trees! revisited

We are in the middle of our first real snow storm of the season. Yippee! :) It's been so fun to watch my backyard change as the seasons do. It won't be long until there are a million kid footprints running through that fresh blanket of snow. (You will have to excuse me...I'm from Minnesota, and we talk about the weather here. Constantly.)

Given the weather, today seemed like the PERFECT day to revisit my trees! pattern. The snow makes a pretty photo backdrop, doesn't it?

I'm using mini confetti dots by Dear Stella for the backgrounds. This fabric is wonderful! I don't think they custom made it for me, but I can imagine that they did, right? It was painful to break open the bundle. I had to do it quickly, like ripping off a band aid.

For the tree branches I'm using a lovely white on white dot from Connecting Threads. The white branches in the block remind me of my grandmother's Christmas tree from childhood.

These are my tree trimmings. ha ha ha! The pattern calls for fat quarters and this is all that is left from each one. I find that oddly satisfying. I LOVE making the most of my fabric.

 

On another note, my sweet husband drove out well out of his way after work last night JUST to pick up a spool of Aurifil thread for me. That's true love, wouldn't you say? :) I was in desperate need of it, and the only place I could find the right color in stock was 30 miles away. He might have had a little sticker shock, but he restrained from giving me TOO much grief about it. I'm thankful that I have an understanding husband. And I'm glad that I can get back to quilting this monster.

And, the last thing for today...my friend Tara sent me this MODA laundry basket that I've been wanting for years. Isn't that an amazing gift? Thanks so much, friend! It took me all of 5 minutes to start filling it with scraps....of course!

Hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday!

sweet and sassy finish

Welcome to finish it up Friday!

I have been feeling wiped out this week, so working on a baby quilt was just the ticket. I probably say this every time I make a baby quilt (which isn't very often), but I forget how fun and FAST they are. On Monday I basted. Tuesday morning I quilted. Wednesday I added the binding by machine. Thursday I hand stitched down the binding. Today I get to share my finish! :)

For the backing I used a gray Ta-dot by Michael Miller. I'm still kind of shocked that I used it rather than hoarding it 'til the end of time. (I really love this fabric!)

For quilting, I tried a new-to-me thread this time around. I remember Leah Day recommending Isacord thread, so when I saw it at my local sewing center I knew I had to try it. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by the thread. I just looked up her recommendations again this morning and she has a great post about it here. She includes reasons why cotton isn't the only way to go. (Yay!) The thread was less than $6 for 1000 meters AND I can buy it locally. Both great things! My husband groaned when I brought home more thread. Someday I will have to show you my collection....but that's a post for another day.

The finished size is 39" x 44". I am thankful to have one more quilt off of WIP pile, which was about to topple over!

 

Now it's your turn! Please link up your finishes. Thanks for joining me for finish it up Friday!

connecting threads

I've been meaning to write a post about Connecting Threads (not as an advertisement, but as a quilter/consumer), and after all the questions I got about it on my last post about thread, I thought it was a good time.

Yes, the majority of my thread stash is from the Essential Threads collection.

What I love about this thread:

-It's cheap, er, economical. :) At just $2.49 per spool, it's a great bargain.

-It's 100% cotton.

-The color selection is great.
-Since it's so reasonably priced, it's easy to stock up on many different colors.
-A $50 order=free US shipping. (Always a plus!)
-The spools are 1200 yards! (I've already talked about how much I hate tiny spools, haven't I?)
-It works great for hand quilting, top stitching and piecing.
-I've used it for some applique, when the color was just right.
-It's great for some quilting applications.

What I could live without:

-The red thread bleeds. I'm pretty sure of it anyway.

-It looks a little thready when quilting. It's 50 weight (which is standard), but it seems fairly thick to me. Sometimes thready is ok, like on the blue quilt it was just fine, because that quilt was about the quilting. On other quilts, sometimes it's nice to have the thread blend in a bit more and let the fabric/design shine.

-A few people I've recommended it to have had problems using it in their machine, but I've had very few problems using it. I bet it all depends on your machine.

Connecting Threads has recently come out with a new thread line Essential PRO thread designed for long arm quilters (which I am not) but the cones work just fine on my Juki. I was excited to try this because it's a 70 weight thread, so it's thinner than the other thread. It is polyester, but that doesn't bother me a bit. These cones are over 3300 yards! Yay! No danger of running out of thread. I'm still in the testing stages, but so far, so good. I used it for free motion quilting and for walking foot quilting, and I really, really like it! It just so happens that my 3300 yards of thread matches my bolt of aqua fabric perfectly. I may need to get another bolt or two of that fabric. :)

CT also sell fabric, which piqued my curiosity. I ordered a bit of it and while I haven't sewn with it yet, I love what I see (and feel). I've heard lots of good things about it.

Oh, and they have 58 colors of solids! (For $3.96 a yard!) I ordered a charm pack to test them out. I love the colors in person. The charms don't have a pinked edge, so they fray a bit. Not a big deal, just makes it a bit harder to take a pretty photo. I'm looking forward to trying these out, too.

So, to sum up: I love Connecting Threads. I love supporting a decent company with a good product that helps keep quilting affordable!

I'd love to hear what you think about their thread/fabrics if you've used them.