Quilt eats thread

[Ferret]

I started quilting a kingsize quilt last night with all over feathers. It's going well and pretty quickly, I think the whole thing will take about 6 hours. However it is eating thread. I had a new cone of a Signature varigated and I knew that would be enough. After about an hour I had to order more. 3 more cones in fact. I am using it top and bottom, I like varigated on the back and I can live with the occasional contrasts, but is it normal for a quilt to eat this much thread? I've done several kingsize quilts and none came close to using this amount of thread. I didn't even think the quilting looked that dense. Annoyingly I will have to take the quilt off the frame when I run out of thread today and then remount it in a week when more arrives. I will never look at t a full cone with the same safe feeling again.

Ferret

[ramona-quilter]

Ferret,

I have never used a whole cone on a single quilt. Signature thread is 3000 yards of thread. The quilt must weigh a ton with all that cotton thread on it. :P Or are you using 500 yd spools?

[Ferret]

it is the 3000, looks like it will do just over a third of the quilt so i will only need three cones. Still rather scary. It would really add to the bill if it was a customers quilt.

Ferret

[Lisa Thiesssen]

I find that I'll go through Signature pretty fast - Countess, too. I think it's because of the weight of the thread. The Aurofil and Silco I use are lighter weight and seem to go much farther. The first two can drive me nuts because I find I'm winding bobbins all the time.

Also, feathers take up more thread than you think they will - all that backtracking! The smaller the feathers, the more thread.

I did a very heavily quilted art quilt lately ( 36 X 40" ) that used 1000 M of thread of just one colour, just in the background. It felt like I was constantly changing bobbins!

[quiltissimo]

I guess it's the feathers that must be fed on thread to look beautiful

I made a baby quilt last week, whole cloth quilted with large freehand feathers, and I also was amazed at the amount of thread it took!

My favourite thread is Isacord from Amann, also known as Polysheen/Mettler. It's lightweight, gives a very nice stitch and quilts for miles and miles... and I can get a good amount of thread on the bobbin, so I'm not changing bobbins constantly!

[Ferret]

Thats good to know. I didn't think this quilting was especially dense and I've certainly done things I thought were denser with a lot less thread. I guess it is a feather thing. Oh well something else to bear in mind when setting prices I suppose as I normally include thread in my flat charge.

Ferret

[Ferret]

I forgot to say, the coone sems to have been tighter wound that it looked. When it looked half empty it was actually 3/4 full! I have noticed that cones with the same amount on can be different sizes new and I think it must be slightly different windings. The associated good news is that I think 2 cones will finishe the quilt.

So I have taken it off the frame to await the thread, I've put up the in progress pictures.

Ferret

[Patch]

Yup, that's a lot of thread there. Oh my gush, Ferret, but that's gorgeous! I love the contrasts and the colors. Did you design those feathers? I love how they are flowing on the quilt. Must be hard to have to wait for the rest of the thread. Good luck finishing it.