Re-Negotiating My Quilting Efforts

I've been taking a Sabbatical from quilting. Somehow I hadn't done a lot of quilting for the past two years...too many other things in life along with lack of enthusiasm.

I've had a Hobbs wool batt in the closet for about ten years. (In the last ten years we've moved three times!) The first cold days in November I decided to get out that wool batt and use it on a twin-size shirt quilt. I've always machine-quilted my shirt quilts but somehow couldn't bring myself to remove the computer printer from atop the cabinet where my 'main quilting machine', a black Singer 15-91, is tucked away.

That is a strange sort of "lazy". Instead I'm hand-quilting this one. (I didn't say I had a good sense of reason!) I had heard that wool batts are very easy to needle and I must admit I believe that is true. For in spite of the high thread-count of all-cotton shirt fabrics, this hand quilting is going along very nicely. (Click on the photo for a closeup)

I thumbed through my quilt templates and decided, 'No, I don't want to do some tedious fancy quilting.' So instead, I'm using a salad plate, a bread plate and a cup to draw the circles (plus stitching again 1/4 inch from two of the circles. Nothing fancy, mind you, but I'm going to have a warm nap quilt when I am done. About July 2009 just when I need one.

West Mi reporting

Please check my post on the chat page. Thanks, Mayme

Marathon Thread - washaway basting thread --- must read this

Marathon Thread 'washaway basting thread'- you need to read
Hi all, I usually post over on the Chat Board but need to come over here to alert everyone about a product.

At the AQS Nashville, TN Expo back in August I visited the Marathon Threads vendor booth and bought what was prominently labeled as "Wash-Away Basting Thread." I used it in a quilt that will be a wedding gift for our son this weekend, when doing the Hari Walner "machine trapunto" technique.

Unfortunately, I did not TEST this thread before using it. When the quilt was finished and I washed it, all the trapunto areas were horribly puckered. After-the-fact testing by putting a couple yards of the thread into a glass of scalding water showed that it does not was away, but shrank horribly. After an hour, it still had not dissolved but turned into something resembling a clear elastic band, with *lots* of stretch.

I just spoke with Marathon Threads who say the spool was apparently mislabeled on the bottom as well as the wrapping, and that it is their .... (are you ready for this?) SHRINK thread.

Ladies, If you have bought any of the Marathon Thread "wash-away basting thread" please test it first to be sure it is not one of the mislabeled spools. And ... tell all your quilting friends, too.

Marathon Thread's products have an excellent reputation but factory glitches do happen. My quilt is not a total loss, but it does not look the way I hoped it would.

Doris W. in TN