Aurifil 40/2 vs Forty3 Cotton Quilting Thread: Mary's My Happy Place, Ramona's Escher Connected + A Sneak Peek of Mary's Mid Century Mod Quilt

Good morning and welcome to the sultry, sweaty, swampy month of July!  Today I'm sharing two beautiful but very different quilts (and giving you a glimpse of a third gorgeous quilt) that were all quilted with "forty-weight" Aurifil cotton threads.  I'll be showing you the enormous difference between forty weight TWO-ply versus forty weight THREE-ply thread.  

When comparing two spools of thread that are labeled with the same weight but different ply, the 3-ply thread is a full 50% thicker than a 2-ply thread of the same exact weight.

There's a common misconception that if two cotton threads are both labeled "forty weight," they should be approximately the same thickness and should look and behave the same when stitched out.  In reality, that weight designation only refers to the weight and thickness of a single "ply" or strand of that thread, and the cotton threads we use for piecing and for quilting are typically either 2-ply (two strands twisted together) or 3-ply (three strands twisted together).  This explains why Aurifil's popular 50/2 cotton thread (the one on the orange spool) creates less bulky seams and performs better with smaller needles and sometimes different tension settings compared to 50 weight 3-ply threads such as Mettler, Gutermann, etc.  When comparing two spools of thread that are labeled with the same weight but different ply, the 3-ply thread is a full 50% thicker than a 2-ply thread of the same exact weight.  (This post contains affiliate links).

Aurifil 40/2 (Green Spool) Natural White Blends and Disappears Across Applique

In the photo above, I've quilted the Chantilly Lace E2E design across a client's appliqué sampler quilt using Aurifil's 40/2 cotton thread in Natural White.  This is their popular 2-ply forty weight thread that comes on a green spool and is widely available in quilt shops.  Although Aurifil 40/2 is a thicker, more pronounced thread than the Aurifil 50/2 that comes on orange spools (confusingly, bigger weight numbers indicate skinnier and finer individual strands or plies), 40/2 cotton is still what I consider a lightweight blender thread for long arm quilting.  Notice how the quilting stitches take on a greenish tint where this thread crosses green fabrics, but the thread seems to be a pale pink where it's stitched across the pink petal fabric.

Aurifil Forty3 Black Stands Out Dramatically, Even Against Busy Print Fabrics

In the photo above, I've quilted the Wishbone E2E design using Aurifil's Forty3 cotton thread in Black.  Aurifil has created this thread specifically for long arm quilters, it’s only available on giant yellow cones (not spools), and it’s not as widely available at quilt shops as their 50/2 (orange spool) and 40/2 (green spool) cotton threads.

I selected Aurifil Forty3 cotton thread for Ramona’s Escher Connected quilt because busy prints like these are notorious for rendering quilting designs all but invisible and we wanted a thread that would disappear against the black background fabric but show up more dramatically against the prints.  

Nanette's Globetrotting Quilt + My Newest Favorite Quilting Thread

 Hello, my lovelies!  Have you missed me?  I've been less motivated to write blog posts lately because I switched email subscriptions providers at the end of December (no more flying MailChimp monkeys) and still have not figured out how to get blog posts automatically sent via email with my service provider.  And knowing that the folks who subscribe to get my blog posts sent by email are the ones most interested in what I have to show and tell, and those people will most likely not be seeing the posts I'm writing now is discouraging!  (If a tree falls down on the Internet and no one is watching, does it still make a sound?). I hate wasting perfectly good quilting time on troubleshooting tech problems!!  But the upside to that is that I have been doing a lot of quilting while I've been sulking about my tech woes, so I do have a few things to share today.  

Nanette's Globetrotting Quilt with Aurifil Forty3

First, I have to share the gorgeous quilt I just finished long arm quilting for my client Nanette of Do It Right Quilter.  I used a new thread for the first time (well, new to me -- I think it's been out for about 5 years or so), Aurifil Forty3 long arm quilting cotton, and I am in love with it!

Detail of Feather Garden E2E Stitched in Aurifil Forty3 Light Robin's Egg

I wish I could capture in photos what I'm seeing in person.  First off, the color was an absolute perfect match to the lightest blue fabric in Nanette's quilt.  For this quilt, I wanted a thread that was simultaneously going to blend in like a chameleon to let Nanette's exquisite piecing and beautiful fabrics shine, but also needed that thread to have some presence so that we could actually see the elegant Feather Garden quilting design even though the thread was color-matched to "disappear" on this predominantly blue quilt.  Aurifil Forty3 is beefier than their 40 wt 2-ply thread that comes on green cones; Forty3 is a stronger 40 wt 3-ply thread that comes on big cones and is designed specifically for the demands of high speed long arm quilting machines.  The color saturation, luster of the thread, and its softness remind me of cotton embroidery floss, and I think it's this thread's softness that I like most of all, because of how it bends in and out of the quilt sandwich to form stitches that look more like a dashed line of tiny, perfect hand stitches than like machine quilting.  I mean, this is definitely machine quilting, but I kept doing double-takes and imagining that I was seeing hand quilting stitches coming out of my long arm.  

If you have a long arm and you want to give Aurifil Forty3 a try, you may have difficulty finding it locally but the Fat Quarter Shop stocks it here (this post contains affiliate links).  Just a word of warning: this thread kicked out more lint than any other thread I've quilted with, and I had to stop and clean the hook race and bobbin case out midway through every single bobbin in addition to cleaning thoroughly with every bobbin change.    For me personally, I am willing to deal with lint when the tradeoff is gorgeous stitches that make the quilting sing.

Nanette's Globetrotting Quilt, 62 x 62

But I am getting ahead of myself!  Back to Nanette's quilt!  This 62" x 62" beauty is a BOM (Block of the Month) design by Pat Sloan called Globetrotting, and as of this writing in 2023, the pattern is still available on Pat's website for FREE here.  Nanette started this quilt in March of 2014 and finished her quilt top in September of that year, and you can read about the changes she made to the pattern and how she used EQ7 software to preview her fabric choices on her blog in this post.   Shortly after completing this quilt top, which she'd originally planned to quilt herself, life threw Nanette and her husband some nasty curve balls that sapped a lot of her creative energy for big endeavors and she found more solace in piecing and appliqué than in quilting and finishing for the next few years.  This resulted in the accumulation of a LOT of gorgeous quilt tops needing quilting, more than Nanette felt like she could handle, so she shipped twelve of them to lucky me for long arming. 💕

Lucky Stars and Oriana for Ramona: Behind the Scenes with Backing, Design Choice, and Thread Selection

Good morning, my lovelies!  I have missed you!  These past few weeks have been busy for me with travel, family celebrations, and moving Son-the-Elder into his off-campus apartment at Appalachian State, and as a result I have quite a backlog of quilts to share with you.  Today we're looking at two gloriously colorful quilts, both made by my client Ramona who blogs at Doodlebugs and Rosebuds Quilts.  

Ramona's Lucky Stars Quilt

Detail of Lucky Stars with Grecian E2E

First up is Lucky Stars, a pattern by Atkinson design that you can find here on Etsy (this post contains affiliate links).  Lucky Stars is a fat-quarter-friendly pattern that is perfect for showing off Ramona's collection of Kaffe Fassett prints and batiks.  I love how the sawtooth star blocks are designed so the stars float just within the background fabric -- no risk of losing your star points if your piecing is less than perfect, which makes this a great pattern for beginners, too.  I am adding this to my own ever-lengthening list of wanna-make-its!  Wouldn't this be great as a baby quilt? 

Ramona's 76 x 91 Lucky Stars Quilt with Grecian E2E

This quilt was unusual for me in that, after some initial back-and-forth with design options, Ramona ultimately left the choice of the quilting design completely up to me and she had no idea how I was quilting her Lucky Stars until it was finished.  Ordinarily I consult with clients and make design recommendations, but get their approval on the final selection.  

Fancy Peacock Tail Feathers on The Road Home BOM for Mildred: Making a Subtle Impact With a "Busy" Quilting Design

Peacock Tail E2E Stitched in 40 wt Glide Thread, Color Warm Grey 4

 "I love that design, but will it look too busy on my quilt?"  That's a question I often hear from my longarm quilting clients, especially when we're considering a newer design and I don't yet have photos of what it looks like stitched out.  Just looking at line drawings of quilting designs, they ALL look really busy because of the high contrast of the solid black stitching line against a white background.  However, in real life it's almost always the relationship between the fabrics in your quilt top and the thread color we choose that will determine how subtle or dramatic the quilting appears on your finished quilt.  This beautiful batik quilt (It's The Road Home BOM from Wilmington Prints) that I finished recently for my client Mildred, pictured above, is a really good example of this. 

Peacock Tail E2E for Subtle Texture

On Mildred's Road Home, I've quilted out Peacock Tail E2E, one of those designs that looks like it might be "too much going on" when you look at the line drawing:

Line Drawing for Peacock Tail E2E Quilting Design by Nancy Haacke

A couple things to note about this design.  First, it's a very large scale design, and the image above is showing six repeats nested together.  You're not looking at the design anywhere near the size I'd actually stitch it out, either -- the purpose of this drawing is to give an overall view of how the design will repeat and "flow" across the surface of the quilt.  I love the sense of movement this design creates and I love how the rows nest together so well -- you don't look at the finished quilt and see "rows" of quilting at all.

For Mildred's quilt, we wanted the dramatic movement and fabulous texture, but didn't want the quilting lines themselves to jump out and compete with the elaborate medallion patchwork design.  With that objective in mind, I chose Warm Grey 4 Glide thread (this post contains affiliate links) because it blends into her blue and gray tonal batik fabrics so well.  You just see fabulous swirling movement that leads your eye through the patchwork design and brings it to life.  

Megan's Vintage Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons + Curly Weave E2E Equals Magic!

 I don't normally post a client's post before they get it back from me, but my client Megan was so excited by the "teaser photos" I emailed her of her finished quilt that she gave me permission to post them right away.  If she loves this quilt now, I can't wait until she sees it in person because it is just unbelievably soft and cuddly and even more gorgeous in person than it looks in the photos!

Megan pieced this striking quilt using vintage Kaffe Fassett shot cotton stripes (affiliate link -- you can still find these on Etsy!) that she's had in her stash for awhile, and when I saw the pictures of her quilt top I was instantly smitten by the way her unexpected cool turquoise sashing and binding fabric contrasted with the mostly warm, autumnal tones of her striped fabrics. So much energy and life in this pairing, don't you agree?

68 x 78 Shot Cotton Swatches Quilt with Curly Weave E2E Quilting

I was delighted when Megan decided to go bold with her choice of quilting design, playing up the modern vibes instead of going with something "safe."  

My Pineapple Log Cabin Is Quilted, and I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

Oh my gosh, you guys -- I am so, SO pleased with how the quilting turned out on my longtime UFO pineapple log cabin quilt!!!  😍😍😍

Pineapple Log Cabin Quilt with Moulin Rouge E2E

Pineapple Log Cabin FAQs:

• Quilt top measured 120" x 120" before quilting
• Blocks finished at 17 3/4"
• Log cabin strips finished at 3/4" and there are 97 fabric pieces in each block, 3492 in the entire quilt, plus borders
• Quilter's Dream Wool batting
• Glide 40 wt thread in Color 97494 Sea Foam (needle) & Glide 60 wt thread in Light Tan (bobbin)
• Quilting design is Moulin Rouge E2E from Urban Elementz, sized at 8.5"

I was so relieved when I got to the bottom of this quilt without having to piece any extra batting on the sides!  The widest batting comes is a stated width of 120", and packaged batting usually gives you a few inches more than what it says on the package in the length, but the width of a roll is the width of a roll.  Whew!  Normally, I make sure to have at least 4-6" of extra backing AND batting on all four sides of a quilt.

Glide Thread in Sea Foam, Moulin Rouge E2E Quilting Design

Talk about playing "batting chicken!"  So, let's talk about this Sea Foam thread color!  My first instinct for this quilt was a more traditional off-white or ivory thread color, but I wanted to keep the focus on my piecing design and on my fabrics.  

Studio Tour: Let There Be Light! And Also, Thread! Upgrades From My Sweetie

You guys, I am SO EXCITED about the wire cable track lighting that my husband installed above my new Bernina long arm last night!  I LOVE IT! 💕💕💕

Wire Cable Track Lighting Installed Above My New Q24

The Bernina Q24 has plenty of bright LED lighting along the throat of the machine head itself, but I wanted the entire length of the frame lit up from one side to the other so I can inspect each section of a quilt as I'm advancing it on the frame.  Bright task lighting enables me to find and remove any pet fur or stray threads before they get quilted in, and makes it easier to notice things like open seams that my hopping foot could catch in if I didn't see them ahead of time.

Bright Lighting Helps Me Spot Problems Like This Open Seam

That photo above with an open seam was my own kaleidoscope quilt, by the way -- I am not a perfect piecer, either!  (When I see something like that as I'm quilting, I like to mark it with a hand stitched tailor tack in contrasting thread so it's easier to find it later when I want to hand stitch that spot closed).

Featherlicious Quilting on a Hunter Star Quilt + Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Wool Batting

This beautiful Hunter Star quilt is fresh off my frame, ready to be shipped back to my client Jo, and I am so pleased with how it turned out.  Jo pieced this quilt as a gift for her sister, using fabrics from Moda's Daybreak collection by Three Sisters.  

Abundant Feathers E2E on Jo's Hunter Star Quilt with Wool Batting

When Jo first reached out to me about this project, she had seen the Graffiti #7 E2E on my Color Outside the Lines quilt and thought she might like something similar.  I suggested Abundant Feathers instead because it has a similar sweeping movement, curved lines, and dramatic impact of the Graffiti design, but with a more traditional style that better complements the soft colors and traditional fabric prints in Jo's quilt.  

I know everyone loves seeing "Before & After" photos.  

I Have a New Favorite Thread Color! Meet My New BFF, Glide Khaki

I recently had the opportunity to quilt an edge-to-edge design on a client's gloriously scrappy double four patch quilt.  My client's quilting hobby had been "dormant" for the past sixteen years, until her adult son asked her to make this quilt for him.  The most exciting thing about all of this for ME is that her fabrics are ones that I had never seen before, different from what's been available in quilt shops throughout my own quilting journey, but also different from the much older fabrics I encounter when repairing vintage and antique quilts.  However, the wide range of colors and the busy nature of the quilt top necessitated a careful thread selection.  It was Glide thread in Khaki for the win!

Don't You Love That Green/Purple/Turquoise Batik?  And the Orange/Red with Turquoise Spots?!

The thread I chose, Glide in color Khaki, is a warm beige neutral with just the barest hint of green-gold.  Glide has a bit of a sheen to it, so Khaki mimics a metallic thread against the deep navy blues and blacks, but is much less flashy (and less finicky!) than a true metallic thread.

Channeling Aristotle: Using Ancient Design Principles for Better E2E Quilting

Good morning, Lovelies, and Happy Tuesday!  

I often see quilters -- even seasoned professional longarm quilters with years of experience -- crowd-sourcing ideas for quilting designs on social media and in online forums.  You know, "how should I quilt this," "which thread would you choose," and "which panto design would look good on this quilt?"  If the quilter has a computerized machine, there are additional questions about what size to scale a particular design for quilting as well.  My interior design background kicks in whenever I'm faced with these kinds of choices, so I thought I'd take a moment today to explain how the principles of color, pattern, line, and scale influenced the way I quilted this Disappearing 9-Patch baby quilt.  

39 x 53 Disappearing 9-Patch Baby Quilt

Choosing a Quilting Design: Always Start with Function

When meeting with a new interior design client, the first questions I'd ask were always about their functional needs for the space.  How many people live here?  What are their ages?  Do you have young children or pets?  Do you entertain frequently, and how often do you think you'll redecorate?  The answers to these questions influence every recommendation I will be making to ensure that the finished project not only looks amazing, but is also going to work for their lifestyle and hide pet fur if they have pets, with stain resistance/washability if someone sits on a juicebox that the toddler left in the couch cushions, etc.  I look at a client's quilt top the exact same way, so my first consideration is always the quilt's intended function.  

Why Does Rebecca Need SO MUCH THREAD? And Will It Go Bad Before She Uses It Up?

So here's how the "Firemen Heroes" charity quilt turned out the other day:

"Firemen Heroes" Pediatric Hospital Outreach Quilt

I quilted this donated top using Jessica Schick's Fantasy Flames digital pantograph, scaled to a pattern density of .92, with Glide thread top and bottom in color Lemon Ice.

Top Prior to Quilting

I always like to compare photos of what a quilt top looks like before and after quilting, don't you? With this quilt in particular, simply pieced from large rectangles, I wanted to choose a quilting pattern with curved lines to soften the "brick" effect of the piecing lines and add some movement and interest, but it needed to complement and not overpower the "Firemen Heroes" themed fabric.  

Fantasy Flames E2E Design from Urban Elementz

Had I been using the printed paper pantograph version of this design, the row height would have been 10".  I enlarged that by about 10% for this quilt, both to complement the scale of the piecing and because the batting my guild provides for these charity quilts is kind of on the stiff side, and the intended use of the quilt is to be snuggly and cuddly and comforting for a hospitalized child.  Generally speaking, the more densely you quilt something, the stiffer it gets, whereas more open quilting patterns with more space between the stitching lines will result in a softer, more malleable finished quilt.

Thread Color is Glide Lemon Ice, a Pale Yellow Pastel 

I know some would have chosen a neutral gray thread for this quilt, which would have looked great on the majority of the fabrics, but when I auditioned gray thread on this quilt top it looked dirty to me against the yellow fabric patches.  

Any time I am quilting across a fabric with text, I don't want the quilting stitches to look like scribbles obscuring the words.  In this case, that pale barely-yellow thread just sinks in and disappears.  I can't really visualize what a particular thread color will look like on a quilt just by looking at it on the cone.  I have to unspool a length of each thread I'm considering and lay it across all of the different colors in the quilt top to see which color works best overall, and I can only do that if I have a variety of thread colors on hand to choose from.  Those color swatch cards from the thread manufacturers are helpful for matching similar colors from different thread lines, but I can't use them to pick the best color for a particular quilt.

Speaking of thread...

A Portion of My Long Arm Thread Stash: Glide, So Fine, YLI, Bottom Line, King Tut...

What's the Shelf Life of Today's Quilting Threads?

Several of you commented on my last post with concerns about thread "going bad" faster than we can use it up in our projects.  I found an informative article about that topic here that you might want to check out.  If you don't have time to go read the whole thing, here are the main takeaways:

• No, you probably don't want to sew or quilt with the vintage thread you found at a yard sale or that you inherited from Grandma's sewing basket, because it's likely to have deteriorated significantly and lost most of its strength
• The material the spool or cone is made from affects the thread's longevity, too -- those beautiful vintage wooden or styrofoam spools actually sped up the deterioration of the thread due to chemical reactions between the spool material and the thread fibers
• You can prolong the useful life of any thread by storing it away from sunlight, protected from dust, and at a moderate humidity level (neither too dry nor too humid).
• Not sure whether that older spool of thread is still good to use?  Give it Deborah's snap test

BUT --

• Cotton agriculture and thread manufacturing have seen major advances over the past few decades, such that thread manufactured today is expected to have a much longer useful lifespan than the thread manufactured just 20 years ago
• Synthetic fiber threads such as polyester have a much longer lifespan than natural fibers such as cotton, and they are much less susceptible to deterioration from storage conditions than natural fiber threads.  (This is why heavy duty synthetic threads are used for outdoor sewing applications such as cushions for the deck chairs, awnings, etc.)
• The estimated usable lifespan of high quality cotton threads manufactured today that are properly stored (away from light, dust, and extreme temperature/humidity) is about 50 YEARS!  Wow!  That is WAY longer than I would have guessed, but I found that same statistic from every source I consulted, including from Superior Threads here.  The polyester threads that I run in my long arm machine such as Glide, So Fine, and Bottom Line, are predicted to last even longer than cotton threads.  

So I think it's safe to say that my thread stash is going to outlive me!  This little 40" x 45" charity quilt, with a fairly open quilting design, still ate up over 140 yards of thread (my IntelliQuilter computer calculates that for me when I set up the pantograph pattern).  A densely quilted Queen or King size quilt can eat up 2,000 yards of thread or more, and an heirloom/show quilt with dense microfills can take vastly more thread than that.  Since my favorite long arm quilting threads are not available to me locally and are often backordered, I prefer to have a wide variety of thread types and colors on hand so I can always select the perfect thread weight, fiber, color and sheen for every quilt that comes my way.

Also, thread is yummy like candy but without the calories.  ;-)

PSST!!  I'd Love to Quilt for YOU!

By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you!  My turnaround for edge-to-edge quilting is currently running about 2 weeks, and you can click here to find out how to book your quilt with me.

I'm linking up today's post with the following linky parties:

WEDNESDAY

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at The Inquiring Quilter

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

Free Motion Mavericks with Muv and Andree

More Squirrels: Multiple New Christmas Quilts, the Quilt to Perpetuate the Patriarchy, and Not Nearly Enough Thread

 Ah, if only the Squirrel of Distraction didn't bring along so many friends...

So the last time I checked in here, I was telling you how I got this "squirrel" of an idea to drop all ongoing projects to make a festive Christmasy tumbler quilt.  But then I bought a bit more Christmas fabric than was absolutely necessary...  So I cut out all of the tumblers I'd need:

6 inch Tumblers Cut Out and Ready to Sew

But then, instead of folding the leftover fabric and storing it away for another day, I grabbed my rotary cutter and ruler and cut lots and lots and LOTS of 5" squares.  I was talking on the phone through my Airpods while I was doing this, not keeping count, and I kind of got carried away.  

So one "quick and easy" detour to make a Christmas throw quilt has segued into something that looks more like a 5-point intersection without any street signs.  I had this idea that I was going to make a Disappearing 9-Patch quilt from my 5" squares.  These are the first two blocks:

Disappearing 9-Patch Blocks

Y'all, the blocks are cute, but this is NOT the way I usually roll.  I was good with cutting out my perfect 5" squares and sewing them together into perfect 9-patch blocks, but when I got to the part in the directions where it says to just chop the block in half down the middle, I wished I'd just cut out little squares and rectangles in the beginning instead of following the directions!  I think this method is better suited to someone with a different personality than mine.  :-). But it's fine, and I'll keep making enough blocks until it's big enough for a throw, or for a bed.  Maybe all red, or maybe I'll use some solid green, too, to set off the red Christmas prints in my stash?

Even so, like I said, I cut way too many 5" squares for just one quilt.  What can I do with the rest of them?  Let me know in the comments if you have a favorite pattern for 5" charm squares!

Meanwhile, I've been shopping and wrapping and shipping like a crazy person...  Or like a MOM in the final weeks before Christmas.  The digital pattern companies have been running sales on their quilting patterns, so I've been building and curating a nice selection of designs for R2D2 (my computerized long arm machine).  I'm looking forward to quilting these new designs as we move into a new year!  

The Charity Quilt to Perpetuate the Patriarchy, According to My Snarky Son

I'm about to get a charity top loaded onto my long arm frame, one which my snarky teenaged son is calling the Quilt to Perpetuate the Patriarchy because it has a fabric that says "FireMEN" instead of "Firefighters."  I didn't even notice that before he pointed it out!  He's only teasing me, but secretly I am glad that he is aware that women can also be firefighters, that little girls might also like to be fire-fighting heroes when they grow up, and that gender-specific job titles can make some people feel like they "don't belong."  But most of these charity tops I get from our guild are made of older fabrics that have been donated to us as part of an inherited stash.  The "firemen" fabric might even be older than my 17-year-old son.  I'm curious whether the fabric companies are more sensitive to this nowadays -- has anyone noticed?

Anyway, regardless of the political correctness of the fabric, this Firemen quilt top is about to get quilted with Jessica Schick's Fantasy Flame E2E design:

Pantograph Laid Out and Ready to Sew

[Side note: How do you like those magnetic Wonder Woman bracelets that my R2D2 is wearing? I stumbled across them on Amazon while I was gift shopping.  They have Velcro closures and 10-15 super strong magnets sewn into the tough mesh fabric, strong enough to hold nails, screws, a wrench or a screwdriver on your wrist to keep them handy.  I am using them to hold my thread snips, my IQ stylus, maybe a couple of pins, and even my bobbin case so I don't misplace it while I'm brushing out lint and oiling my hook.  The magnets are strong enough that there's no risk of the scissors falling off while the machine is stitching.  If you have anyone on your gift list this holiday season who works on cars, fixes computers, etc., this might be a big hit. You can find it on Amazon here].

Although I purchased these magnetic wristbands with the idea of using them on the handles of my long arm machine, I'm finding that I like them even better wrapped around the end of my 2" diameter quilt top roller bar, just off to the side of the quilt I'm working on.  I only wish I could find one in a pretty purple or hot pink!

My Newest Favorite Long Arm Accessory: Magnetic Tool Wristband

Do you have any favorite items in your sewing room that were designed for some other use?  Let me know in the comments!

Back to the project at hand!  So this is how I set up the Fantasy Flames pantograph for this 40" x 45" quilt top.  Since my quilting design is non-directional, I'll be loading the top sideways for greater efficiency.  The green rectangle on my IQ tablet screen represents the full size of my quilt top with an additional 1" buffer on all four sides, just to be on the safe side.  I altered the pattern's row height to get a quilting pattern density (the average length of stitching lines within  one-square-inch) of .92", with a pattern height of just under 13 1/2".  On my APQS Millennium, that should be a good size to maximize the "real estate" of my machine's throat space without running into problems.

Fantasy Flames Pantograph Resized and Mapped Out

I've deliberately adjusted the gap between the pantograph rows to disguise where one row ends and the next row begins, and it's hard to tell from this screen, by my little robot assistant will be able to quilt this out in four passes, stopping between rows for me to clip threads, advance the quilt on the frame, baste the edges of the quilt, and then realign (re-orienting the computer to know where it is on my quilt that I just moved before asking the computer to start stitching again).

After auditioning a few different thread options on the quilt top, I decided on a pale yellow Glide thread called Lemon Ice.  And, by the way, that's another thing I've been up to since the last time I blogged.  I inventoried and reorganized my long arm quilting thread by color instead of by brand/type so I could see where I had "holes" in my rainbow of options, and then I placed thread orders.  Clearly, I just did not have enough thread:

This is What Not Enough Thread Looks Like

Okay, so I picked the Lemon Ice Glide thread for my Firemen quilt and I don't have any similarly colored prewound bobbins in stock, so I wound a couple of bobbins the old fashioned way and threaded up my machine...  But then I got interrupted because my Bernina dealer called and my Main Squeeze 750QE was finally ready to be picked up after waiting her turn for her bi-annual Spa Maintenance for over a month! I'm glad I left her to be serviced despite the pandemic-related backlog, because she had a broken foot, something not right with the bottom cover, and needed some kind of an upgraded grounding cable or whatever.  The broken foot at the bottom of the machine -- who knows how that happened or how long it's been that way -- but it might have been behind my problem with the embroidery module disconnecting from the machine while it was stitching.  Anyway, now that my Big 'Nina is back home and ready to sew, I gave them my Goldilocks 475QE travel/backup machine that hasn't been in for service since I purchased it in February 2019.  Gotta take good care of my machines if I want them to keep perform flawlessly.  Now is a good time to service the little machine, too, because I'm not taking her to classes or traveling with her during this blankety-blank pandemic.

Alright; that's all you're getting from me for tonight!  More Christmas packages showed up on my doorstep that need to be wrapped for snarky boys who have strong opinions about quilting fabric!

PSST!!  I'd Love to Quilt for YOU!

By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you!  My turnaround for edge-to-edge quilting is currently running about 2 weeks, and you can click here to find out how to book your quilt with me.

I'm linking up today's post with the following linky parties:

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation  

FRIDAY

Finished Or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie Sayre

SATURDAY

UFO Busting at Tish in Wonderland

SUNDAY

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

Goodbye, October 2020! Baby Quilt Update (and Happy Halloween)

 Well, October is officially a wrap.  The trick-or-treaters have gone home and my husband, younger son, and I have set ourselves to the task of finishing off the leftover candy.  I've powered off my long arm machine for the night, even though I'm only 2/5 of the way through quilting the baby quilt that was supposed to be Part Two of my One Monthly Goal for October.  Here's what Charlie's quilt looks like so far:

My Letter Home Monogram Baby Quilt is 2/5 Quilted

I loaded this quilt on my frame upside-down, so I'm actually quilting it from the bottom up.  There are five rows of 8" blocks in this quilt and the first row took me awhile because I only had a fuzzy idea about how I was going to quilt this one.  I wanted to keep the quilting fairly light and open, similar to the density of the pantograph design I quilted on my October OMG Part One quilt (below), but this baby brother quilt is getting SID, light ruler work, and a little bit of free motion rather than E2E pantograph quilting.  

Big Sister's Quilt, Aiming for Similar Quilting Density in Baby Brother's Quilt

I don't normally quilt such a large scale meander freehand, though, so keeping the size of that pattern big and somewhat uniform is challenging, and I'm also reminding myself that LARGE quilt blocks with LONG ruler lines to quilt are a lot harder than quilting the exact same designs on smaller blocks.  So my "quick and easy" quilting plan has evolved to require a bit of marking, which is helping to keep lines straighter and more evenly spaced.

Doubting Design Choices After the First Row

One thing that slowed me down was that, since we took the machine head off the frame to install the interchangeable hopping foot upgrade, my horizontal channel lock hadn't been holding as securely as it had previously.  I use my horizontal and vertical channel locks to keep my seams straight and square as I'm quilting, and this was bugging me, so there was an interruption of troubleshooting that yesterday with Bernie and the folks at APQS Tech Support (One little washer was all it took to snug that wheel back up to the carriage and correct the problem).  But, while I had Bernie and Anders available, I had them lower my frame about 3 1/2" so I could quilt from the front of the machine more comfortably.  I'd been wearing high heel platform sandals the day before, since we'd raised my frame a few inches for quilting pantographs from the back side of the machine.  We also moved my laser light from the back of the machine to the front, where it will be more useful to me once my IntelliQuilter gets installed.  But I digress.  Back to the quilt at hand:

40 wt Fantastico in #5007 Wales (Lime, Bright Green, Turquoise, Green Variegated)

I selected a cone of Superior Thread's Fantastico variegated 40 weight trilobal polyester thread in shades of Lime, Bright Green, Turquoise and Green, which I auditioned against the Kona Bone background as well as on the Indigo and the green fabrics.  I wanted to use one thread color throughout to "keep it simple," but knew that a white or off-white background thread might look really harsh against the dark blue.  I was excited about the variegated thread until I started quilting with it, and then I second-guessed myself midway through the first row.  

Superior's Fantastico Thread in #5007 Wales

I was tempted to start ripping out all the quilting I'd done so far, because I felt like the quilting was just screaming at me instead of playing a supportive role to the piecing design...  But the next day, when I came back to it, I reminded myself of my self-imposed deadline and how I wanted most of all to have this finished, so I soldiered on.  And, you know what?  I'm glad I kept going rather than reaching for my seam ripper, because the more I got quilted, the more the thread began to grow on me.

By the End of the Second Row, My Thread Felt Like the Right Choice

This is a good reminder to TAKE A STEP BACK before making rash decisions involving seam rippers!  With my face 8" away from the quilt surface, the green pastel threads seemed like they were too loud and fighting with the quilt, but from a distance it's much more subtle.  If I'd ripped out all the variegated thread and switched to yellow, green, navy and white, not only would I have slowed myself down considerably, but the quilting designs would have disappeared into the fabrics more -- and I might have been disappointed that I couldn't see my quilting designs well enough!  Knowing how the quilt will soften and smoosh and crinkle once it's finished and washed for the first time, I think this thread will be just fine.

So now my only question is whether those giant green 8" HSTs have enough quilting in them.  I mean, I know they have enough quilting to meet the requirements of the batting.  I kind of like the way they look right now, but maybe I'll come back and add something when everything else is finished.

Speaking of finished, I did finish the big sister's quilt, which you can read about here.  Here's a glimpse of how that one turned out, freshly washed and ready for gifting:

October OMG Part One Was Finished On Time!

That's it for me for tonight.  I'm going to eat too many Twix bars with my husband and son while we watch Saturday Night Live.  I just realized that this is probably the last Halloween that I'll have a kid at home with us, since Anders is a high school senior this year.  They don't come home from college for Halloween, so this will be an Empty Nester Holiday for us from now on.  So strange to think about that!  Okay, I lied.  I'm leaving you with one more picture, from my favorite Halloween in 2006 when the boys were 3 and 5 years old:

Halloween 2006: Anders is Batman, Bernie is Aquaman, and Lars is Spiderman

Anders is in the Batman costume on the left, Lars is Spiderman on the right, and my wonderful, amazing husband is wearing what is supposed to be an Aquaman costume.  I did not have an Aquaman pattern, so I made this costume from a Jalie men's figure skating costume pattern, out of green stretch velvet for the figure skating pants (more revealing in real life than they appear on TV during the Olympics) and an orange sequined lycra figure skating top, because the sequins were the closest thing I could come up with at JoAnn fabrics that looked like scales.  Bless his heart; he got more than a few catcalls from the neighbor ladies as he was out trick-or-treating with the kids, but my sons were SO HAPPY to be their own little Justice League with Daddy!

Happy Halloween, everyone!  I'm linking today's post with:

SATURDAY

·       UFO Busting at Tish in Wonderland

One Monthly Goal at  Elm Street Quilts

SUNDAY

·       Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué

·       Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework

·       Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts

MONDAY

·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts  

·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt