16 Sunday Dec 2012
Posted in Sew journal
Is there a product that you wished existed? Something that you would find really useful. I have one. I wish that Aurifil would make sample boxes. Something similar to the Superior Threads donut but with a lid to keep out the dust. There is a lovely French made thread call Fil au Chinois that comes in tiny spools. See below. Wouldn’t it be neat if Aurifil did the same for a variety of colours of 50wt for appliquéing and 12wt for embellishing quilts?
Thanks to Lorena Uriate for the photo.
25 Thursday Oct 2012
Posted in Sew journal
Tags
Aurifil 12 wt, hand quilting, quilt, quilting, quilting blog, sewing, sewing blog, sewjournal blog, thread
As you know, I’m really keen on big stitch quilting and so I recently bought 26 large spools of this lovely Aurifil 12wt cotton thread. I bought as many of the variegated ones as I could afford. Aren’t they lovely?
I can’t wait to use them.
07 Sunday Oct 2012
Posted in Sew journal
Tags
Aurifil 12 wt, hand quilting, patchwork, quilt, quilting, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog, thread
I’ve taken progress photos and started to write progress posts but I never finished them. Anyway now I’m actually sewing on the binding so I thought I’d show you the border quilting before I do the big reveal when it’s finished.
The thread I used for the border is this variegated Aurifil 12 wt. It has a lovely sheen and I really enjoyed sewing with it. I bought it from my friend Kate of Kate Quilts who sells it at very reasonable prices. I think I might have to get some other colours.
14 Tuesday Feb 2012
Posted in Sew journal
Tags
design, fabric, hand quilting, machine quilting, quilt, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog, thread
I’ve been very busy recently. My copywriting business has suddenly become busy again – always good for the bank balance – and I’ve been ploughing on with the Kaffe knitting as well as designing a new quilt and putting it together. What’s more the postie’s been busy too.
Yesterday he brought the last part of my Hancock’s order – three lovely Kaffe threads, gorgeous colours, and a lovely Kaffe shirt stripe. Those threads look too lovely to use.
Then the postie came today with a Snoopy Postal Bag (I’ve never seen one of those before!), and inside were thousands of tiny quilt pins and this fantastic doodah for closing them.
Thank you Sylvia! My dear friend traipsed half of NY state looking for these for me and I’m very grateful.
Here’s a photo of my half completed new quilt design. I’m planning on machine quilting and then embellishing with Sulky Blendables large stitch hand quilting afterwards.
Mr Tiggy “helped” me lay it all out but in the end the room wasn’t big enough for both the quilt and Tiggy so one of them had to go! He wasn’t happy at being evicted from the sewing room as you can see.
14 Wednesday Dec 2011
Posted in Sew journal
Tags
Mettler 40wt machine quilting thead, Mettler Silk Finish, Mettler waxed hand quitling thread, quilting blog, sewing blog, sewjournal blog, thread
Quite a few people asked me about the Mettler threads that McCalls sent me that I mentioned in my last post so I thought I’d show them to you as well as the colour chart. The first picture is of the Silk Finish 100% cotton 50wt thread.
According to the back of the colour chart it does also come in 60wt which would be even nicer to use for appliqué. The specs sheet says that this thread is colour fast, has reduced shrinkage and is ironing resistant (not sure what the last bit means) and comes in heaps of beautiful colours. Take a look.
When I spoke about the other two samples they sent me I made a mistake. One was a waxed hand quilting thread but I had thought the other was a polyester thread for some reason but it’s not. It’s a 40wt 
machine quilting thread – 100% cotton. It’s the maroon coloured one in the photo below. I haven’t tried that one yet.
i hope this answers all the questions you had.
08 Thursday Dec 2011
Posted in Sew journal
My lovely friend Sylvia has been at it again! Sending me presents, and not just any presents, but ones that had a lot of thought put into them. Just take a look.
There are some of my favourite Ghiradelli dark chocolates with the mint centres. We shared some when we were together in June. There’s a fridge magnet of the stunning Pennsylvania Grand Canyon that we visited together.
Then there are four reels of Sulky Blendables. I really love using these threads and Sylvia must have read my blog where I was speaking about them and saying I wish I had more colours and so she bought me some. That’s is so kind of you Sylvia. Thank you so much!
But that’s not all! Some hand and body lotion called “Gypsy Woman” – do you think she’s trying to tell me something? LOL And some “Honey Bee” lip balm, a fat quarter of text fabric with the names of quilt blocks on it and, did you notice the fat quarter of the fabric I was using in my Lily Wall hanging and that I was looking for more of?
But that’s not all. She sent me a lovely black suede embroidered needle case that she made and a very soft deer skin coin purse. These last two need another photo. See below:
The needle case has my name embroidered on it and the coin purse has a US dollar coin in it.
Sylvia thank you so much for your generosity and thoughtfulness. (By the way I’ve already eaten one of the chocolates. I think it was in my house for all of 2 minutes before it was consumed.) Oh and there’s a parcel winging its way towards your neck the wood as we speak. 🙂
02 Thursday Jun 2011
Posted in Sew journal
Thank you for all your lovely comments. It’s so nice to know I’ve been missed and that you’re glad I’m back. I’m glad to be back too.
Well, no sewing retreat would be complete without a few quilt shop visits. On the Friday we visited My Place in Bowral. This lovely shop is closing down and had 50% off everything. Quite a lot of stuff had already gone but I managed to snag a few bargains. There was a lovely lilac solid that I bought 4 metres of, three painter’s canvas looking fabrics, two Kokka fabrics, two Kaffe Fassets, three sets of Piecemaker Milliner’s Needles, two unpickers (don’t ask!), and three Perle 8 threads. Not a bad haul.
Then on Saturday we were “forced” by those who had arrived on Friday evening to go back into Bowral so they could have a look.
This time one of my friends found the wool felt and at $2 a sheet I couldn’t resist. I’ve been looking for some nice coloured felt for a while but it was always fairly expensive and so I resisted.
As you can see I wasn’t the only one who helped the shop to close down.
08 Sunday May 2011
Posted in Sew journal
To say I am impressed with Julie’s Superior Threads customer service would be an understatement. I have amended my first post to indicate the response I got and published her first email to me in my second post. I just wanted to clarify a few things here and give praise where praise is due.
When I first wrote to Julie I didn’t ask for a refund or replacement I just asked her if she had had any other people mention the same problems I have had. I didn’t tell her about the blog post either. So her response to replace my donut even though 18 months had past was just genuine, old-fashioned customer service at its best! A desire to have happy customers. Well done Julie!
I wrote back to her saying it really didn’t seem fair that she should replace it since I had used most of them and one I had used up completely. Here is her reply;
Hi Munaiba,
I have not heard back from Bob at Superior to see if there had been any other people with the same problem as yours, but I am quite happy to replace your Donut as I have only ever had 1 reel of any thread need to be replaced and the Company has the greatest quality threads, and I want you to be happy and love the thread when you are using them. It doesn’t matter that the side comes off as they are wound and then the sides are put on. These bobbins are used in the bobbin case of your machines and the sides can be detached, depending on the type of machine you have to fit them in.
I will let you know what Bob has to say when I hear from him. I think that he is away teaching at the moment and he will have to get in touch with the office to go that far back in time.
I will send another Donut next week, and I ask that you send the one you have to me.
Then I hope you will find that the stitching will be so much more enjoyable.
Regards,
Julie
Isn’t that lovely! And thank you to all of you who commented on my original disappointed post. If you hadn’t told me what a great company Superior Threads is I would just have continued to assume that the thread I had was their usual standard. It’s obvious to me that this company must be doing something right. It has a great distributor, good quality thread and a very, very loyal customer base, judging by all of you.
06 Friday May 2011
Posted in Sew journal
This is a short post and it’s a whinge. I usually don’t say too much about things I don’t like, preferring on the whole, to just sing the praises of those I do. I’m making an exception. Last year I paid $60+ for a Superior Threads donut. It seemed like such a good idea and a way to get a variety of colours for use in appliqué. And it would be, if the quality of the thread lived up to the name. From the beginning I’ve had problems with these threads. They have so many slubs in them and I really don’t find them nice to work with. Last night I started appliquéing a ceremonial wall hanging and I cut off a piece of thread only to find yet another slub.
I was so fed up I took a photo to show you. Not only can you see the slub but you can easily see how “hairy” the thread is. Now it may just be that I got a bad batch but when you consider how little thread is on each bobbin then there must also be many, many others out there with the same batch as well. They cost so much I can’t afford to throw them away but I can’t wait until they’re all used up!
[Edit: Please see next post for a great response from the supplier.]
03 Sunday Apr 2011
Posted in Sew journal
Before I went away last week I went into Sydney city to take two lovely Kiwi ladies on a tour of local quilt shops. They were wonderful company and though we’d never met before we got on like a house on fire. We visited The Quiltsmith, Logans and Calico and Ivy and then I dropped them outside Morris and Sons so they could check out the embroidery goodies in there. As a “Thank you” for showing them around they gave me this lovely apron made by one of them. Isn’t it a clever pattern The fabric shows a Kiwi flower but I don’t know the name, I’m sorry. It also has a badge of the Kapiti Coast Quilters on the top.
While visiting the quilt shops I snaffled these goodies.
