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Bottom Line for Quilting


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I know this has been discussed...and I am so sorry to bring it up again.

I am working on a quilt that is a potential show quilt. I posted a picture of it before MQS and talked with Claudia while she was here about it (how fortunate was that! - Thank you Claudia!). I have so many ideas about the quilting, but I am wondering about the thread. I know I don't want it to show. The background is a lavender marble. There are about 8 stars, all different colors. I will be using Sew Fine on the stars. My question is, should I use Sew Fine, white, on the background, or should I go finer and use Bottom Line....or neither?

I think I have just went into panic mode and I am thinking too hard :o

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I always use SewFine for the main quilting motifs, then I use Bottom Line for all background fill work. For SID I either use Bottom Line or invisible thread. If my background was lavender, then I would use a lavender Bottom Line that matched as closely as possible. Good luck!

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Mary Beth, I think you could do either So Fine or Bottom Line; both will show and both will be OK--- it all depends on how refined you want your thread to look. In Marilyn's quilting, she had done this really cool looking curved crosshatch (tiny tiny tiny) and she used BL gold thread. It was incredibly gorgeous the quilting design -- the space she created with the quilting. If she had used a thicker thread it would have looked wierd (not to scale). BL was the perfect thread for what she was doing in the tiny curved crosshatch.

Why don't you try practicing with both threads; compared next to each other to see what look you want before doing the real thing.

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Mary Beth,

That is a beautiful quilt. What book is it? I would like to do one but with less stars and more open space. Like Shana said I'd do a sample to try it out to see what kind of look I'm looking for. If you want thread to just blend in and the color matches it won't matter if you use SoFine or bottomLine. If you want the design to just give a suttle color of thread then BottomLine. I can't wait to see your finished quilt.

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Heidi,

The pattern is from the book, "Great American Quilts - Book three" by Leisure Arts. This quilt is on the cover of the book as well. It is beautiful and all hand pieced. When my customer called I told her I thought that she didn't like my quilting and was not coming back. She laughed and said that when you hand piece it takes a while. It took her 1 year to piece this quilt. The article about this quilt in the book states that the desiner work several hours a day for 3 years to complete this design. It has 2560 pieces! It is beautiful. I have been dragging my feet on some of the custom jobs I have in here lately...but not this one. I am energized evertime I add another stitch. I can't wait to see how this one turns out!

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With my new found Love Hate passion for a softer look, I am LOVING the Bottom Line!!! For me it seems to be all or nothing. I want it to jump out and bite you with thick colourful cottons or I want it to sink in and be gone, I find the So Fine is somewhere in the middle of that so if it was me I would use the Bottom Line it's great to work with at all speeds and sinks right in to create perfect texture with out distraction... Post some pics so those of us who didn't get to see it can have a little eye candy to get us through the day.:D

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Mary Beth,

Thanks for the sneak peak! It is gorgeous. Yes hand piecing does take a long time. I used to hand piece exclusively and then got a full-time job! No more time to dedicate to that. I need to make some time though because I have a Little Brown Bird, my version, that I started almost 4 years ago and it needs to get done. I've did the blocks in the center of a feathered star and only did 6 blocks. One of the blocks has 96 pieces in a 9" square! I call it my fingernail quilt because some of the pieces are as small as my pinky! I need to get it done! I really want to get to the quilting! I'm going to pull it out and start working on it this winter and just set a schedule...I do better with a schedule!

I think I have a lot of blue and rose lonestars that I started piecing 10 years ago and never put together. Now that I see the close-ups I think it would be easy to make my own version of it. It will have to go on the someday list! LOL I have 9 years 2 months and 25 days before I retire from my day job but whose counting?

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Hey MB. I remember seeing this quilt at your house. Gorgeous quilt. Personally, I would go with the bottom line on top and bottom. I use that a lot on quilts where customers want the texture without seeing a lot of thread.

Hopefully you'll have it done by next weekend so I can see in person!!

Debbi

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Next questions...

1. Would you use Bottom Line in the stars too...because I would need to use a lot of different colors and I don't have them, so I would need to purchase them.

2. What would you quilt in the star area? I have a couple of ideas and want to see if you all are on the same wave lenght (worry if you are) :D

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Mary Beth,

My personal opininon is that I would just SID those stars and let them speak for themselves. I would match the thread to the color of the star. You could do continous curves too that gives movement but if you going to really quilt the background area I don't think you want that much in the star itself. You could of course do something in each diamond and radiate out to the points. Have you searched webshots for lonestars to get ideas?

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