What do you do with all those little
bits of thread that you clip off your quilts? Throw them out? Never!
I keep a little thread bin beside my
sewing machine and when I clip the thread from my quilts, or pull the
tail ends of threads out of my machine when I am changing thread
colours, I drop the pieces into the little bin and they accumulate
until I have enough for a new thread waste project.
One of my favourite uses for thread
waste is to create a beautiful textured new fabric that I then use in
my art quilts or greeting cards. This card
is one that is currently
in my Etsy shop and it was made with thread waste that was drizzled
over a piece of felt, then sprinkled with a bit of glitter and
Angelina fibre before being topped with a piece of organza. I then
free motion quilted a design all over it before cutting it to size to
insert into this Strathmore Photo Frame card (my favourite for really
nice quality cardstock cards).
If you are a long arm quilter, you will
have even more thread waste and the ends of thread can accumulate
beautifully in colour-coordinated collections. I even add snippets of
embroidery thread and silk fibres that unravel from the silk fabric I
use in many of my projects. Don't feel that you have to
colour-coordinate your thread ... as you will see in this example, I have
all colours mixed together and can tie it into a cohesive look by
using a particularly striking colour of thread for my free motion
stitching.
I hope you will have fun thinking of
uses for your thread waste ... and link back up if you have pictures
you can share with us.
This blog post was written by Kathy
Kinsella, a member of the Quiltsy Team who is a fibre artist from
Canada. (kathykinsella.etsy.com)
2 comments:
Love this. I have a habit of throwing my thread out. Now I will have to keep it. I will need a bigger bin though!
When I'm hand dying, I purposely cut some smaller scraps to run through the washer & dryer to make more thread waste. Linen in the best! Very thick and full of texture. Love this stuff!
Post a Comment