.

Based on what I had learned at the judging, the answer to that question was NO!!

So, out came a light grey thread…..

…which was used for top and bobbin threads.

The result is that the stitching doesn’t show and I, yet again, learned how to make my quilts better!!!

It is always amazing how much difference a very small change can make!!!

Here’s to a good grey thread!!!

Ode to an empty spool

On Saturday, I came to the end of the 2500 yard spool of cotton thread that I use for EVERYTHING….piecing, quilting, bobbin filling and on and on. The funny thing is that I had noted the date when I started using this spool and it was exactly one year later when it filled it’s final bobbin.

Normally, when I finish a spool, I love to look back and see exactly what the thread had been used for and sometimes write a post about those things. This year I decided that it was time for an ode.

But first I had to find out exactly what an Ode was……

“Ode is a form of lyrical poetry, in which poets use a certain metrical pattern and rhyme scheme to express their noble and lofty sentiments ….”

So, without further ado, here is my “ODE TO AN EMPTY SPOOL”

…..And NOW you know why I am a quilter and

NOT a poet!!!!

(I guess that I should have read this post from my friend Andrea before I wrote this poem!!)

Thread Storage

My local JoAnne’s shop recently had all of their threads on sale for 50% off, so I took my Gutermann list in and filled in the gaps. I had also bought some Sulky Blendables from my local shop and I was in desperate need of thread storage.

I have used the Sulky Storage Boxes for my Gutermann threads and really like that I can open them up flat and see all of the threads at one time.

I have two of these mostly filled, so need to buy one more to finish out my collection. I will wait until I get a Hancock’s online coupon before I order it.

Now comes the decision of how to store all of the other odd sized spools of thread. I bought one thread holder (for $25), but it was big and bulky.

Instead, I remembered a blog post that I read and went to Walmart and bought a plastic storage box that is used for Matchbox Cars.

For $6 I got a wonderful box that holds lots of threads…..

….AND….this is only one side….there is another equally large set of compartments on the other side of the box.

I AM THRILLED!!!!!