Quilt-Woman Blog

Some people might say I’m a thread snob. That’s because I refuse to use junk thread in my sewing machines.

What’s a junk thread? Thread that leaves a lot of lint in my bobbin case, thread that frays quickly, and thread that is too fat for the job. As a general rule these threads are cheap and can be found anywhere, even in good quilt fabric stores.

Okay, I’ll admit it, the only thread I like is the Superior brand of thread. Not only is it high quality stuff, it comes in gorgeous colors. For piecing, I mostly use Bottom Line or So Fine in the bobbin, and Masterpiece on the spool. Masterpiece is a high quality long staple cotton and the other two are spun polyester. No, polyester won’t cut your fabric and it won’t melt when you iron the seams.

But the topic today is the thread stash. I have one, I need one.

For quilting I may use King Tut, their cotton quilting thread, but most of the quilting I do is done with Rainbows, their variegated polyester, which comes in such wonderful colors. Since I do a lot of thread work on my artistic quilts, I like to have a lot of colors to choose from and I can never find exactly what I have in mind just by walking into a quilt shop, even ones in the bigger cities.

When I go to a quilt show that has lots and lots of vendors ( I like lots of vendors at quilt shows) I spend a lot of my money at the Superior Thread booth buying threads I cannot get anywhere else except by mail order. I like to buy the cones because they are more economical, but I buy spools too. I probably have as much invested in thread as I do in my fabric stash, and with prices climbing on both items all the time, the stash really has become an investment.

Superior Threads has a monthly e-mail newsletter that I get and I buy threads on special. Their try-me specials are really a good buy and although I can’t choose the colors, I know I’ll always get something I can use. It goes into the stash. Shipping costs are low and service is fast. I always check my local quilt shop first when I need something because it does carry some Superior threads. I’ve tried all of the other thread brands, but I don’t find any that measure up.

So, I’m a thread snob who has a big thread stash; one that needs replenishing right now. I wish I was in Houston.

I am quilter, after all.

The pretty little wall hanging (the inside picture is only 4″ x 6″) is made entirely of fabric pieces about 1/4″ square.

I made this in a recent class taught by Ann Loveless of Frankfort, Michigan. We started with a quilt sandwich made up of a backing, muslin works just fine, a piece of stabilizer like Pellon, and 1 piece of steam-a-seam, all cut to the same size. When I made one after class I took one of my photographs and worked with Lutrador as a stablizer. I liked this because it was easy to trace an outline guide of the photo onto the Lutrador and the outline showed up even after I ironed the steam-a-seam on the front of it. You can spray baste the backing on.

Using your photo, find fabrics that you can use for the sky, water, etc. in your photo.
Use your rotary cutter, or scissors, to cut small confetti size pieces of fabric. Peel the paper off the steam-a-seam to reveal a sticky base that will hold your confetti pieces in place as you work. Starting at the top and working down, place your pieces, slightly overlapping and letting just a little hang off the edge (for character).

After you have placed about 1/3 of the background with confetti, you should iron the pieces down. Cover with a teflon sheet or a piece of parchment paper and try not to cover much of the remaining blank steam-a-seam. Iron again at 2/3 and when finished. It took about an hour and a half of me to cut and place all the pieces.

At this point you can free motion machine stitch the background, using matching thread. I didn’t do any stitching in the sky of these pieces. Now you can add detail, like the birch trees, or perhaps a fence etc. To do this, iron steam-a-seam to the back of the fabric you’ll be cutting the details from, cut our your trees, or leaves and press them in place. When ready, press everything in place.

To finish you can cut a mounting background of cardboard, prepare a piece of fabric with steam a seam and cover the front of the cardboard. Glue your inner picture in place (make sure you center it from side to side and top and bottom), sign your art-work and display.

I don’t know..it is one of those things that is not a proper question; something for which there is no definite answer. There is much discussion of what creators of non-traditional quilts should call themselves and their creations.

Here’s what I know: Quilting is a way for me to express my love of color and shape in fabric. I do it for my own satisfaction and that usually means I am not following someone else s pattern or color-way.  I  am not a trained artist, I don’t know the many techniques of an artist. Heck, I can’t even draw a straight line without a ruler, let alone a recognizable anything. But I have a great inner drive to translate my feelings and ideas into color and shape.

My quilts risk drawing a puzzled expression or complete dismissal by the viewer. Perhaps we should stop asking “what is it?” or “what does it mean?” and ask instead “do I like it?”  “Is it beautiful?” “Does it talk to me?” No ones asks these questions of a traditional quilting pattern, all of which are just shapes we’ve come to accept, shapes that are repeated over and over, often in quite a boring way, in dull “safe” colors, so why do we demand that something we are not familiar with have “meaning?”

Art is that which can be seen in an infinite number of ways, which is the reason we return to it.  Each viewing reveals something, and  something else another time, and all of these seeings elude telling. It is emotional, not rational.  You may never see in it what the artist tried to convey. That’s okay, she doesn’t care if you see it, but that she put it there.

And you know what? Sometimes there is nothing there but shape and color, or the results of playing with abstracting something. Playing is the key word here.

If you like something, smile and enjoy. If you don’t like it, smile and see what’s next.