Thursday, February 25, 2010

FINALLY UN-STUCK!!!

Silly me...I can't believe how RELIEVED I am, to be moving forward on this quilt! I was inspired by the blogger who is doing 365 days of free-motion quilting. I decided to try my hand at doing different designs on my quilt too! Many are my own ideas and of course I am inspired to adapt several of Leah Day's ideas too!
I must admit, I am having FUN with this!
Remember the trouble I reported about the thread breaking so much? I re-read Sarah Ann Smith's book "Thread Work - Unraveled" to see if she had some hints about the problems I was having. She DID! I was using a good quality metallic thread on top. I already did have the correct needle (thanks CJ for suggesting that too). So what was the culprit? The bobbin thread! It was too thick!!!

I tried monofillement and that cut the metallic thread right away. What has worked for me is a thin Gutermann cotton thread in the bobbin. I think a polyester might have worked even better, but I didn't have any in the right color. The Gutermann I had was the thinnest thread, in the correct color. So far, so good too!

Related to this specific quilt is something I recently heard about. Did you know that if you share your quilt photos online in ANY way, that SOME places will not accept your entry in their contests or shows? I did not know that. You cannot show progress reports nor the finished quilt without risking being disqualified. We will find out if that is the case with this project. I am not going back and pulling out all my photos from my blog!

I am close to halfway done with the quilting today. I did some yesterday too. I took a break to make supper. Here are the helpful males in my house, doing what they love to do...gaming!
(Moqui, the Child, and the Dad)

5 comments:

CJ said...

Sherri, glad to hear you got the thread issue solved. My two favorite bobbin threads for quilting are both Superior Threads, the Bottom Line and So Fine. Absolutely wonderful to work with!

Sherri said...

Thanks CJ...my metallic on top is a Superior Threads product. I've heard a lot of good things about Bottom Line and So Fine too. Thing is, I have ALL this other thread to use up first! lol Since I am not ever going to make a quilt that would meet the standards of a big quilt show, I am just going to use up what I have first. If I get through that thread before I stop quilting in life, THEN I might buy some of the good bobbin thread. hehehehe....or I COULD put it on my Christmas list! Santa would get me some! lol

Anonymous said...

That's going to be one kick-ass quilt!! And, I hear you on the metallic thread issue. I just got my Big Black Quilt back from Nancy'shop-had forgotten how badly the metallic had bird-nested. I'd just gotten the hang of the tension about the time I finished the damned thing. GRR!!! I even today found a bit of broken needle in it. But, if you can tame metallics, they are soooo worth it. Best of greatest of good luck with that one-it WILL be worth it!

Sherri said...

Thanks Cheryl...I am doing the binding now. (quarter inch wide, by hand)
I also need to decide if I will rip out an area and redo it or use a blue felt tip laundry marker to hide some...um....shall we say "interesting features" that might not look so good? :D

Jaye said...

Love the different motifs idea!

I probably don't want to be in the shows that require nobody ever sees my quilt before they do. I'd have to shut down my blog. Forget that!