Playing with Silk

I’ve been purchasing Superiors silk thread on & off for months.  As they were going through the process of announcing the thread coming out I was incredibly excited.  I’ve quilted with silk from two other companies and love the effect of the silk, loved how it quilted and quite frankly I love the look of Diane Gaudynski‘s quilts.

Earlier this week I received an email reminding me of a deadline that I’d totally forgotten about as I’d gotten some work over the last few weeks that’s kept me busy – more on that another time.  In order to meet this deadline I had to make a huge departure from my originally intended idea of designing and completing the next in the City series (Twilight in the Bronx & Moon Over Manhattan).  The next quilt was to be on blue Radiance background using a 5-pointed star as the center.

While I had great intentions of getting this next concept complete the reality was that in the short amount of time I had left, the density with which I quilt it just wasn’t possible to take on that particular quilt.  With both Twilight in the Bronx & Moon Over Manhattan I’d had a working title and very clear concept as I got started.  This next quilt wasn’t quite there yet.

Switching gears was very necessary.  I’d recently gotten French silk samples from a friend who worked for a fabric/decorating company.  This silk is gorgeous!!!  The size is about 12 x 12 in a variety of colors that are great for the background.  I chose a red silk for the front, an orange batik for the back gathered all my silk thread and after about 12 or so hours of quilting Serendipity is complete.

I had a huge chunk of writing to complete and sent my everything off today to where its going.  Yes, yes, I’m being slightly – no very cryptic about it for 2 reasons: 1) it’s potentially for a book and I don’t want to reveal anything before it’s time and 2) I don’t know if what I sent will be accepted for the project.  If it is great, if not then I’ll show what I submitted here when the time is right.

This little quilt over here <— is the beginning of Serendipity as Well (rather than Serendipity 2).

As you know from previous blog posts I’ve been playing with Zentangles.  I love the freedom & creativity that comes from actively and purposefully sitting and sketching.  Serendipity & Serendipity as Well are  a combination of playing with Zentangles and Linda M. Poole’s Color Fixes.  I’m having fun and exploring not only where the drawing can take me but I’m being mindful of the thread color and the overall effect of both on the piece.  I’m looking forward to seeing where this all goes.

Superior Thread Review:

As you know I’m a huge fan of Superior Threads.  I’m very excited that we now carry MasterPiece in the quilt shop where I work and will be adding more thread soon.

So far I’ve quilted with Superior’s silk for over 12 hours encountering snags twice.  Once was because my needle needed to be changed and the second was because the thread got wrapped behind the needle somehow.  (I can never figure out quite how I do that.)  With other silks I’ve tried there’s been a fiber residue buildup in the thread take up lever not with Superior.

I can stitch very tiny pebbles with no noticeable thread bulkiness as I stitch around the circles.  I used an 80/12 top stitching needle with no problems (Superior recommends a 70/10 Top Stitching Needle).  This thread lasts a long time!  I’m so loving this silk thread!

Happy Quilting!

Teri