There’s nothing like new threads. You know I love thread. It’s the most important component in my art. I love my fabric but I am nuts over thread.
One of the things that is different for me now that I am no longer on the circuit, is that I don’t have to make threads that are commercially saleable. I’m not constrained by that so I can explore threads that can’t be reproduced in regular quantities for students. I’ve used # 8 pearl cotton because it came in dye hanks. I could easily dye it for myself but also for also for students who were in my class and needed access to the threads I worked with.
#10 pearl cotton
Now that I just in my studio working my own art, I have the freedom to work with things that can’t easily be put up for sale. This last dye load, I dyed up a load of thread that I’m so excited by. I’m looking forward to trying out my #10 pearl cotton.
You can’t dye thread wound in a ball. You can hank it off with a swift, but there’s no way to make even skeins without counting accurately. Those of you who know me know how likely that is.
8 and 10 pearl cotton
The smaller ball is #8 pearl. The larger on is #10 pearl. The larger the number the smaller the thread. The #10 still needs to be worked in the bobbin case, but it will give a finer grain stitching. I’ve started the first row on this frog in the #10 so you can see how it stitches up. I am so excited!
frog in #10 pearl cotton
Sometimes a change in materials changes our work immensely. Sometimes it makes a little change. Sometimes it changes nothing. There’s no way to know until you work with things. But the possibilities make me giddy.
Up until now in this series, we’ve worked on images both in thick and thin threads, in zigzag and straight stitching. There’s one other place I use bobbin work. I use it for stippling.
Why? More of those wonderful beautiful difficult threads.
It’s no secret I’m a magpie. I love things that are shiny. And I always want to pull the eye across the quilt.
I often use Sliver, which I’ve shown you before, as a stippling thread. It’s fragile. It can be used with Sewer’s Aid and a #90 topstitching needle but it’s always easier to put it in the bobbin and match it with a polyester or rayon 40 weight. I’ll start with the lightest color around my light source, and shade outward one color after another.It helps define the light source, carry your eye across the piece and make it all shine.
I love sliver as a sky stipple or as water. So many colors! And so many ways to shift the color across the surface of the quilt.
Commander Koi
But sometimes I like to do something different with water though. I love sliver, but it doesn’t show up as well over organza or lace. So I like to use the #8 weight metallics, again in the bobbin. They make wonderful waves and rivulets. This is a thread you can use only in the bobbin. It defines the movement of water beautifully.
You can see everything from the back!
Everyone always worries about not being able to see from the back, but it ‘s not true. Here’s an unfinished piece almost ready for stippling. You can see the sun, the dragonfly and the rocks all on the back side, All you have to do is stipple.around them.
I hope this series leaves you excited and able to try all kinds of threads you thought were too hard or too difficult to work with in the bobbin. It’s a brand new world of possibilities, and beautiful choices.
The last two posts we did looked at bobbin work for thick thread. This time we’ll look at a whole other reason to work from the bobbin and a whole different result.
Everyone loves metallic thread. It’s beautiful. I’ve heard it described as candy. I concur. That is until you start to stitch with it. There are a number of things that make it “easier” to work with metallic thread. But no one ever says it’s easy.
Why? If you look at the construction of metallic thread, it’s pretty obvious. Metallic thread comes in a twisted flecked thread, a metallic colored lurex wrapped around a core, and a thin strand of lurex. Either way, it’s thread made to be shredded. It’s not one solid strand of one thing. It’s a combination that uncombines with ease.
How do we get around that? Sewers Aid (silicon treatment for thread) and a number 90 topstitching needle help. But the easy answer is to put it in the bobbin and work from behind.
I know. I know. I can hear you screaming “What????” at me through the computer screen. Sensibly enough. But any time my thread goes through the top of my machine, it goes through the needle 50 times. It gets pulled up through the bobbin once. Are you wondering why your thread broke? It’s so much easier to put the breakable thread in the bobbin.
Madeira Supertwist Metallic Thread
For this, I used #40 weight metallic thread. I really like Madeira’s Supertwist for it’s color and shine and the color range. So we don’t need an adjusted bobbin case. We can use the regular bobbin case. But we still want to match the needle thread color to the metallic thread color. You will see both threads on the right surface of the quilt.
I do these most often as appliques. Why? Because they really pucker up. The distortion on zigzag stitching is ferocious. I make the same sandwich as last week, my drawing on Totally Stable, Stitch and Tear, felt, and hand dyed fabric.
I’ve talked a lot in this blog about free motion zigzag stitching. What matters is the angle that the fabric goes through the machine. Straight through gets a thick clunky line. At an angle gets you a very nice outline. Going from side to side gets you a great shading stitch. All out of the same zigzag.
I started by zoning my piece so I know the areas where the color changes.
I began with a black out line zigzag. Then I built my colors in, first with an outline, then the shading and then that clunky line to smooth it out, one shade after another, starting from dark to light. The last color I put on will be the color I see the most.
Here’s the process shots for this frog.
spots
spots from back
outline
green shading
purple shading
turquois shading
medium green
lighter green
medium purple
lightest green
soft purple stomach
apricot shading
light yellow
finished frog
After I’ve stitched it completely, the stitching lay flat, but the area around it ruffled like a party dress. I cured the whole thing by simply cutting off the background.
To apply it to my quilt, I stitched it down with the same black thread outline, run through at an angle to make a great smooth edge.
What is the difference between thin thread and thick thread?
Thick Thread
Bobbin Case Only
Adjusted Bobbin Case
Always Abstracted by Stitching
Puckers Up Some
Thin Thread
Use in Needle or Bobbin Case
Regular Bobbin Case
Can Be More Detailed and Shaded
Puckers Up Mightily
The other major reason to use bobbin work with thin thread is because you can tie up the ends on the back. Every time you clip your threads from the front, there’s two thread ends poking up. For multiple layers of stitching, that can make the whole piece look fuzzy. I always prefer to work from the back and tie my ends up from behind, to keep them out of sight.This works just as well for poly/and or rayon threads as well. These moths were done upside down as well, but with poly threads only.
Don’t be afraid to work upside down! You’ll find all kinds of threads that have been fiends are now your best friends.
Thick metallic thread and pearl cotton bobbin work make up the heron
Do you like instant gratification? But of course! Using thick thread in the bobbin is showy, exciting and quick as machine embroidery goes. It’s one of my favorite techniques.
Bobbin work is the only way I know to free motion with thick threads. I’m defining thick threads as #3-8 threads. What those numbers mean is that if you put 8 threads side by side, they would make an inch. This is what thread count means.
adjusting a bobbin case
Thick threads can’t fit through the needle. They do fit easily in an adjusted or bypassed bobbin case. How do you know what kind of machine you have. If you open up your bobbin and it’s in a little silver housing that comes out of the machine, that’s a bobbin case. For thick thread, you loosen the bobbin case by turning the screw about 3/4 of a turn to the left. It’s best to have a separate bobbin case for the purposes. Bobbin cases get old, so it’s never a bad idea to buy a fresh one and make your new bobbin case your true bobbin case. Mark the old one with nail polish, and keep it just for thick thread.
If your bobbin just drops into a housing in your machine, it can be bypassed. You simply don’t put it into tension. No need to adjust anything.
I tend to keep extra bobbins to hold and store thread I’ve wound off. One bobbin per thread. If I don’t use it for one project, I’m bound to use it for another.
Never wind a bobbin on top of thread on the bobbin. It messes terribly with your tension.
I usually stitch on a similar fabric to the background, or one that matches the color of the embroidery. Don’t fool yourself. IT WILL SHOW!
a different frog, zoned
Your image is always backwards. Think of it as a slide. You can see it through either side. I use Totally Stable as my patterns, drawn with marker. It irons on but the excess will tear away.
Stitching in a creature is like coloring with different crayons. I pick black as my outline, and then I zone my drawing. On this frog, there’s a tummy zone, a stripe zone, an eye zone, and the basic body.
I choose my darkest thread in that zone first, the color I want to be dominate. I add a shader color, usually purple, brown or a complement to the color. Then I go through a range of the color, dark to light, and add a shocker color, usually the complement right before the last lightest color.
eye colors in sliver
The eye is always done in sliver thread so it’s shiny and wet. I use black for the pupil, an iris color, and iridescent white for the spark.
Eye
Here’s a progression of stitching and thread on this frog
thread one green zone
thread two green zone
thread three green zone
thread four green zone
thread five green zone
thread one stripe zone
thread two striped zone
finished frog on background
Some basic things about thick thread bobbin work:
Only work with a straight stitch: Zigzag stitching tends to sew your piece to your needle plate and jam your machine.
When you fill in your stitching, remember that the thick thread fills up more space than the thinner thread on top. Leave a little space.
Pick a #40 weight embroidery thread for the top thread. I like polyester, for it’s strength. You should either match the color to your bobbin thread, or like the mix of them together. You will see both on the front of your piece.
New project, new needle! New day, new needle! I use #90 topstitching needles because they’re strong and have a large eye that reduces thread breakage.
Midnight Stroll
I could stitch directly into my top as well. It integrates better into the background, but it tends to distort things. If an image is under three inches square, I may well embroider right on the surface.
frog cut out and ready to go
But if it’s a big enough image, It’s better done on a separate sandwich of felt, Tear Away, Totally Stable and suitable hand dye to match. It can be appliqued onto the surface and will look like it belongs perfectly
Don’t be afraid to be upside down. Bobbin work makes the most impressive images quickly and easily.
The natural world is full of shimmer. Shimmer is about the change of color, and the change of light. The nature of nature is variance.
How can we create that? How do we build a world inside our art? How do we create the illusion of shimmer and light?
Here are several good ways to accomplish that.
Owl at Sunset process shots.
Hand dyed fabric itself establishes the play of color that nature features. But it’s a soft finish and a soft shimmer. It gives the background of shifting color, and a good glow, but it doesn’t catch the light.
Another way is to put sheers in layers over the the hand dye. It changes the color without losing the fabric beneath it. It shifts the shade underneath and adds texture.
I know some people don’t like the idea of the stipple. But stippling creates more texture and plays against the surface of the quilt. Particularly if your threads shine.
I’ve always found it helpful to separate the kinds of threads I use for field and ground. Different threads offer difference in the shine of the surface. Having a different shine for water, for air, for sunlight, and for your creatures helps your eye to sort those out from each other.
There are three kinds of metallic thread that offer different levels of shine.
Madeira Supertwist Metallic Thread
Fish done in flecked metallic
The soft sheen of Madeira Supertwist gives the fish a scale like sheen that is totally different from either the sliver or the thick metallic threads. That sheen separates the fish from the background, the field from the ground.
Sliver like threads
Stippling with sliver
Sliver, Glimmer, and other flat metallic threads are the most shiny. They look like Christmas tinsel. They come in a myriad of colors, particularly if you are willing to mix different brands. There’s no problem doing that.
YLI Candlelight, Madeira Glamour and Superior Razzle Dazzle are # 8 weight heavier metallic threads. Again, the company brands can be easily used together. These threads have a thick chunky look that is strong and works with rhythmic stitching as beautiful running water. Stitching through a range of color accentuates the light and shadow within the piece. It’s not quite as shiny as sliver, but it makes a strong statement.
You can see the separation between the air and the water in the changes between sliver and thick metallic.
Both sliver threads and thick threads should be used in the bobbin only.
I use all of these threads to make light shimmer across my quilt. And I choose a full range of colors to pull the eye across the surface. And to make the eye track the differences between field and ground by the amount of shine in the threads.
I like to think I know what I’m doing in my studio. I do know better.
Every so often something happens that just can’t be helped. Sometimes it ruins a perfectly good piece. Sometimes it transforms it.
I’ve been working on this piece for over six months. It’s taken time because it’s so large. Smaller pieces are easy to see, easy to feel secure about, easy to finish. Larger pieces take time.
I was having a problem with the moon. The Angelina fiber hadn’t fused well, and I was having trouble stitching it down. So I laid a corn starch stabilizer over it and stitched it down. It was fine until I poured water on it to dissolve the stabilizer.
I hung it up to dry. I didn’t realized what had happened until I had looked at it for some while the next day. There’s really only one Procion dye that bleeds after it’s washed out. Fuchsia is the stuck pig of the dye world. Dyes mixed with fuchsia also can bleed. Almost everything else is dye fast after it’s washed out. But there was fuchsia in the background.
original owl
owl with bleed
It bled. It bled into the owl stitching itself. I bled too. Then I figured it out. The sunset was now in the owl’s face and wings.
I’ve always argued that art has a life of it’s own. It lives past the artist. It is shown places the artist can’t go, does things an artist can’t do. And it has it’s own problems.
Sometimes life changes a piece. It’s has it’s own life.
I’ve decided that the bleeding is like sunset, coloring the stitching as light colors life. Is it what I planned. No. It’s what happened. But I suspect it’s a good thing. And it’s simply what has happened. It’s not finished yet. But it has been changed.
I considered telling no one. But I’ve always been honest about my work, warts and all. I actually think I’m pleased with it.
What’s on my studio floor? Thread! I collect large wads of thread ends. It’s just what happens when you’re embroidering by machine. It’s everywhere, but it pools it places on the floor. It is pretty It seems like a waste, but like most things, it doesn’t have to be.
Threads
Let’s be clear about this. You can save all your thread ends, if you want. But they aren’t all the same. The threads you sewed your jeans with are probably not going to be pretty in an art quilt, unless you want a pretty rough looking texture. I save thread ends that are either poly or rayon, or more wonderfully thick#8 metallic like Candelight, Razzel Dazzel or Glamour. Or Sliver like threads. For me, this is all about the shine.
Nesting Ladies
What does that do for your quilt? It makes a floor of it’s own. Nature is messy. There’s all kinds of bits of things, on the forest floor, or at the bottom of a pond. A nice blob of thread looks a lot like that. It puts in a bottom without a hard line.
So you have this wonderful glob of thread. It’s pretty. You want it on your quilt. How are you going to stick it on?
Angelina moon
You can glue it. Steam a Seam will hold it down. You can trap in angelina fiber. It’s a beautiful addition to a moon.
You still have to stitch it down. If you try to just stitch it down with a darning foot, it will trap your foot and make you crazy. It makes me crazy.
My best answer is to put something over it. Some folk use tulle. It dulls the colors. I prefer using a corn starch film, like Aquafilm or Solvy. I pin it over the glob, and stitch it down. When you’re finished, spritz it with water until it disappears. Problem solved.
Hunters Moon 2
Globbing makes a beautiful addition to a quilt. And it uses up all that pretty thread.
Years ago, I did a very bad thing. I had dyed fabric all day and I went to the pool. You don’t get pretty dye on yourself when you dye. And it all soaks through to the skin. You mix all those colors and you get brown. Mostly down your belly and your tits.
So I was walking around with nothing but a towel over my shoulder when a very kind person looked at me and said in horror, “You don’t have to put up with that.” I looked at her and said, “Actually, I do. I’m dyeing.” I did explain to the poor soul afterwards.
I’m a fabric snob. Sorry about that. I’ve been dyeing my own fabric for my projects since I was ten. It was Rit Dye and we won’t talk about the quality of the fabric, but I understood even then that someone else’s fabric isn’t mine.
Don’t get me wrong. I love prints. I can get drunk on color and add good design to it and I’m a sloppy drunk. You can tell by the cut bits of fabric on the floor.
But I want the colors and intensity of my fabric. And I really hate fabric repeats unless they help your piece along. I’m probably going to dye as long as I quilt.
With the stimulus check (Bless those congress critters!) I’m planning a dye day. I need a new batch for me, but I’ve always got space in that batch for someone who might like to order a box of fabric to choose from, or someone who wants something special dyed just for them. A batch of light source fabric in 3/4 yards? A selection of actually not boring browns. Some deep lake or pond scum fabric. All available.
I’ve also dyed cotton/hemp/bamboo/rayon clothes for people. There are those of us who should never wear white. There is inevitably a day when it is white no more. At which point, I dye it and wear it till the threads fall apart. I can do that for you too.
If you would to either make a general fabric order, or order something special for a project, let me know. I’ll dye for you.
Free motion embroidery has been the most exciting tool I’ve ever had. But it has it’s secrets. Yes, it’s about thread, and stitch quality and hoops. But the secret heart of free motion embroidery is what’s inside. Stabilizer creates the best foundation.
These moths are embroidered on felt, Stitch and Tear, and Totally Stable. The images are all thread.
I’ve been revisiting the stabilizers I use for Free Motion Applique. The stabilizer sandwich I used to use consisted of Totally Stable, hand dyed fabric, and a tight hoop.
I also used to do most of my embroidery on my piece. Lately I make more and more of my elements separately.
I’ve also started embroidering just on felt, leaving the hand dye fabric out of the sandwich.
Why have I changed?
Because stabilizers change, And because I want different things from my work. I’ve seen my work be more incrusted and wanted it to be a bit lighter, less distorted. Separate embroideries allow me to cure by cutting. I can cut off the bits that are distorted by too much stitching.
I’ve also changed my layering.
I’ve lately come to an appreciation of felt. When felt was made of wool, it was an exquisite fabric. When they made it of rayon and poly, not so much. It pulled apart when you looked at it. Now that it’s made of acryllic, it’s strong, embroiderable and unravellable. It can be stitched to the very edge and cut to the very edge. I now use felt instead of batt.
These flowers were made of sheers stuck on with Steam a Seam 2 and backed with felt and Stitch and Tear. No Totally Stabile, because my fabric makes my pattern for me.
But I also use it in my appliques. If I’m using a sheer for the basis of the applique, I use felt and Stitch and Tear as a stabilizer. If I am just making an applique of stitching, I use a pattern made from Totally Stable, a paper like stabilizer with a freezer paper that can be ironed down, stuck on, and then removed.
Leaving the names alone, what am I looking for in a stabilizer?
I’m looking for several abilities and responses in my stabilizers: Does it iron on? Does the glue texture show through? Does the color show through? Does it make a good drawing surface for a pattern? Can I remove it afterwards? Does it tear away or must I cut it away? How stiff is it once it’s stitched? Can I cover the edging cleaning with stitchery?
Those are some of the questions that help me decide whether a stabilizer will work for me.
Will I always use what I use now? I doubt it. Right now it’s giving me more stitchery with less weight. Stabilizers will change and I’ll roll with the changes.
