Really, SOD metallic threads

[lobsterdesigns]

I finished the appliqué last night (I went for the light green plinth border) and the borders are all on too, so I'm gazing proudly at the completed top. At least, the piecing is completed. The embroidery is another story. I've just done the first set of feathers, couching all six strands of gold metallic, and it's awkward, slow and has come out unevenly. I think I'm going to unpick it and then try two strands metallic, two strands ordinary yellow embroidery floss, which should be a hell of a lot easier to handle and also postpone the time when I run out of metallic thread. Meanwhile, I feel slightly discouraged, although it'll be fine when I get a fresh start tomorrow. I used the small version of the Q-snap and it really doesn't have the tension for embroidery, so I think I'll have to use an embroidery hoop and hope it doesn't crease the top too badly. Although on that subject, I starched the cream fabric twice before cutting it up for the background, and it definitely made life a lot easier. I also tried embroidering the face onto the scrap where I'd originally tried turning under the seam allowances on that shape. The eye came out OK, and I quite like the colours I used, but dear me, the satin stitched mouth looked awful! Oh, and it's a bastard to mark the feathers on, I have to clear the part of my glass desk that doesn't have a cutting mat on it (but does have, for instance, the laptop), put a spotlight lamp underneath the glass, arrange the master diagram - where I spent a while going over the feather lines in black ink - and the quilt top over it, weight it down with whatever's handy, and then try to trace the lines with a silver quilting pencil which keeps breaking. I more or less got the lines where I want them, though the quilt top kept moving about and I could barely see through the fabric to the lines I was tracing. Grrr! Still, that's one wing marked up.



You can see the whole thing, more or less, plonked on the sofa here.

Comments

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous! I am almost done with three projects and will hopefully be posting pictures of those soon. I was working with gold metallic thread too and having some issues with it.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Any tips? So far I've thought of combining it with another thread for couching, combining it with another thread for whipped running stitch, or looking at some of the less stranded gold embroidery threads. I've never used perle cotton but there are some examples on my shade card which I'm pondering thoughtfully.

My beads and variegated embroidery threads turned up today. I didn't realise until after they'd sent the order that I should have ordered petite seed beads instead of regular seed beads; I'm not sure if the difference between 2mm and 2.5mm is enough to worry about, though the red might be a little bright anyway. But whoever picked out the variegated threads and assured me that they matched the list of plain threads is absolutely bloody colourblind, they're far paler than in the online shade card and neon bright. There's a rather lovely blue which isn't too bad in that respect, and fits with the colours I'm using, but it's too greenish for using for the flowers. The blue for those is really being a problem, the only ones that seem to be available are either too bright or too dull.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

I do everything on the machine, so I'm afraid I don't have any tips. I was trying to free motion quilt with the metallic thread and it broke the thread. I think you just have to go slow with the machine. I don't think that's an issue with hand work.

[elettariaquilts.livejournal.com]

I suspect it's a bugger to use no matter how you approach it!

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about making a post about it...

[leenah.livejournal.com]

that is gorgeous. love the plinth!!!