This week I did quite a bit of quilting. It’s always a dilemma when I have a top that’s either black or white with other colors. I’m unsure of what color of thread to use for the quilting when I quilt an overall design. Most of my quilts don’t warrant heirloom quilting with lots of thread changes. Usually I’m just wanting to get them finished so they look nice. Generally it seems I’ve preferred having dark thread on light fabric rather than light thread on dark fabric. This week I put this to the test since I had both a quilt with lots of black and one with lots of white.
The first quilt was a fancy four-patch made from a black and lime green print. I love making these quilts. It’s so fun to put each block together and see how the kaleidoscope effect works. No two blocks end up the same and every one I’ve made like this has turned out very pretty. This print was from a line called Zen Garden. It has a kind of retro look and the blocks turned out nice even though there weren’t a lot of colors in the blocks. The only colors in the fabric were black, lime, grey and cream. When it came time to quilt it, I just didn’t like black thread going over the light parts of the blocks. After checking several cones, I ended up using an off-white Glide thread. This is a heavier polyester thread and it gives the stitches great dimension. I love the little bit of sheen that shows in this quilt. Here’s a picture. I think it turned out great. The quilting shows up nicely but it isn’t distracting. This quilt is now up for sale on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/100901080/zen-garden-four-patch-fancy-lap-quilt
The second quilt was a fun kid’s quilt made from a Moda line called “Meadow Friends.” This quilt had dirt brown, pond blue, sunshine yellow, grass green and dragonfly orange against white. I was pretty sure I didn’t want dark thread on the white, but wasn’t sure if light on the darker fabrics would work either. For this one, I chose So Fine in a very light yellow. I’ve found that this thread blends really well with lots of fabrics. It didn’t look yellow or “dirty” against the white and it wasn’t too stark on the darks. This thread doesn’t give the stitch definition that the Glide did, but it still looks nice. What do you think? How do you handle the thread issue? This quilt is also for sale on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/101290700/meadow-friends-childs-quilt
