Isn't my turtle pincushion adorable! He was a gift from a dear blogging friend -- click here and visit Linda's blog -- that lives thousands of miles away from me.
My turtle usually holds a couple of pins...and he always holds my very well- and often-used hand sewing needles. He keeps them nice and sharp so they're handy for me at a moment's notice.
Why would a longarm machine quilter need hand sewing needles? Well...I am one of the few -- or so I've been told -- that, when stopping and starting my stitching with my longarm, knot and bury my thread and then snip the tail at the quilt's surface.
Other longarmer quilters? They would do, what I call, a stutter start and stop. They would stitch very small stitches for just a very short distance, back and forth. This would create a knot-of-sorts...and then the quilter would snip the thread close to the surface of the quilt.
The outcome is very similar...yet very different. And being knotty is what I've always done and am most comfortable with...so that's exactly how I'll continue.
The picture below shows my tails. Of thread, that is. One thread tail would be a start...and the other would be the stop. I will knot the tails together...thread my hand sewing needle...and then run my needle through the layer of batting...come up through the quilt top again...and snip!
Just like the picture below shows, prior to snipping....
So just think...how many times do I knot my thread tails in any given quilt?
NOT counting!!!
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7 comments:
While not a long arm quilter, when I machine quilt I too "knot" my threads, sort of -- I run them through the batting one direction, then reinsert the needle and run them through the batting the other, generally going on either side of a stitched line... Means there's lots buried, and going around and through things internal to the quilt so they don't pull out, but I don't have a knot to "pop" :-)
Interesting how we all have our own ways
Oh, you're a good quilter! I do the stutter stop, unless I know it's going to be a show quilt. Even then I don't always bury the threads. We each have our own style I guess! :o)
I started using those needles with the notch at the top, so that you just slip the threads in and don't have to push them through the eye (does that make any sense?) -- much faster when you're dealing with all those tails. Have you tried them?
I wondered how you did that!!!
You do that? Well, I will admit I'm impressed and I will say "That's Quality." I mean, I've heard many things as well and I think this is more rare than you know... or maybe you do know.
Rare Treasure, *karendianne.
Yet, just another reason I won't do my own quilting!!
Oh, oh.....I know this turtle.
ciao ciao
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