Thursday, July 30, 2015

Threads

It's finally summer weather with temperatures in the upper 80'sF. Our daughter and son-in-law were staying at a cottage on Lake Michigan (water temp was in the 70sF!) and we went to see them earlier this week. This is what was happening:


And this:
New game--she throws, and Grampa pulls her over to fetch the ball. (That boat is probably about 25 years old. Her mommy and uncle used to play in it.)
And this: 


Elsa Blue and pink. (My manicurist is 3 1/2 years old). Aw, it's starting to chip off now, but I hate to change it.

Not much work done on the quilt, but there was a lot going on in my head, and by that, I mean indecision. I did finish my practice piece for quilting the Big Quilt.

Here's part of it:

And another view:

I decided that I like the wavy lines and the meanders the best. But now that I've quilted the flowers in a darker gray, I'm liking them better, too, although I need to make them a little simpler than I did on the coral fabric. I also like the straight lines when they are closer together. 

I used leftover all-purpose thread for my practice, and decided that I liked light and dark grays. But deciding which grays was daunting. I finally ordered variegated threads from Superior. They came today.(Love their fast service!)

Here's what I got:

I settled on King Tut Canaan (middle) and Pumice (right). The one on the left is Masterpiece in Granite for the bobbin. I haven't used a lighter weight thread in the bobbin before, but thought it might work well for this quilt. I like the colors quite well, although there is a tiny bit of gray in the Pumice that's lighter than I expected, so I might order a solid (Pewter) for the darkest fabrics. We'll see how it goes. I also bought a thread card so that (hopefully) I won't spend so much time trying to figure out colors for my next quilt. Picking colors on a computer screen is just no fun at all. 

Now I really need to get that backing pieced so I can baste the quilt.

I'm linking up with My Quilt Infatuation and with Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing (Free Motion Mavericks) this week. (Lizzie: my straight and wavy lines are walking foot, but my meanders and flowers are FMQ!).

Have a great weekend everyone!


  

7 comments:

Bernie Kringel said...

I think you are right - combining the wavy lines, the stippling, and the flowers will be wonderful. Your flowers are great by the way.

Love your manicure. So sophisticated!! I bet you had a blast with those sweet babies.

Linda Wulf Koenig said...

Looking forward to my granddaughter being able to paint my nails, how cool! Your stitch combinations look great together. I must try the King Tut thread. My friend Janet is a master long-arm quilter and swears by that thread--it's all she uses. Love those variegateds.

Kaja said...

I like the flowers with the darker thread too, and I like the mix of straight patterns and curvy ones. The threads look spot on.

TheItinerantChemist said...

Heh, I can totally sympathise with the challenge of choosing thread (and fabric!) based on pictures on the internet - it's a complete surprise as to whether it's the colour you wanted when it arrives!

The quilt looks great - is it a sampler of different quilting patterns? Love the nails, too! ;)

Laura McGrath said...

When I first started FM quilting I used any old thread I had. Then I tried "better" threads like Aurifil 50 wt and Isacord poly and YLI Soft Touch (to name a few!) and loved how they quilted. Now I spend more on thread than on fabric, looks like you're heading there, too! Superior Bottom Line is a great bobbin thread to try. Keep up the great quilting!

Dena@LivingWaterQuilter.com said...

The texture of the flower free-motion quilting is inviting! I want to touch it. :-) Good job. Choosing thread can be a challenge. The right thread elevate a quilt from great to outstanding.

Muv said...

Hello JanineMarie,

First things first - your 3 and a half year old manicurist is a star. Such a steady hand! I thought I was privileged to have my nails done in sparkly peachy pink by my eight year old great niece, but your pink and blue combination beats us hands down.

All your FMQ looks great, especially the flowers, but I fully understand the agonising over thread. If you think the thread is the wrong colour, it's a distraction while you are quilting, so you go wonky... but nobody else can see where.

Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks!

Love, Muv