I forgot to mention my Great Buy of the Week! On Tuesday, my quilt guild had their annual auction/garage sale. Everything is divided into lots. Typically a book or stack of magazines is paired with 5 or so yards of fabric. For $1, you buy the right to play. Then, anytime something you are interested in is held up, you throw a quarter in a bowl. If your number is drawn, you win that lot. See what I got for 25 cents? Twenty-eight spools of Mettler Metrosene Plus 100% polyester thread! It came with a CD of embroidery designs for a computerized machine, but since I don’t have one of those, I gave it away and kept the thread. Lots of neutral colors. Should be good for all that piecing I do (wink, wink). Ah, thread…
At the NQA (National Quilting Association) show yesterday, I perused the vendors after lunch. It was nice to walk through and see what’s new. I’m such a creature of habit. Blue stuff lept into my hands and came home with me.
The little rolls of fabric are 6″ wide and they gradate smoothly from selvage to selvage. They are from the Gradations Collection by Caryl Bryer Fallert. For instance, one gradates from orange to red to magenta to red to orange to yellow and back again. A couple pieces gradate within a single color family.
I also got a pack of fat quarters in a ten-step gradation of — wait for it — blue! And some miscellaneous blue fabric that caught my eye. And some marking pencils that I want to try out, along with a fabric eraser. The eraser looks suspiciously like an ordinary white eraser, but I got it anyway since it is in a nice blue holder. I also snagged a couple decorative edge rotary cutting blades. I needed a new pinking blade (it would have made DD#2’s life so much easier earlier this week), and I never had a scallop blade before, so I thought I better get that one too.
I’ve decided to organize a mini workshop for myself for two days next week.
- Participants: me
- Main goal: to use up bottles and bottles of fabric paint before they become completely solid
- Secondary goal: to learn various ways of controlling and not controlling fabric paint on dry and wet fabric
- Benefits: maybe some fun and interesting fabric; if nothing else, I suppose it could be some nice backing fabric
I’ll start gathering together all my supplies today so I’ll be ready bright and early Monday morning.
Comments
3 responses to “Great buys”
Seeing the thread collection reminded me that I wanted to ask you what thread brand(s) you favor. For charity quilts I’ve been using any type of thread. But as my skills improve, I want to use really good thread for quilts that I make as gifts and for ones I keep.
What thread(s) perform well most consistently? Do you use a different type or brand for the bobbin?
Any info you can send my way would be most appreciated!
Thanks!
I seldom do piecing, so I don’t really have a favorite for that. For quilting, if I’m quilting a face and I don’t want to draw attention to the quilting line, I like to use 100 weight, 100% silk or monofilament or Bottom Line 60 wt polyester. If I want my stitching to be a stronger element, I’ll use 40 wt polyester (Superior’s Art Studio Colors or Living Colors or Highlights.) Whenever possible, especially in hair, I love to use variegated thread. Most of the time I use Bottom Line in my bobbin. All in all, I mostly use Superior Thread, but I also use YLI 100 wt silk and I’m going to be experimenting with Invisifil.
Thanks SO much, Maria! I’d been studying Superior’s website, so it was nice to get your comments. You’ve given me a good starting point for testing the waters. I really appreciate it!