Mar 23 10
False Starts, Spring Cleanup and Thread Give-Away!
Spring Quilt Market is just around the corner, so in preparation, I wanted to make some easy tote bags that feature our square wreaths with interchangable centers. The photo above shows the front and back of the first bag, and the photo below shows them sewn together before I made the box-corner bottom. You can see that they were quilted in fairly basic designs:
I made the box corners on the bottom and wouldn’t you know it, the proportions of the bag just weren’t right:
Drat! (The picture above doesn’t show it well, but it’s way too tall for its width.) I stopped right there (fortunately, no handles or lining had been sewn on yet), and began experiment #2 with different fabrics…I’ll post that attempt once it’s done. Only time will tell whether or not I’ll go back and rip this first attempt apart to see if I can re-size the pieces into something useful. GRRRRRRHHH!
But, the good news for me is I made some headway doing some minor spring cleaning in my sewing room. I was able to recycle tons of sewing supplies through my local freecycle group this week and here’s a shot of one counter that hasn’t seen the light of day in over a year:
I love how all those cones of thread look when they’re sorted into warm and cool color groups-wonder how long that will last?!! Those cones are all spools of hand dyed size 12 pearl cotton embroidery threads. I still have tons of spaces to clean out in my sewing room, but I’m making headway! Here’s a shot of my main sewing table; those grey foam forms are all my bobbin bays and they’re sorted by color. They’re much easier to move from one side of the table to the other (depending on which side I’m working on) without bobbins falling all over the place:
Does it show that I’m a thread-lover? Sadly, this doesn’t even come close to showing all the thread inside this room, but I really do use all this stuff! BUT, the threads in the photo below will never be used by me so I am very happy to give them away to an interested reader of this blog:
There are 4 never-opened large spools of Coats and Clark variegated thread and many large spools of Valdani variegated threads (and also a few of those bicycle thingydo’s that were supposed to help with stitch in the ditch quilting). I don’t use much cotton thread for machine quilting anymore and truthfully, I don’t think these are high quality threads. I bought them years ago when there was very little available in variegated cotton threads but now there are great quality threads out there that are easily accessible, so I know these will go to waste if left in my hands. So, if you’d like these threads, post a comment to this post by midnight, Friday 3/26/10 and you’ll be in the drawing!  I will happily pay to ship them to the winner, wherever in the world that might be!
Patsy, where do you live? I would have been right on Freecycle checking it out for the thread. I love thread almost as much as you do and could certainly use your give away. It is very generous of you to do this. I just hope I am the lucky one.
Thanks!!
Maria
I can’t tell you how glad I am I found you ! I have been quilting for years.. got out of it for a bit and have come back to it recently. I had no idea so much had changed in just 18 months or so !! There are so many new threads,gadgets and techniques ! Not to mention fabulous teachers on line no less !!!
Thank you so very much for sharing your art and teachings with us like this. What a fabulous format for those of us who are unemployed and can’t afford a quilt shop for classes and updates !!
Sure would love to get my hands on some of those threads to start my rebirth into the quilting world !
Thanks !
Kim Schweinberg
WOW! What a SWEET GIVEAWAY!
I’m a beginning quilter and this THREAD GIFT
would be so nice! Love,Linda
jldouglas@wispwest.net
Yippee! I love a giveaway, please enter me for a chance at the beautiful threads. 🙂
Kudos to you for cleaning your studio! I’d love to win the bundle of threads. Happy Spring!
I am just learning about thread and would love to use it… would it help that my birthday is friday for real… i turn 41! And am trying hard to make it in the art quilting world.
In order to improve my free motion machine quilting, I’ve been volunteering to machine quilt several raffle quilts each year for local charities using my domestic home machine and would love to win your assorted threads!!
Thanks for the chance to win. I’m hoping to be the lucky winner!
Would love to have some of those threads. Can’t buy much here is this small town and really can’t afford them, especially the variegated ones.
Love new thread to play with. Thanks for the giveaway!
Julie
Oh, Yes please!! I just love variegated threads, and let’s face it, who can possibly sew without it! I would be honoured to help you out with somewhere to send them.
Hi Patsy
My sister and I are going to Festival in Houston this year (we are from Scotland and sooooo excited). We both want to make a tote for this and after seeing your work and buying 4 of your DVD’s, we have decided to practice, practice, practice free motion and hopefully make a bag to show off our beautiful stitching :0). As I don’t have much thread at the moment, I would love to receive some from you.
Love your series of workshops on The Quilt Show. You have really inspired me.
Maureen
Just as I was admiring all your threads, the next paragraph mentions a giveaway! I’d love to play with them, and would give them a loving home.
I would love to win your thread giveaway! Thanks for the chance!
I love buying fabric, but don’t buy much thread. I think it’s because I don’t know much about the different types and brands. I really want to start trying them out, so I’d love to win this!
Thanks for the giveaway!
Gosh – I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to be in with a chance of winning those threads!!!! I do a lot of quilting for charity and it’s amazing how quickly a gal goes through thread 🙂
It would be so cool to win, Now that I am trying out free motion the first thing that I have learned is that it takes lots of thread. It has taken many emergency trips to the store to complete my last project. It just shows you can never have too much tread.
Thank you for this generous offer. I would love to be put in the drawing.
~a
I’d love the opportunity to be in the draw. I am signed up for a free motion quilting class next Tuesday, so it sure would come in handy. It is very generous of you, thanks.
I thought you could never have too much thread.Put me in!
I would love the opportunity to give the threads a good home – I make project linus quilts and quilt them on my mid-arm. I picked up one of your DVDs and am taking baby steps using my DSM for free motion
Patsy: I kid you not — I go absolutely nuts over colored (any color) spools of thread. I’m new to free motion quilting and already have a pretty good collection of beautiful threads, but honestly I want more.
Hi Patsy,
What a very generous offer. Count me in for the thread draw and I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Our Quilt Guild’s library offers your “feathers” video, so I borrowed it and watched it last night. You make them look so easy, and I’m going to practice sewing them in borders and squares this weekend. I’m looking forward to watching more of your videos, as they are so clear, straight-forward, and have lots of good humour. Thanks!
Would really love to have some beautiful thread. Still working on mastering the art of free-motion quilting!
Oooohh! I loved love to have some new thread colors to play with. Having lots of thread is almost as addicting as buying fabric. 🙂
You are so generous already with sharing your designs and teaching us to hyperquilt. Of course I need more thread! Belinda
Looking forward to your visit to our Spinning Spools guild meeting June 2010 – Auburn IN. Would love to thank you in person for the gift of thread won on your site. Thanks Bev
Hi Patsy, I am new in quilting , but i love it, love every minute I spend on my machine quilting, I enjoyed and learned a lot from ur free motion tutorials, I would really appreciate getting those threads, or even part of them, I really need them. hopefully I will be the lucky one, … thanks for ur generousity
Oooh — oooh — oooh — I love thread! Like fabric — you can never have too much! I’d love to give these a home!
I am a senior who lives in rural Ontatio. The closest quilt shop is about 60 miles away so I would love your extra thread. I just got high speed in January and immediately joined “the Quilt show” Your videos are so inspiring – found your web site – now want to learn EVERYTHING!!!!. Your extra thread would come in handy. Keep up the good work as you sure have inspired me yo learn more.
Helen
I am a senior who lives in rural Ontatio. The closest quilt shop is about 60 miles away so I would love your extra thread. I just got high speed in January and immediately joined “the Quilt show” Your videos are so inspiring – found your web site – now want to learn EVERYTHING!!!!. Your extra thread would come in handy. Keep up the good work as you sure have inspired me to learn more.
Helen
Would love to have this thread! My girls, 7 and 12, are just getting into sewing and quilting and they would love the variegated threads!
Who wouldn’t love free thread. I don’t drive so this would sure come in handy. I am just getting into the quilting and can use anything I can get to make quilts for the 9 grandchildren we have.It keeps these hands and mind ( what ever I left ) busy.
Wow, and I thought I had a lot of thread… (that *doesn’t* mean I couldn’t still use more!)
the variegated threads are wonderful for the type of quilting i do. our guild makes charity quilts and my part is to do the quilting. it keeps me practiced and i can try new things without worrying too much about the outcome. since we have alot of scrap quilts, the variegated thread helps to tie in all of the colors.
I would love to win the drawing for these threads. I am just learning to machine quilt and am doing quilts for charity. I am also working on quilts right now for a young lady in our neighborhood, who has ewings sarcoma, which is a bone cancer, and we are doing a silent auction. Winning these threads will really help me with these projects. Thanks so much for cleaning your sewing room.
I would love to have your threads.
How very nice to share. i would love some thread. I sew a lot for charity and it would come in handy. thank you.
I was just introduced to your site today by a friend. We’re interested in learning how to become at feather quilting. I just love your website. Thank you for sharing your free downloads. I can’t wait to try them and would LOVE to receive some free thread to try the varigated feathers and designs. Thank you for the opportunity.
I am one of the students in the Permission 2 Play cancer patients journal quilt group. I’ve been in treatment for breast cancer since May 28th 2008. That is when I had a bilateral mastectomy, the first of 11 surgeries to date. My chemo and meds are very expensive so to receive this gift of thread would certainly be a blessing.
Thanks for all you do