Monday, March 8, 2010

Did I mention... Set Aside Your PROJECT THREADS?

Ever quilt with a thread, put it away with your hundreds of other threads, and then need it later? I have, and if you have more like thousands of threads, IT'S HARD TO FIGURE OUT WHICH ONE IT WAS IN THE FIRST PLACE. To that end, I tend to save my project threads I've thus far used, either in a basket or on a thread carrier as shown here. They all go back in the drawer/s when the project is complete.
I received a note yesterday from a blog viewer suggesting this idea didn't fully reasonate with him or her. It surely wouldn't for everyone, I agree. It largely depends on how complicated the underpainting is (in terms of value and color change.)I tend to get a bit type A on thread choices. But truly, to each his own! When the above picture was posted, I was not quite half way thru quilting this piece. I have added several threads to the mix since the photo above... and interestingly enough, yesterday afternoon, I used 3 threads previously used for new small areas. In 2 of those cases, I could have used new choices, but the previous choices worked for me and using the same thread elsewhere sometimes could be helpful in unifying a piece.

One other reason this might be helpful, is that when one is quilting as heavily as this piece, it's usually a good idea to quilt from the middle outward in order to avoid or minimize distortion. I might need the same thread later as I move outward toward to quilt edges.

Thanks for the question/comment.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hmm that's very interessting but frankly i have a hard time visualizing it... wonder what others have to say..