Thread--quilters paint

How do you buy thread...by the project or when its on sale? Either way. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE only buy good thread.

I do both. I HATE wanting thread when the store is not open. Essentials thread has become one of my favorites for solid colors. King Tut is my favorite for variegated.

For Machine embroidery it depends what I am embroidering. Although looking in my thread bins I see a clear trend to Floriani and Madeira. That is also in part to thread set sales, or thread that comes with an embroidery project kit.

For hand embroidery I use DMC almost exclusively.

Serger thread I always try to buy on sale, except Woolly Nylon is never on sale when I am, ready to do a project. :-/


Now to, I am almost done cutting out all the pieces for the pillow covers, should be embroidering by this afternoon (unless we get thunderstorms again). The Valances will come after. they will have to be cut one or two at a time. Yes, I already told you I was cutting, but there is a reason I have come back to it...

I have gone through a good 48 yards of fabric and 15 yards of deco bond on 1 clover blade. I had read in one of the Quilt show reviews (unfortunately I do not remember which one) that a group of instructors had tested rotary blades and the majority had prefered Clover blades.

I have tried a lot of blades; Gingher, Olfa, Fisker, etc, but never a Clover (I mail ordered these to be able to try). I had settled on Olfa as my favorite, but this blade is still going strong. I will make sure another lasts as long, but if it does, Clovers will be my new favorites...I will have a stockpile of Olfa's to use (yes I buy these on sale too) because I never want to be w/o a fresh blade when stores are closed. I would like to try KAI, but haven't run across the blades. I got a set of their scissors about 4 months ago and love them!

But I still like my original OLFA rotary cutter. its old..the new ones are too fat to fit comfortably in my hands. Bigger (wider around) is not always better if  any of you manufacturers are listening...this is my old baby-sporting its clover blade:

And if you get the drift through this post that I don't like to pay full price, yeah, that is part of being thrifty. Being thrifty allows more quilting to happen.

Now back to cutting :-/

I love my light box

I cut all these 4.5" circles that needed an embroidery pattern marked on them for satin stitching. The circles have interfacing on the back, so light box to the rescue..do you have a light box? Sometimes a sunny window will work, but not so much really late at night. I have an old fashioned one..not one of the newer, less bulky LED ones..but it works:

These are for pillow covers for our local Veterans Guest House

Before I cut this many there was testing:

Test pillow cover success, so now assembly line shall begin (more cutting first--and you know how I feel about cutting!):

I did manage to get my two blocks of the month done:

 And the Take 5 is almost done quilting:

And we have our first squash growing, a bit behind this year, no tomatoes yet, and the plum tree looks like it doesn't have any fruit again this year :-(   Jack Frost won.

Wishing you all  a great 4th of July!

Prayer Shawls and Comfort quilts

Always take precedence over other projects. Why? Because they are NEEDED. Circumstances may vary. Loss, Cancer, extreme life difficulties--whatever the reason they come first for me. This one came out gorgeous, and I surely hope it give the recipient comfort. I will let the recipient decide whether or not to be public. (There is a label on the back which is why you can only see part of the back--but it is the same all-over print)

 

The Fabric line is actually called The Healing Tree from Frond Design Studios--its a wonderful line. The teal and brown are not from the line, but the panel, green and backing are.

I made this childs comfort quilt for a kit display for my Easy 7 pattern. The kits (limited #) will be available at Sew-n-Such in Reno.

And of course, at least on of the cats must provide quality control, this time it is Sushi doing the honor.

I also made new curtains for our game room as I found the perfect material with an all-over dice print. you can see them on my main web site: Game Room Curtains. It is used mostly for Warhammer 40K, but it is not exactly exclusively for that. Fir those interested-I usually play Orks.

I found this colorful run that is from Blank Fabrics that I decided to make into a Take Five from The Teachers Pet, for a yet to be scheduled class. It is the WIP I am working on now.