Thread according to Carrie

Thread - a boring subject if ever there was one.  Let me start by saying that I am, by no means, a thread expert! There are so many questions that arise about thread, and so many misconceptions, that I thought it was worth writing about.  I am just going to tell you about some of the thread that we carry, what I use it for, and why I use it.  I know there are a million different types of thread on the market and COLORS - oh the colors!  You could spend a fortune and never have the right color!  Talk about counter candy...

Here are some of the threads that I like to use:

You may notice a common "thread" here (groan).  All of them are shades of beige and brown.  Truthfully, I don't use a lot of colors.  There doesn't seem to be much need for a lot of colors in the types of things I do.

Lets start on the left.  The big cone and the spool in front of it are both Signature 40 weight cotton thread in a color called Mother Goose.  Why it is called that is beyond me.  It is a great color that magically seems to pick up any color that is near it.  Our quilters have used it on many quilts that have a wide range of colors.  I even had them use it on a blue and cream quilt of mine.  It looks great!  We use this brand of thread almost exclusively on our Longarm machine, and many people like to buy the smaller spools for machine quilting on their home machines.  A 40 weight thread is a little stronger and a good choice for quilting.  We only use 100% cotton for quilting on cotton fabric.  There are stories around that polyester in you thread will eventually cut through cotton.  I am here to tell you that it is TRUE!  One of my instructors quilted her children's baby quilts with a cotton/poly thread and it eventually ripped right through the quilt.  This is in our lifetime, so you will not want to use it on an heirloom quilt - which, of course, all of your quilts will be!

The next spool and cone are Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread.  Aurifil is a fabulous thread for piecing.  I also use it for quilting smaller projects.  90% of the Aurifil I buy is color 2310 - light beige.  I use it for all my piecing.  Aurifil is a long staple thread.  So, what the heck does that mean?  Staple refers to the length of the fibers in the thread.  Inexpensive thread has shorter staple fibers which means they are fuzzier and they mess up your machine.  They are not as strong as long staple threads, either.  You really do get what you pay for, but even then, looks can be deceiving.  Nice long staple thread is finer, even though it is stronger, and you will find that if you compare the amount of thread on a spool of Aurifil with the amount of thread on a similar looking spool of some of the other brands, that there is a whole lot more thread.  When you start comparing you will find that even though Aurifil is twice the price, there is about twice as much thread on each spool as Gutterman and Mettler.  Large Aurifil spools have 1450 yards compared to 876 and 547, and the small spools have 220 yards compared to 110 & 164.  Don't be tricked - Aurifil is your best deal for price and quality.  I should get paid for this!  Another reason to use cotton thread is that it shrinks at the same rate as your fabric.  You don't want a baggy quilt, do you?

The next spool in my picture - that whitish one is water soluble thread.  This thread can be great for specific uses, but be careful - keep it in a plastic bag away from your other thread and label it.  It looks a lot like regular thread and you do NOT want to accidentally piece your quilt with this! 

Now to the pyramid.  The thread on top is YLI Cotton Hand Quilting Thread.  I use it for a lot of my hand work- not just quilting.  I use it for hand finishing my bindings and, yes, I use it for my English Paper Piecing projects.  I like it because it is a little stronger and heavier than Aurifil, and because it is treated with beeswax or something, it doesn't twist and knot as much.  Since it is 100% cotton, I know it will be alright for my cotton fabric in the long term.

Lastly, on the bottom of the pyramid are the only two colors of YLI silk that I buy - light taupe and dark taupe (or brown color 235 and beige color 242).  I ONLY use silk for applique.  I know some people have used it in the top of their machines for machine applique, too.  What is nice about silk in these colors is that the silk is kind of translucent, so it picks up whatever color you are using in on (in the unlikely event that your stitches even show).   So, why only applique, you ask.  Some people are saying you must use it for English Paper Piecing.  Seriously???  Have you ever seen an antique crazy quilt with silks and other fabrics?  What is the first fabric to shatter?  Yes, the silk.  Why would you piece with that?  At least applique would be easy for your heirs to repair.  Besides it is so fine it is hard to keep in your needle, and if you are like me you can barely see the stuff. 

Some other thoughts - GET RID OF GRAMA'S THREAD!  Unless you are displaying it in a glass jar because it looks so quaint on the wooden spools.  Old thread gets brittle and breaks.  If you have thread that is more than 5 years old, throw it away, or save it for basting or make birds nests out of it.  Sure, you have nothing else to do, right?  Throw it out! 

Nylon or other see-through threads.  I used to use these for quilting - but, isn't nylon like polyester?  Besides, it gleams in the light and looks kind of weird.  It also melts if you press it - fun!  Stick with cotton.  If your quilting is that bad, we have people for that.  Have you seen mine?  Ask my staff about my lack of skill in that department.  Thank God for my people!

Well, I hope I haven't totally bored you to death.  I would do a post on needles, which are really boring, but I couldn't stay awake during the needle class at market.  Z-z-z-z-z.

Hope this answers some questions. 

Carrie

Thought for the day:   Don't do anything without a clear reason for doing it!

The Miracle of Best Press and Other Great Tools

Hello Pieceful Quilters,

Many of you are probably fans of Lori Smith (From My Heart to Your Hands). How she continues to come out with so many great patterns is beyond me. I had a chance to chat with her for a few minutes when we were vending at the International Quilt Festival a couple of weeks ago. I asked her if she ever slept. She did divulge that she works a lot, and, since she doesn't have anyone but herself to worry about, she can work at all hours of the night and day. I guess that helps explain - and I thought I was obsessed with quilting!

Anyway, Lori usually has her newest patterns at Quilt Fest - even before we see them at Quilt Market! As usual, she had a few that we fell in love with. Her new format for patterns was two little patterns in one packet. This is a nice size for us, as we don't feel bad about putting the pattern in our kits. The one we decided to kit first is this one:

I volunteered to do the one on the left - I am not sure why, since it is a bit harder to skoonch with these little quilts, but it is so cute! I tried really hard to be perfect, but still ended up skoonching a little to get my corners to match. One of my star blocks ended up looking a little like a bowl! Enter Best Press - the Miracle Liquid. As you can see from the picture below, they all turned out flat as a pancake!

Aren't they cute? Kudos to the genius who invented Best Press! We just got another order in the shop, but it disappears very quickly! So, since I was taking a picture of the blocks, I thought it would make them look better if I squared them up to trim off all the little threads and raggedy edges. For this I used another one of my favorite tools, the June Taylor (another genius) Shape Cut Ruler. Actually, since these blocks were so small, I was able to use the Quarter Cut Ruler. To make them really nice and even, I lined up one of the slits with the center of my block, and one of the lines with the top of the block. This way you don't end up trimming one side too much and end up with a wonky block. (Another highly technical quilting term) I put a red line down the middle to show you how I lined it up with the "V" of the star points.

I have to admit, some of my blocks were a tiny bit too small, but I am sure a little more skoonching and Best Press will take care of that! Hah - you aren't getting this kind of quilting information from everyone else!

So - while I am talking about cool tools, and since I am a sucker for patriotic stuff, let me introduce you to the amazing Quiltsmart interfacing. These brilliant designers have come up with a bunch of patterns - or I guess you would call them kits - that make previously difficult patterns easy and accurate by using fusible interfacing with the patterns printed on them. There are various ways that they use it, depending on the pattern, but I wanted to show you one I love that we have in the shop right now - visit our Patriotic Corner:

The package has enough interfacing to complete two of the flag quilts. Don't you just love it? While I am talking Patriotic, Katie finally finished the pattern for Uncle Sam, which has been on my "to do" list for quite awhile (don't even think about asking how long - it is too embarrassing!) Thank goodness I have a wonderful daughter that has realized that waiting for me to get things done is sometimes a lost cause. She even made the sample out of our kit:

I don't think she has this one on the website yet, but she has several of our other new kits and patterns, including the Little Nine Patch Doll Quilt that Kathy Tracy designed, Sarah's Stars, and the cute bag we did for the Shop Hop:

Visit our website to see many of our patterns and kits. Of course, not everything we do makes it to our web store, so if you don't see something, please call the shop or send us an email and we will be happy to help you out!

I had better get back to work!

Happy Belated Mother's Day - Carrie