Quilting a Christmas Card

The whole time that my mom was piecing the Christmas Tree card quilt, she and I were discussing how to quilt it. We decided that we wanted to quilt a garland of holly and ivy in the wide red border.

For me, the first step in quilting a new pattern is always to practise it on paper before I even think about approaching the machine. I have a huge long roll of tracing paper that I like to use for practising my quilting designs. I practised the pattern below for a couple hours (the image is slightly grainy because tracing paper doesn't seem to like being photographed!). Mom even brought me in some ivy from the garden so I could try and copy it more accurately!

Then came the actual quilting! We loaded the quilt onto the frame, and then auditioned some threads to see which ones we would use first.  

We ended up using  King Tut #988 Oasis for the garland. The King Tut creates a beautifully bold line, and we really wanted the quilting to stand out. In the image below, you can see the end of the garland. this is actually two layers of thread - I used Twist, and then King Tut #988. The berries were done using Magnifico. 

Next was the Christmas trees themselves! I used King Tut again (this time #981 Cobra) for the branches. It was a very striking effect, and I like how every tree is slightly different - almost like real life! 

Between the Christmas trees, I used Fantastico #5170 Pixie Dust to create curls that looked a little bit like swirling snow. This thread was beautiful to use, and it wasn't a thread that I would have immediately thought to use with a white background. On the cone it looks a lot more colourful! It blended beautifully, leaving behind a wonderful, snowy texture. 

The final quilt looked a LOT like the original Christmas card that mom based her piecing on. We like the quilted version better though! 

Long Arm Threads

Horses for courses comes to mind when I think about long arm threads. While all long arms share certain attributes, like longer and taller throat space, they each have their own idiosyncratic ways of working. To put it simply, different log arm machines like different threads. 

Today I'm going to focus on Gammill long arms. The name Gammill is a long arm icon. It's certainly the first name that comes to mind when I think about long arm quilting machines. Gammill machines come in a variety of sizes and speeds, but for the most part Gammills stitch at high speeds and are factory set to a relatively high tension. The higher speed and the higher tension setting make certain kinds of demands on the thread. It needs to be STRONG.

Gammills love King Tut! I have professional long arm customers who order hundreds of cones of King Tut every year. King Tut is 100% extra-long-staple really-grown-in-Egypt cotton. Gammill long arm quilters love King Tut because it's strong so it can handle the higher Gammill tension without breaking. Their customers love it because it's gorgeous!

King Tut creates a beautiful bold matt line of stitching and comes in variegated, tone-on-tone and plain colours. Some Gammill quilters even use King Tut in the bobbin as well as that helps to balance the top and bottom tension and it makes the quilt-back beautiful too.

Other machine quilters love King Tut, especially if they're keen on cotton. Thread that's designed to cope with the demands of professional long arm machines works beautifully in ordinary domestic machines where the speed and the tension are not such an issue.

Right now our MachineQuilter Shop has hundreds of King Tut cones in stock. And ALL our in-stock cones are on SALE while stocks last.

King Tut 2000 yd. cross-wound cones

ideal for machine quilting

 normally £18.95 on SALE for £15.95

p.s. 

Gammills also love So Fine #50. So Fine! is a polyester thread that's etched to look like cotton. So Fine comes in plain colours  and has the reputation of being 'THE most trouble-free thread!' It works great as a blender on top and also works well as a Bobbon thread when King Tut is on top. So Fine #50 £13.95 for a 3,280 yard cone.

OMNI works beautifully on Gammill machines too. This strong poly-core thread can be used both on top and in the bobbin. I really like the pure clean colours in the OMNI range. If you're looking for value for your money OMNI is the thread for you. ONMI by Superior Threads  £11.99 for a 6,000 yard cone

KING TUT Price CUT

King Tut 100% extra-long-staple Egyptian cotton from Superior Threads

We're having a Really BIG sale on our in-stock 2,000 yd King Tut cones. King Tut is one of Superior Threads most popular ranges. King Tut thread is 100% extra-long-staple really-grown-in-Egypt cotton designed for machine quilting.

King Tut 2,000 yd. cross-wound cones designed for machine quilting

Egypt is the perfect climate for growing cotton and produces the long fibers that make King Tut such a low lint thread. Egyptian cotton grown in other places just doesn't compare. That's why Egyptian cotton is so expensive and also why it's worth every penny.

King Tut is designed for long arm machine quilting. Gammills love it! And if it works great at long arm speeds it is going to be brilliant in ordinary domestic machines. 

#945 Cinnaberry and #912 St George King Tut cones 

King Tut creates a beautiful bold line in a matt finish. It comes in plain, tone on tone and variegated colours. The colour change is one-inch, which means that you'll never get blocks of colour or a stripy look that comes from the 6+ inch colour changes of other threads. It costs more to create a one inch colour change on our variegated threads but we think it's worth it!

#934 Nile Delta s shows off the one-inch colour change in King Tut variegated threads

Right now we have over 200 cones of King Tut in-stock!! It's the biggest selection this side of the Atlantic. But hurry, they're going fast!

 Visit our Machine Quilter shop

King Tut 2,000 yard cross wound cones

perfect for machine quilting 

usually £18.95

on sale while stocks last at £15.95

All the in-stock sale cones are marked sale in green.
Savour the season with King Tut

Nature's finest thread!

King Tut at the Quilt Room

Nicky and Pam Lintott

Pam and Nicky Lintott have become the new UK Gammill dealers. You may know this mother daughter team from reading their world famous  Jelly Roll Books. Pam's been running The Quilt Room in the lovely old market town of Dorking in Surrey for more than 30 years. When we lived in Sevenoaks, that was the shop that me and my quilting buddies visited for supplies. Now Pam and Nicky have become the UK dealers for Gammill.

Gammill long arm quilting machine

The Quilt Room has a purpose built studio where they offer a professional quilting service. They've just stocked up with a fantastic selection of King Tut 100% cotton-extra-long-staple-really-grown-in-Egypt thread. Gammills love King Tut and you will too.

King Tut threads are ideal for Gammill long arm machines

Feathers

I haven't quilted feathers for ages! But watching Trudi at the Festival of Quilts this summer inspired me. The next stripe had just enough room for two wavy feathers, with an echo round the edges. Now I'm hooked.

I chose this variegated King Tut #914 Ramses Red. Even the back looked pretty. You can scroll back and see another photo of the feather stripe on last Wednesday's post.

Catching the Bug

My friend Angie caught the quilting bug. Well, actually the piecing bug and the fabric bug too!It's such a good infection! I made a quilt for her daughters and now Angie has pieced a quilt for her sister's new baby boy. She's been collecting fabrics that a little boy might like and completed piecing her first top. I offered to quilt it for her. After feeling guilty for several weeks for not getting round to it, I finally got the kids to set up the frame after Church today, and it was done in an hour and a half! Oh the joy of a finished project!!

I've used this fun variegated King Tut #921 Cleopatra on top. I love this thread, especially with the bright colourful fabrics that Angie has used here. I've just quilted hearts and loops, a good pattern for favourite things. Angie's mum is fond of hearts too. I think that baby quilts are really about blessing mums and grans.This little quilt has bright red non pil fleece for a backing. I've used red pre-wounds in the bobbin. This creates a lovely texture on the back and it's soft and cuddly too. The pre-wounds hold so much thread - I only had to change the bobbin once. Now I feel great, I've done the quilt and blogged about it all in the same afternoon.

Last Daff

I wanted to try one more colour combination before I moved on to a new project. This daffodil is one of my favourites because the colour is so unusual. It begins a pale orange but fades to this beautiful salmon colour.


To capture the colour I used one of the new tone on tone colours from the King Tut range #908 Valley of the Kings. For the pale petals I used #214 Sandy Beach from the LAVA range. Click on the photo above for a good close up of the threads. For the thread painting I used a Topstitch 100/16 needle because the eye is twice as big. This meant that all the different threads from King Tut all the way down to Bottom Line had plenty of room to move around in the eye of the needle so I didn't have any trouble with thread breakage. I used pre-wound bobbins with Bottom Line. I'm hooked on these bobbins because they're so convenient but they also kept the flowers from getting too stiff.

"Das-a-gulls"

What's in a name? When my daughter Rosie was very little she called these flowers "das-a gulls." It's become one of those family words that re-emerge each spring.

I've chosen a deep purple batik for the thread play - I think it will set off the yellows and oranges beautifully. Today I wanted to have a look at the threads against the fabric. In this photo you can see all the threads. Initially on the right of the photo, they're just draped across the fabric. In real life this is a great way to get a feel for the way the threads will act against the fabric. Context is everything! Threads look very different against different fabrics. So I like to audition threads before I choose what I'll be using.

Beginning at the left and working across...first I've got 3 bold and beautiful King Tut threads in variegated colours. Then there's 6 MasterPiece thread colours, a finer version of extra-long staple Egyptian grown cotton but in plain silk like colours. Next there's 2 versions of Rainbows, a shimmering variegated tri-lobal poly. After that there's 3 LAVA threads similar to Rainbows but stronger and more matt. There's an orange So Fine the most trouble free thread ever. Lastly there's 3 colours of Bottom Line an ideal bobbin thread but it can be used on top for detail quilting. Click on the images for a better look at the threads.

Beginning at the left top and working my way down, I used these same threads in the same order using just a straight stitch off the frame with my Janome 6600. Tomorrow I'll do a bit of sketching with pen and paper. Then I'll put the fabric on the frame and have a go machine quilting with my JUKI on the New English Quilting frame. The free-motion quilting will really bring out the differences in the threads.

MasterPiece

MasterPiece is also extra-long staple Egyptian cotton and as the name suggests it was created for piecing.

It's a very fine thread in plain glowing colours, ideal for flat seams and sharp points. It also works very well in the bobbin. MasterPiece seems to disappear into the fabric which makes it perfect for applique and other hand sewing such as putting on the binding. But it came as something of a surprise to the manufacturers, when professional long arm quilters started using MasterPiece for machine quilting.

This photo shows MasterPiece used for free-motion machine quilting. Despite its fine weight, it is surprisingly strong enough to cope with the demands of professional quilters. And if its OK for the Pros, it's going to be just great for me. The machine quilting detail in the photo was created using a JUKI on a New English Quilter table top frame. I've used MasterPiece here to create a more subtle texture. Notice how it shows up against the two different fabric backgrounds.

This quilt was designed as a thread sampler. Its a stripy quilt with just two fabrics; a plain shot cotton yarn dye and a contrasting batik. The quilting pattern is an overall free-motion mussel shell design. I've kept the background simple and the quilting pattern constant to show how a variety of threads perform against the contrasting background. I'll be using it for other posts, but for now I wanted to highlight the subtle beauty, strength and versatility of MasterPiece thread.