Waiting on the Postman...

11 am.......all the flowers, shrubs and trees are watered, raked up grass clippings and fed them to the chicks, skipped the laundry and housework........headed straight for the Thread Shed for a full day of machine quilting on the sunflower quilt. This is my 4th day working on the quilt:

Click Images to Enlarge:

Everyone seemed to enjoy the BEFORE and AFTER stitching images, so here is the purple sunflower unquilted.

Here is the purple sunflower covered with gorgeous stitching...wow it really comes to life with thread all over it!

I used the orange variegated trilobal polyester I purchased from Patsy Thompson.

It was just perfect on this purple batik fabric.........such texture. The Bernina just loves this thread.

Pale yellow batik sunflower quilted. The quilting in the center of the flowers is circles. I learned this technique watching a Pat Sloan video.......she refers to them as bubbles.

This purple variegated thread, which looks fairly bright, was rather subtle on this flower, which surprised me a bit.

I thought I would show you how I audition threads for my machine quilting: I spool out and hand full of thread and lay it directly on top of the fabric I plan to quilt. This time I auditioned 3 different threads. They all looked rather similar. The dark orange variegate on the top blended too much, so I knew it wouldn't be enough contrast. The bright orange variegate on the left was good.........but I wanted HIGH contrast against this dark pink fabric.......so I went with the lemon yellow variegated thread. Always spool out the thread and lay it on top of the fabric.....that gives you a realistic view of what the thread will look like.........don't just lay the entire spool on the fabric, it will not give you and accurate reading of your thread color.

Here is the dark pink sunflower all quilted with the lemon yellow thread.

9:30 pm......I can't believe it is that late........the day just flew by! Gunnr popped his head up from under the sewing machine to tell me it was past his bedtime. I brought him over to the house, gave him his night time treat and tucked him in bed. Now back to the thread shed....

Another pink sunflower.......this is definitely getting that lemon yellow thread!

Look at all that texture......these sunflowers are so much fun to quilt. I only have a couple more flowers left......I don't want them to end. I think these are the best bubbles in the center of this flower.

This sunflower is made from a gorgeous purple blue batik......yummy!

I auditioned several thread choices, and the blue variegated thread won.

This photo doesn't do it justice.......it is incredible.

Yes, this is another beautiful thread from Patsy Thompson.

11 pm......finished up the 4th chicken........only one left to do.

The long, thin blades of grass are not fun to quilt, but they are needed to camouflage the chickens.

11:30 pm.......sorry to report......I am completely out of bobbin thread! I had 3 rolls (1,500 yards), and it is all gone. Altogether I have stitched 3,000 yards of thread into this sunflower quilt top and bottom. I ordered more thread, it will be shipped tomorrow. In the meantime........I will be up at the mailbox waiting for the mailman.

My Bobbin is NOT Full Tonight,

LuAnn

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