A bit of thread fun!

Machine threadwork is not something I do a lot of. I should practice it a bit more often so I get a bit more skilled. A few years ago I saw those Skillbuilder panels with all sorts of quilting patterns but always thought I could do that myself but guess who never did. I should just buy them! 

This 'Quilt Show' challenge is all about threadwork. I combined Episode #111 with Ann Fahl and Episode #112 with Libby Lehman.

First I played with episode #111 and was charmed by Ann Fahl and her threadwork. I am not even close to trying out something so complex so my project was 'Ricky's Greeting Card'. This was freestyle and fun and I will be doing this again! Look out friends!

I cut the flowers freehand, placed them without thought and without fusible and stitched without a line to follow! It was liberating for a quilter who likes things just so (yes that would be me!). I used Sulky Blendables thread. I really liked the weight for this project.

Don't look too close though- I spelled 'friend' wrong. I am a good speller but the word friend gets me everytime.

 

Here is the finished piece all ready to enjoy. Now the great part...from beginning to end it took me less than 45 minutes and that includes choosing fabric and setting up my machine. Now that is fast and I think it would make a great gift.

Now for my second project of machine threadwork. I watched Libby Lehman with great interest.

I followed all the directions and my first attempt was so awful I did not even take a picture. First I drew the ribbons on freezer paper and sewed on the lines and removed the paper. I'm sorry Libby Lehman but I do not like this method. The freezer paper is hard to tear away and I actually pulled some stitches. If I was to do this again I would use a different method for transfering the stitching lines.

I almost didn't go on to try attempt #2 but I really wanted to see how this worked. So this time I thought I would do blobs.

I put the fabric into the hoop and just drew blobs all over. Blobs are fun! Then I chose 5 different threads. I wanted to see how each one looked. I picked a thick thread, a regular thread, a rayon thread, a sliver metallic, and a thick hard to sew metallic. One thing I did try was setting my stitch length at different settings to see if that made a difference even though I was doing freemotion with my feed dogs down. It did make a difference- 2.5 was jerky, 2 was a bit better and I liked 1.5 the best. I stopped there but another time I'll try setting 1 just to see.

Over all I liked the effects of all of them but my favourites were

The sliver metallic and

the rayon thread!

I don't think I would do this particular technique again but this challenge showed me that it is maybe time to get more comfortable with freemotion 'motions'.

I am now on to Season 2 of 'The Quilt Show'. There are lots of techniques I am excited to try so please visit once in a while to see what I am working on next!

Happy Stitching!