It's All about the Thread

I LOVE thread! I can spend more money on thread at a show than on fabric. Thread can add color, texture and detail to a quilt or wearable garment. Some people are purists and believe that only cotton thread should be used in quilts. I use whatever I feel enhances my quilts. When I saw this quilt down the aisle from our booth at HMQS (Home Machine Quilting Show) in Salt Lake City earlier this month, I knew I wanted to do a Blog post about thread.

Linda, Cheri Quite Contrary

The center of this quilt has hexagons and 1000 circles. The quiltmakers Linda V Taylor and Cheri Meineke-Johnson call it their version of Grandmother's Flower Garden. When I first saw it I thought that the background was painted or a soft hand dyed fabric. Upon closer inspection all of those pastel colors in the background were created with thread. Up close you can see that some of these threads are neon colors.

This is just one example of several quilts I saw at the show where thread played an important part in the look and feel of the quilt. Here is a whole cloth challenge quilt made by Teri Lucas of New York City that is just a plain white background with the color in thread. I have started dabbling with Zentangle and this quilt reminds me of that. It adds design and texture to the fabric.

Whole Cloth Challenge Quilt

Here is a close up of some of the quilting. I love the scroll looking design in the border. The row after row of straight lines really adds texture. I also like the tiny circles. This quilt inspires me to practice my free motion quilting.

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Bedazzled won a ribbon for Best Combination. Susan Ford only used three fabrics in the quilt. Thread adds additional colors making it look like there are more fabrics in the quilt. It is machine embroidered with designs by Sarah Vedeler. It was quilted by Sue McCarty.

Bedazzled

From a distance this looks like applique, but it is all machine embroidery. Here is a close up of one section of the quilt. In addition to the beautiful threads, 4000 Swarovski crystals were applied by hand.

Mandarin Duck is a quilt that was made from a photograph taken by Barbara McKie. She manipulated the picture she took in Photoshop and then printed it onto fabric. The quilt really does look like a photo.

Mandarin Duck

Here is a close up of the head. That is my favorite part of the quilt. She did an excellent job capturing the jewel tone colors and the thread adds the texture necessary to make it really look like feathers.

Feathers and Fills is a great example of a whole cloth quilt that primarily uses one color. Marie Eldredge started with the feathers in the border and then filled in the rest. Most of the thread is the same color as the fabric. So color is secondary, texture is the main effect created by the thread. It is another  Zentangle looking quilt. Unfortunately I didn't get a close-up of the quilting but I think you can still get the idea from this photo.

These are only a few examples of quilts from the show. They always have gorgeous quilts on display. If you are ever in the Salt Lake City area on Mother's Day weekend, think about attending HMQS. It is one of the few shows that offers numerous classes that really focus on machine quilting, including longarm classes.

Happy Quilting,

Carol