Choosing thread colours.....

I am not sure how it happens, but there are some weeks where I have very little scheduled and other weeks where it seems that every minute is occupied. And this week when I have the house to myself, I am out almost every night!  Oh well - doesn't matter.

M has been house sitting for a friend and so hasn't been around much. I wanted to get all the scoop on the fashion show that she helped oganized so we went for lunch yesterday. We had loads of fun and a great discussion on what happened, how it could be improved and how to deal with the debrief meeting. Let's just say that there were issues and I hope they have a good, productive debrief.  I leave that in her capable hands. She really is a smart kid who is now known around school as the HEALTH BOX girl.  That was a result of winning that entrepreneurial award a couple of weeks ago.

Matter of fact, she has the same problem that I do. Whenever I look at a book or fabric, I get a lot of looks from people and even comments such as "do you really need another book?  More fabric?"  Well in her situation, if she has pizza for lunch - she gets asked "is that healthy??"   Too funny!!!!   Anyway - it was an awesome lunch - thanks M. You are so grown up!!!!!    And she will be finished school in a couple of weeks. FINISHED!!!!  Now she has to find something to do!!!  Something that pays money!

Choosing Thread Colours

I haven't had a chance to go through all the pictures on the camera and there are TONS, but I have some edited ones that I want to share with you. It's all about choosing a thread colour for quilting.

I get the question all the time - what colour thread should I use for the quilting?  Unless the quilting is to be the belle of the ball, there is no need to go with high contrast thread. What we are looking for is the texture and dimension of the quilting to show NOT the stitches.

If you have a quilt that is fairly busy with loads of similiar colours - then I would choose a thread that blends in. Not necessarily variegated. Just pick one of the main colours and quilt the quilt.

If you doing more customized work, then I would choose my threads according to each area. And changing threads on the top and bottom as necessary. I do NOT always work with the same colour thread on the top and bottom. I could go on and on about the use of thread, but the main point I wanted to tell you about is what thread to choose when doing an overall design on a quilt that has VERY high contrast in the colours.

Look at the quilt below - you can see that we have a very light cream background in those stars and we have a darker brown. Very high contrast. An overall design means that we are quilting the same design on the quilt top regardless of the pattern of the quilt. One thread will be used to quilt the entire top - so what do you choose?

The best way to check any thread colour is to spool off several feet and lay it over the various areas of the quilt. What happens to the thread????

In the example below, you can see the light thread on the dark fabric, but the light thread totally disappears on the light fabric. That means we will SEE the thread on the dark, but not on the light.

Thread shows on the dark, but not on the light

If I choose a thread that exactly matched that brown fabric, then the thread would show up on the light fabric, but not on the dark fabric. I did not have a thread that blended right into the dark fabric so no picture.

In this picture, I have used a medium brown thread. I can see that thread equally on the dark fabric and the light fabric.

Thread shows up on the light fabric and dark fabric

I find that it distracting if the threads shows up on one fabric, but not the other. That is why I want to choose a colour that shows up equally on the lights and the darks.

Here is the quilting -  see that "darker" thread does not distract on the light fabrics.

We see the texture, NOT the quilting stitches

And the backing? Well - this backing was perfect. It was so busy - I could NOT see the quilting on it. Matter of fact when I was finished with the quilt and inspecting the back, I kept trying to pick THREADS off it, but it was the pattern!

Do you see the quilting stitches????   Nope - I don't either

And this is the thread colour that I used!!!!

 I just wanted to show you that thread DOES NOT have to match. EVER!!!!   I often use two different colours on the front and the back - I try to blend in and conceal the stitching. No one needs to look at the stitching - they need to appreciate the texture and the dimension for that is what makes the quilt look like it does. The stitching (and the length of the stitches be they consistent or not consistent) do NOT make a quilt. The designs do!!!!!


On QUILTSocial, I had chatted about the length of the sewing stitch and how often borders were coming apart at the seams!!!   Well see what this quilter did - she reinforced the seams at the edge. No need to do this if your stitch length is small.

Edge of the quilt border reinforced (the white thread)

And there you have it. Neat tip for choosing thread. The biggest thing - don't get hung up on matching the thread colour - trust me, after quilting many many quilts - choosing the thread colour is important because you want it to blend in, NOT show and that skinny little piece of thread will blend in even if the colour doesn't exactly match. You would be shocked if you saw the colour of thread that I use on some of the quilts that I have done, yet they blend in! No one could afford to stock thread for all the different colour combinations there are.


On that note - time to get the day started.

Have a great day!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!