Thread love and loyalty

Thread is the centre of the universe. It makes up the core of the earth and holds the planets together. The sun wouldn't shine without thread.

Ok, so I may be over-stating the issue slightly but isn't thread what holds all our projects together? What would a log cabin block or a Dresden plate be without thread? Just a pile of scraps!

I'm fairly picky when it comes to thread because I want my projects to last. I choose the highest quality fabrics and batting so it only makes sense that I choose quality for my thread too.

I piece exclusively with Aurifil 50wt, usually in either 2024 or 2021. I understand that the technical names for these colors are natural white and white but to be honest they seem pretty interchangeable to me!

After a recent rummage through my spools i also discovered a couple of rogue colours - a navy/indigo which I used to piece a white and blue Jacob's ladder, a mini spool of blonde caramel 2000 and a 2600 dove grey which I think I picked up last year at the Festival of Quilts. I think i was planning to branch out away from 2024/2021 with the 2600 dove grey but after a year it's still sitting there! They're still Aurifil 50wt of course. I haven't gone completely crazy.

For quilting I've tried cotton but it always seems to break. I tend to quilt all over quilting patterns in very curvy designs (spirals, paisley, feathers etc) which means that there's a lot of thread build up. Cotton tends to break easily when you quilt over the same line. 

Instead I use Isacord which is a polyester mono fibre. It comes in a variety of colours, of which I've so far used navy, purple, grey and my ubiquitous white. You can quilt over and over and it doesn't break. Perfect! 

Finally I seem to have a random spool of verdant green from Gutermann and some natural white Superior quilting thread. Heaven knows where this came from but I suspect it was a freebie. And it'll probably live at the bottom of my thread box forever more. Or until I run out of thread. But probably the former. 

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th Auagust.