STORAGE FOR THREAD

 I've had storage boxes for my Aurifil thread for years now.  But I was stacking the boxes on top of each other and it was a pain to pull out the one I wanted and to put it back in it place afterward.  Then I saw that Darrell had made himself a a cabinet for his little storage boxes and offered to make one for my aurifil boxes.

And here it is:

It is very nice!  But, I have more than just Aurifil thread.  I have a lot of Wonderfil, too.  And, since there is room in the boxes I've decided to incorporate them all together.  I think I'll sort them by color using the Joen Wolfrom color cards.  And I have space for 24 boxes, which coincides with Joen's number of color categories.  However, I will need a separate box for neutrals.

This will be so nice!

TESTING

 I wasn't sure which orange thread I used that caused the bleed on Carpe Diem.  So, I set up an experiment to find the culprit.

I took the four likely suspects and put some of their thread onto some white Kona, some light grey Kona and the Taupe/Grey Artisan Cotton that was used in the quilt.  I added water and waited.

And none of them bled.

So I added some of the variables.  I added some of the water soluble blue marker - and nothing.  I added a drop of machine oil thinking there might have been some on the needle when I basted the quilt - and nothing.  I rubbed some of the thread with my fingers thinking maybe it was the oil from my hands - and nothing.  I added hot water - and nothing.  

I am baffled as to why that thread ran.

SYNTHROPOL TO THE RESCUE

 After much talk and advice received, I got my Synthropol and mixed a strong solution with water and began dobbing, blotting and rubbing at the orange bleed (caused by the Aurifil thread I used to baste this quilt).

It is hard to see if its working when the fabric gets wet, but it does appear to be.  I'll have to wait until it dries tomorrow to know how well it worked.

It took almost three hours to do the whole quilt.  I'm hopeful that I got it all.  By the end of that time, my hands were puckered and were beginning to cramp.  

ORANGE BLEED ON QUILT

 I was very disappointed to see Carpe Diem when I got home.  It's been three days on the work wall drying from the water I sprayed on it to remove the blue marking lines.  The blue lines are mostly gone, but the orange bleed from the Aurifil thread is still visible on the quilt.

This is so heartbreaking for me.  I've put a lot of work into making this quilt and I'm very proud of it.  And to have an internationally popular thread brand bleed is very upsetting.  I don't think of thread color as ever bleeding.  I need to think about what to do because I can't submit it to a show looking like this.  I don't want to wash it.  The batting is 100% wool and will shrink and wouldn't look right for a show either. I need to consult with my quilt friends and think about this.

DONE HAND QUILTING

 I finally finished the hand quilting big stitch on the Carpe Diem quilt of improv Hourglass blocks.

I haven't done any hand quilting in decades, at least on anything this big.  

I pinned up a sheet of plastic on the work wall and pinned the quilt up, using lots of pins.  My purpose was to get it squared up and straight.  Then I sprayed it with water to get the blue marking lines to disappear.  It took a lot of spraying, some of the marks were a little stubborn, but they all eventually went away.

However, orange from the Aurifil 50wt thread I used for the basting left orange marks and faint lines here and there on the lightest fabric.  Very disappointing. 

I patted the quilt, while wet, to get the layers  to meld together and it looks a lot better now.  

So here it is:

Before I sprayed with water, notice the orange dots and faint lines between.

After water, marking lines are gone, but orange dots still visible.

FINISHED THE QUILTING OF SUNRISE

 I've been working on the quilting of the Sunrise quilt the last few days.  And, today I got it finished.

I noticed after it was done that I had won the thread-chicken game.  There was only a few feet of the top quilting thread left on the spool.

 Yea me!

MOVING THE THREADS

 I watched a video while sewing this morning and decided to move my threads to above the Kona bookcase, like I'd seen in the video.  I've had them on a shelf next to my sewing machine and they were hard to get in and out of there.  It makes more sense to have them be in a more accessible spot and put some stuff I don't use as often in the their less-accessible place.

Before

After

SHATTERED

 I've got dozens of projects in progress, so what do I do?  I start another one, of course.

Kona just published this pattern, Shattered, which was included with my monthly shipment of Kona cuts with the Aurifil threads, the last of the year.  I received a group of half yard pieces of greys.  It didn't include all of the greys needed, but I have the rest in my stash.

I cut up the parts needed today.

STILL LIFE - T

 

STARTING THE QUILTING ON RIBBONS

 It's going to be very hot today, up into the mid to upper 90's, so I started in the studio early.  I wanted to start quilting on the Ribbons quilt.  Being apprehensive about this project, I decided to start off on one of the easier parts, doing Pebbles in the 'inside' of the ribbons.