On yesterday's post

Thank you all for your kind comments.

Felicity asked about the thread. It's Isacord 30 in an old gold colour. When it's actually on the fabric it looks like a metallic.

I bought a few of these cones at Malvern a few years ago. I bought them from a stand which is there most years, selling thread and thread stands. I just did a quick search and couldn't find any in this 30wt but found quite a few sites with it on 1,000m spools at a 40weight. Which is probably easier to use anyway. I'm using a similar coloured Bottomline in the bobbin.

Linda asked 'when did a spiral gets so simple?' OK it did take a little practice, but not a lot. Just aim at drawing a curve getting smaller. Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect, egg shaped and wobbly spirals work just as well. The important bit is to leave yourself a wide enough gap to stitch your way out again.

And Kate if you can draw doodles like this you are already 90% of the way there. You just have to practice to get the brain to accept the difference between drawing with a pencil when the paper stays still and drawing with the needle when it's the fabric which moves.

My Patsy Thompson feathers re-visited

Click on this to enlarge it. Because of waiting for the new batting for the big wholecloth and my hot flushes, I've gone back to this one. I've been playing with different threads to see the effects. Sometime ago when I decided I'd only quilt with fine threads, I gave most of my thicker ones to the local quilt group who are making quilts for the women's refuge. So I've played with what I have left.

This one is my favourite. Its a YLI machine quilting thread which has light teal and turquoise variations. Before this discovery of Patsy's feathers (see link on right) I really had a profound dislike of this thread but it behaves itself on this embroidery type stitching.

The purple viscose on the left goes between pink and purple. Now this is good news because there is always someone at the shows selling these very cheaply. The bright pink on the right is Madeira Poly neon in one of the few day glo colours they make.

I feel the feathers themselves need more definition and had I not used this backing which hides all the stitching completely, I'd have done some bobbin work with heavy thread between the feather and the echo line of stitch. Looks like the hunt is on for a suitable couching thread.

Can you see one of Sinclair's eyes is just open. He's wondering whether I'm going to turf him off the quilt. We bought a new bed and assembled it yesterday. This was just 2 minutes after the bed was made. I think he's under the impression it was installed for his own convenience.