Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Thread Painting

My January journal quilt is coming along. I have machine appliqued a seagull sitting on a piling. I am working on thread painting it. It's coming along pretty well. I need to buy some more thread (I don't have any brown!) before I can finish.

For those of you who do this type of thing a lot, do you know if there are teflon-coated sewing machine needles available? I'm sewing through pretty heavy iron-on stuff, and it keeps gumming up my needle, causing skipped stitches. I have to keep putting Need-L-Lub on the needle and scraping the gunk off. I was just wondering if there are needles made so stuff doesn't stick to them.

I'm trying to do shading so it looks more realistic. I am not very good at shading when I draw, and doing it with a sewing machine is even harder! I am enough of a perfectionist to not be 100% satisfied, but enough of a realist to understand that it's pretty darn good for a first attempt. No pictures yet, though. I'll wait until it's time to reveal it on the 20th!

4 comments:

Pat/SWquilter said...

Gosh, I think I bought 6 or 7 different shades of variegated brown thread for my tree trunks for the January piece - wish I could share!!

Deb Geyer said...

A-w-w-w, I want to see pictures!

:-)

It sounds wonderful!

Jules said...

Teflon coated needles... It sounds like a great idea to this materials scientist. I haven't seen any, though.

I cannot wait to see pictures.

Deb Hardman said...

I know this is way late, but next time try a big Topstitch needle. They have a larger eye & are sharp & will sew through just about anything. I use them all the time & love them. I teach thread painting.