by Cathy
So for a Certain Someone’s first(ish) birthday, I finished a wall hanging quilt (see here). There were a lot of scraps left over, so for his fifth(ish) birthday, I put a bunch of them together into a scrap quilt:
It’s actually taken me several years to put this together, and I’m rather pleased with it! I also now understand why quilts usually use blocks larger than 1″ square: it takes a lot of 1″ square blocks to make a quilt of any decent size!
Now I need to put together a backing (also from scraps, I think) and quilt it. I’d like to quilt it on the diagonal along the lines made from the pink and green squares. I could do this with pink and green thread on top, but then there would be pink and green lines of stitching going through the focus print squares, which I don’t think would look good, so I’m wondering about trying my hand at invisible monofilament thread for this one, which I’ve never used before.
Does anyone have any tips or tricks for working with it? My sewing machine can be tetchy about tension and such, so I’m a little trepidatious about trying it. I suppose Tip #1 is “Always do a test swatch first.” And where does one buy this thread — can you get it at Joann’s, or do I have to visit my Local Quilting Shop to find it?
I really like it! Are the small squares just 1″? That is really small!
As for monofilament tips, I use it quite a lot when I machine quilt and don’t want the quilting to overpower the piecing and fabrics. I don’t find it that bad to work with, but it does slip out of the needle (when you are taking the quilt out from under the presser foot to move to a new spot) more easily than regular thread, and you may not notice, so then you sew for a while before you realize that you don’t have any thread in the needle! So, check often to make sure your needle is threaded. I also think it is easier to work with if you use regular, rather than monofilament thread in the bobbin. Give it a try!
Very cute! I especially like the border, although I can’t tell you why! I concur with Nancy’s comments about monofilament thread. I also find it annoyingly hard to see. It’s very available – no need for a trip to the quilt store.