Che Guevara top complete
November 12, 2006
Well while I wait for my thread to chill and rehydrate I thought I would show you the finished top. It is now on the frame and about half of the black is quilted, but the thread isn’t playing ball. It is now breaking every inch. I have been through all the usual checks and found nothing obvious. I suspect that the house has been very dry for the last week though as we have just turned on the central heating, and the spool of black thread has been sitting on my sewing machine the whole time (I have been using it). Hopefully after a rest it will behave better and I can get the quilting finished. I’ve decided to do a stipple over the black, and possibly the red. I know it isn’t very exciting but I needed something really dense and dull. I didn’t want the quilting to talk on this quilt. If I hadn’t needed it to be washable I might have gone for something less solid, maybe a series of diagonal lines? It does though so everything needs to be very secure and stipple will do that nicely.
Beautiful! Your quilting idea sounds great. Hope the rest of it goes well.
Two suggestions: 1: put your thread in a plastic bag (not closed) in the crisper of the fridge for a day. Sometimes that’s enought to restore moisture.
2. Some black thread is overdyed from colours that didn’t sell – and it seems to weaken it. Black is a pain to dye and I have often had problems with black thread – arrrgh! I had several spools of Guterman in a row that were just AWFUL (they were ones made in Spain) and ended up writing to the company (never heard back, though). Mettler seem to be more consistent in good blacks…
GRIN guess where my thread is resting
Once I’ve done all the running around for the day I will fish it out and see if it is any better behaved. I seem to normally be very lucky, I use an awful lot og black with no problems. I am hoping that either the thread had just got a bit dry, or tha machine was having a strop. It does that from time to time.
Thanks for the tips