WMUTeach

You go for it, Julienm!! Be a winner and make lots of quilts and other fabric projects this year.

quiltingcotton

I'm pretty organized in my quilting room as far as everything has its place and is easy to keep cleaned up after a day of quilting, but... and there is always a but!

I've been having issues with my thread breaking. Fooled around with the machine etc. etc. and after the 20th some break of my thread within 2 hours one day, discovered that it was actually the thread and nothing to do with my machine.

I have always used all cotton thread, and apparently it has gotten old on me, even keeping it in plastic boxes. Long story short, just a quick snap between my hands and the thread will break. Okay, not a problem, I thought, its just this one cone... nope. I have a lot of thread that I purchased during a major sale years ago and pretty much all of it has weakened. I'm kicking myself as I toss the thread and clean out my bobbins.

The good news is that I have started to replace some of it with poly thread, and my machine actually likes it much better, it is so lint free and smooth going through with no lint getting caught up in the tension. I'm also back to keeping only a couple of cones of basic colors for a more antique look, instead of matching thread color to fabric color..

On the flip side, this also got me looking at my fabric stash and thinking I really need to say goodbye to some of the old fabric that I have been shuffling around for years taking up space, because it isn't my style or taste anymore. Thankfully there isn't very much in that capacity, it just needs for me to get the umps to pull it out and let it go. Thankfully I have a place where I can donate the fabric.

WMUTeach

Good inspiration and reminder, quiltingcotton. On the other hand, during COVID I used spool after spool of old thread but it did not "mess" with my machine and did not break. Lots of donation quilts left my space with old thread.holding them together. Using the "tug" test is a good idea for us all.

Julienm1

Rereading my previous post and I did make a couple kits but ended up finishing several UFOs and donated them to Project Linus. That took care of Jan and Feb. Past couple days have been grabbing a basket of fab and trimed fabric into usable sizes. Usually, 5" squares and 2" strips. Just a couple cuts from each hunk. And YES, I do have patterns in mind for the cuts.

Julienm1

Past couple months have donated LOTS of quilts to Project Linus. However, I've learned I love to make quilts but hate the "aftermath of chaos'" it creates with my fabric. Seems sewing with scraps and various size of leftovers has turned my mountain of scraps into a mountain range. After I finish these 2 quails I'm working on, I'll have to take a couple days to tidy up this mell of la hess.

tranum

The shop owner who sells everything ( except fabric ) told us at guild, if your thread breaks, it’s most likely dry. Store it in the refrigerator and it will absorb moisture so it’s useable.