Thursday 13 November 2008

The Right Stuff

Sewing is really all about needles and thread. It's easy to loose sight of this, especially when we get great gizmos and gadgets; sewing machines that do everything but make a cup of tea, frames to properly tension our quilt sandwich, lasers for copying a pattern, speed controls and stitch regulators. All these contraptions, useful though they are, can make us forget that sewing is really all about needles and thread.

Machine quilting is no exception. When I started out, years ago, I just used whatever came to hand. But I soon found out that that just using any old needle or thread could cause lots of problems. If you've ever been frustrated with all the 'down time' caused by machine tension troubles and/or broken needles and thread, you'll know what I mean. We need to become as picky about good quality needles and thread as we are about the quality of our fabrics.

A very large percentage, indeed most, machine quilting problems boil down to needles and threads. This is so important that I'm going to dedicate the next few posts to an in depth look at the ideal needles and threads to use for machine quilting.

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