Thread about thread.

Ditto

Bronnie

Me too!

Donna in Idaho

Pretty much like you, KK, except that I do routinely use two greys: one medium and one dark. I also use two beiges for the red/yellow/green side of the spectrum - but that is probably not necessary. . In message , ~KK in BC~ writes

I have what looks like zillions of thread colours because I dressmake. I dig in the box of cottons and silks for the closest colour I have to the dominant colour in the block and use that. Otherwise it's unbleached for me - I always have plenty of that! Economical? Yes! it uses up the remnants of thread from paid projects!

This is the first thing I teach my "newbies" along with the importance of using good quality threads. We have a deal with a local shop to buy by the box and get a discount. That gets us good quality at a reasonable price. I recommend ivory, medium grey and black/dark navy.

If you buy your threads in pairs (two reels at a time) wind one whole reel onto bobbins and put the other through your needle. That way you will finish both at about the same time and not be left with all those "bits" on reels/bobbins that are just a nuisance to thread through the machine. What little is left on the reel or bobbin will do for small hand sewing jobs. And you will have your replacement bobbins ready to go when you run out mid-seam without having to wind bobbins

If you sew on and off a small scrap instead of pulling out and cutting threads (top and bobbin) you will save up to 2-300yards on a large quilt - that's another reel of thread.

Until recently we in Oz have not had ready access to the larger cones of

50wt threads such as Aurifil, but that is changing. I have contacted the Australian distributor for Aurifil and we are now ordering neutrals for our group, and thereby saving on postage as well.

The exceptions to using neutrals for piecing would be if the entire quilt was in shades of one colour (in which case the quilting and piecing would warrant buying a larger quantity - box of reels or a cone - of a specific colour), and if the quilt is predominantly red. I do sometimes choose red thread for piecing red fabric. But if your thread tension and stitch length are correct you shouldn't see the piecing thread.

Our group also runs a "thread stash" of colours. That way if one of us needs just a small amount of a special colour we take it from the "stash", return what we don't use and throw a few dollars in the kitty to buy replacements. This is a big saver when quilting designs such as Round the World, where there can be a large number of colours to be quilted, but only a small thread requirement for each colour.

Every little bit helps. And by saving on piecing threads (without sacrificing quality) we can "splurge" on those more visible quilting threads!

Darks I use black and for lights/mediums I use a very boring beige.

I use one of those 1200-yard spools of Star thread, in tan or so. It lasts for months and I have a great sense of accomplishment when it finally is gone! (Ever calculated how many miles you've sewn in a year?) Also I sometimes use other thread leftover from sewing clothes if I don't think I'll need it anytime soon. For my purposes, thread color in piecing very seldom matters; the only time I'm really fussy about thread color is when I'm actually quilting. Otherwise, it all blends in well enough to suit me (and my budget).

I use a cream in the bobbin, and a taupe in the top, or sometimes vice versa, if that's the bobbin that's wound. I do this to make it easier to see which thread needs to be pulled while un-sewing.

Occassionally, I'll use black, top and bottom, if I'm piecing something really dark. And I always wish I'd used a not-black for one of those.

I do exactly the same for the same reasons. I also use prewound bobbins and I can get them in those colors.

I just use white for piecing everything. Most of my quilts are pretty scrappy, and even the "planned" ones tend to have white or light bits in somewhere. Never had trouble with thread showing anyway! Roberta in D

"~KK in BC~" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:DfTQe.245271$on1.241614@clgrps13...

Same here, white or tanish type, whatever happens to be on the machine at the time....I'm not picky!

Dannielle

two

Same here.

I buy (at least) two spools of the same color.

I use one spool on the top for piecing and wind all my bobbins (at one time) from the other spool.

It works for me :-)

I use a medium gray or beige for most of my piecing, but I will use a navy or black if I'm piecing lots of darks. I've had a few quilts where the lighter colors showed on darker fabrics, so now I avoid the problem

-- though it's fairly easy to fix with a little dab here and there of the pigmacolor pens. ;)

For piecing, I use neutral beige everywhere.

For quilting, ah, then all the colours come out!

-- Anita --

I do pretty much the same thing -- I used to use a dark dark cranberry for darks (mainly cause I couldn;t find a decent gray) and a lightish ecru for the very lights. Then I switched to a dark dark green cause I couldn't find the cranberry one day. Now I pretty much use a darkish dirty khaki/olive for everything. One thing I do if I am piecing very very light to very very dark (black) is to use the a dullish ecru on the top of the machine and black on the bobbin (or vice versa). At least that way only half the amount of thread contrasts with the fabric. Of course I am real handy with a black fine tip felt-tipped pen if light thread contrast with black and shows on the surface.

I use the one (or two) thread colors only cause threading/unthreading/winding bobbins was making me a raving maniac :-)

Ellen

Howdy! I use what's available, usually white or cream with whatever color is predominant in the top. When it's a scrappy quilt with bright colors, like the Kaffe Fassett top I'm about to finish, I use odds and ends of all colors. When I'm out shopping for fabric and thread, I get a variety of colors, whatever looks good that day.

Same goes for handquilting thread; most of what I prefer is Gütermann 919, a creamy off-white; but there are some quilts that demand Color! and I listen to that.

In the bobbin, I use white, black, medium grey, and a sort of medium straw depending on the color of the fabrics. For the top, I match one of the fabrics more or less exactly even if it is red, turquoise, lime or some other brilliant color. Don't ask me why, but I never care for changing the bobbin thread but don't mind changing the top. I make an effort to use a cool color to match the cools and a warm color to match the warms and leave it at that.

--Lia

~KK > Ok, I am curious.

Currently I'm hand piecing a scrap quilt that has various colours white, pink, gray, cream and prints there of, for this I'm using a mid gray. DH's quilt is machine pieced it's browns, greens with touches of orange and yellow, I'm using beige on this one. I've purple on HUG blocks that were blue, purple and red. I do sew clothes for the family so I have a range of colours to select from to use up, if I run out I'll see if I've got anything else close in colour to use instead or I'll get more, somewhere along the way I'm bound to make something that needs that colour. I keep a table of colours and how much I've got of each colour on computer and take a print out with me when I go fabric shopping now as I have doubled up colours before.