Thursday, July 24, 2014

Ten minutes too many of quilting and a reader question

ARGHHHHH! It is one of those bad thread days! My Mom (Anne H) has a new African quilt that she has asked me to quilt before she adds her magic embellishments. This is an original design - I love the chickens on the right! Right now the pot appears to float in midair but she will be adding logs under the pot as part of the embellishment. Here is her quilt top before I started quilting.


The quilting should have been a fast, straightforward project. I started off with a rayon variegated thread that has wonderful earthy colours and I wanted to use it for the foreground BUT no matter what I do or which machine I use it on I have problems with it shredding. Tension adjustments don't help. Larger/smaller needles don't help. I've tried it on three different machines with no success and that leads me to believe the problem is with the thread. So after ten minutes of sewing (ten minutes too many) I spent an hour of reverse sewing. ARGHHHH! I switched to a Gutermann 50 wt cotton thread that is variegated dark brown. It quilted the foreground beautifully.



I used a variegated Gutermann thread for the midground and again it worked beautifully. I move on to the background and at the risk of repeating myself.......ARGHHHH! I was using a Sulky variegated 12wt thread and it shredded like crazy. I adjusted the tension to no avail. Switched needles and no change. Rethreaded the machine top and bottom with no change. I would  move up to a topstitch 16 needle but I ran out. ARGHHH yet again.


I'll just persevere and when the thread breaks as it does I'll rethread and start again. It is a wall hanging so it won't be a problem as far as the threads working their way out. I do like the texture this heavy thread is giving to the background but am frustrated. If you have any suggestions I am open to them!

Ventura0404 asked where I buy my fabric. I reply to every comment unless you are a no reply blogger in which case I have no way to contact you unless you include your email address. Since I can't email Ventura0404 I'll answer her question here. I live in a large city but quilt shops have almost all disappeared. There is a local fabric store, Fabricland, that is part of a large Canadian chain. It carries quilting fabric so I often buy my fabric there. Other than that I have to shop online. I have bought from Hancocks's of Paducah, Fabric Shack, Thousands of Bolts, Quilt in a Day, Connecting Threads and eBay. If I am looking for a particular fabric I'll go to QuiltShops.com where I can search over 200 shops for just the right fabric. What about you'where do you shop?

I'm off to sew with my friends today. Until tomorrow when I post Block 8 in my Value Proposition Hexagon Quilt Along, happy sewing!
Karen H

9 comments:

  1. I'm about an hour away from my favorite shops, so I frequently shop online at www.fatquartershop.com, although I've also shopped online from Hancock's of Paduch and fabric.com. I've never heard of QuiltShops.com ... I am bookmarking that.

    Good luck with the quilting ... as a hand quilter (exclusively), I'm no help with your dilemma.

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  2. I love Hawthorne Threads and Fat Quarter Shop as well as Fabric.com. I think we live in the same large but undernourished quilting-wise city where I shop at Sew Sisters.

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  3. I'm lucky that I work 10 minutes from home and work is just 5 minutes from the quilt store where I work part-time and teach. There are also another 5 quilt stores within a 20-45 minutes drive from my house and even more over an hours drive up in the city. I'm quite lucky!

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  4. I should have added that I live in rural WNY - my county has more cows than people.

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  5. My comment is not specific to this blog. just a question about the value proposition flickr site. Am i the only person having difficulty viewing everyones blocks? The photos load for 2 seconds then disappear. :(

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  6. I am sorry you were having thread troubles. I hate troubles when I am quilting the quilt. Your Mom has made another stunner. She captures the simplicity of the scenes so very well.

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  7. You two make a great team....so much talent in one family.

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  8. Have you tried setting it up on a separate thread stand? I find that works well with metallic or some rayon threads. Maybe it's an old spool of thread. The quilting you've done, so far, is lovely and really highlights your mom's quilt. You make a great team and I know all this frustration will be worth it in the end.

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  9. My LQS is now a "sewing center", so there are more machines than fabric. I've been picking up fabric at shows when I go, or I get it online.

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