Sunday 16 December 2012

Thread changes

It occurred to me tonight why it's taking so long to quilt this swoon quilt; it's all the thread changes! My brief included combining pink and aqua threads on the white background. Which is all very well, and looks lovely, but...

 
Most of the custom quilting needs a certain amount of marking. Much of it is just guidelines (mostly circles traced around various items) but some of it needs to be fully drawn out. I've come to trust and rely on my Sewline purple marker for this; it goes on quickly and easily, is nice and clear, and vanishes totally. But it fades very quickly, which means I have to mark small sections as a time, them quilt them straight away. And most times that means several thread changes for every time I mark, although I am leaving a lot of the white to go back and fill-on later. I'm about 16 hours and maybe 30 thread-changes in!


Today I finished the mirrored pairs of tiaras connecting the sides of the swoon stars (above). All together, they create an effective pattern around the main motif (below). Speaking of which, the main motif makes me think of a spirograph. I've filled around this one with McTavishing, but will wait and do the other next time the machine is threaded with white.


Tonight I've moved onto the border space. I've done 2 of these large semi-circles and have another 2 to go on the other side:

6 comments:

Lynette said...

It's so gorgeous, Emma. The color play is definitely worth the time of the changes. :)

Heather said...

i would have to agree, the time spent on the thread changes has been well worth the extra effort.

Frances Arnold said...

Beautiful quilting!!! And you know that the time spent on color changes will just add to the overall effect!!

MY SPACE said...

Emma, the thread changes are worth it - Its stunning - thank you thank you thank you!

Anonymous said...

It's gorgeous, the overlay of colours is very worthwhile. Can't wait to see it finished, a certain little miss is going to go berserk when she sees this on Christmas morning!

Joan said...

Beautiful!!