11/15/22

Snowflakes on my Mind

Have you noticed most of my sewing since arriving home has been either fall or winter related? It's just a coincidence of timing as things moved along the conveyor belt of quilting projects. Yesterday I had my long-awaited pedicure with a new nail tech. I'll say I was just a little anxious about having my nails done by a complete stranger. It's an intimate experience for both when someone is washing and massaging one's feet, and so I was hopeful we'd be compatible in whatever way that matters. 

There was a little time left before I needed to leave, and so I finished stitching the honeybee to calm my nerves.


Those French knots seemed a little daunting when I started them. I've always been able to stitch them easily enough, but stitching so many can be tedious. When he was all finished, I had to smile. He's soft and fuzzy.

So I went off to my pedicure in a smiling mood, and it all went fine. I didn't expect otherwise, but you know how it is. I felt good enough after that to head down to the optical shop at Costco (shudder...did you just feel that cold chill? Happens whenever someone mentions "Costco" around me), to have my new glasses adjusted. They were slipping down my nose. Now they're fixed. After all that, I headed for home. After being out amongst The English, I needed a nap.

When I made my way into the sewing room later in the afternoon, I found Sadie raring to get busy quilting the latest little snowflake.


For the snowflake, I wanted to use one of the many blue metallic threads I have in my collection. I forget which project I was working on when I purchased metallic blue threads in several colors, trying to find just the right one. I can't even recall the project now, but the spools of thread are always hanging there on the wall, mocking me for my lack of foresight. It's a pretty thread.


I've had pretty good luck with Superior Metallic threads, and I only needed to do a little bit of quilting with it. How bad could it be?


Well, the thread broke after about three inches. Switching from a metallic needle to a top-stitching needle helped quite a bit, but I was still plagued with breakage despite incorporating all my special treatments for making friends with metallic threads. If it had been a larger project, I'd probably have selected something else. With such a small project, I soldiered on with minimal shouting of four-letter words. 

I did some pretty simple quilting. The snowflake is a looping design I saw someone do on YouTube.


When I'd finished with the blue snowflake, I switched to a less temperamental thread and finished it off with a hooking meander.


Then, I squared it up...


and sewed on the binding. Happily, I had a scrap binding that was precisely the right length.


Now it's ready for hand-sewing.

There was some happy mail in the mailbox yesterday. My friend Pam read the post where I mentioned these Groz-Beckert needles. She had a supply that she could no longer use with her sewing machine, and so she sent them to me. 


If you recall, I said the smallest size I had in my supply was an 80/12, and I didn't know if they came any smaller. Well, I can wonder no more, because these range in size from 60/8 to 70/10 and 80/12. Fantastic!!! These little needles are going to be so helpful when I'm making the collage quilts. I'm always looking for something that will stitch through applique without leaving a big hole. So, thank you, Pam. That was so sweet and generous of you!

Okay, so today we'll be doing some grocery shopping. I don't need very much for our day-to-day, but I want to get a head start on shopping for Thanksgiving. So much of a Thanksgiving meal needs to be purchased fresh, but I can get the other stuff ahead of time. It will save me much gnashing of teeth next week. 

When that's finished, I'll get back to finishing off the Snowflake binding. After that, I want to finish off this little quilt I started back in July. It was originally a free download on the Crabapple Hill website. Now, it's available for $5


It's about mug mat size, and I have a Christmas fabric selected to give it a little border. Ordinarily, this would have to wait a little longer on my quilting conveyor belt, but I'd like to have it finished for displaying at Christmas.

Okay, so the day is planned...time to get moving. I hope you have a good day planned for yourself.

8 comments:

Barbara said...

I wish I could press snowflakes in a book like flowers. ~ James Schuyler.

Kathy S. said...

Horray for happy mail! Sadie is such a good helper in the sewing room. The border for the snowflake quilt is PERFECT for it!!! And oh how gorgeous are all of those French knots on that bee? Yowza! It is soooooo cute! Nicely done!

SJSM said...

Nice wor gettin the snowflake done. Quilting with metallic threads isn’t something I do. Using Superior threads in machine embroidery is something I do. I prefer the Superior Threads as the thread tends to have less breakage than other brands tried. I still pull out all the tricks to coax it along.

We did a Costco run today. When we arrived it wasn’t too bad. By the time we left it was crowded. It always amazes me the check out lines are reasonable. Only one person was ahead of us in many lines. We drive in at the loading dock area and rarely have difficulties getting a decent parking place. If we use the main entrance driveway, it always seems to be clogged with people stopping the whole line as they wait for someone to pull out. I’d rather park and walk a few more feet than wait multiple times as vehicles wait for the "perfect" spot.

Kate said...

That bee is really cute! I don't mind French Knots, except when the thread knots when you are pulling it through, that's maddening. Your snowflake quilt turned out beautifully! Do you have a place to hang it?

piecefulwendy said...

I'm always nervous about using metallic threads because I hear about issues with them. Glad you got through it and finished up that cute snowflake quilt. Yay for the needles, too - how nice of her. Hope your pedi went well!

Linda Garcia said...

Have you ever used "Sewer's Aid"? I have a Handi Quilter Avante that is eerily similar in looks to your sit down quilting machine. Mine is on a frame though. Anyway, I give most of my threads a line of Sewer's Aide when I get started. I think it would be very helpful for metallic threads. It's a silicone thread conditioner and it lubricates the thread guides and the tension disks. It does not build up or attract dust or cause any problems. I have been using it for years with no problems. I found it on Amazon, but the price looked higher than numerous other places, but with shipping vs Prime (if you have Prime), it could make a difference.

Susan said...

The bumblebee turned out great. Perfect binding choice for the snowflake.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Glad the new foot person worked out. We haven't been to Costco for nearly two years, mainly because the last time we went people were milling about without masks despite a government mandate that required them. We simply weren't comfortable so haven't been back.
Crabapple Hill is one of those places that I just know is magical but my computer, no matter how I approach it, simply will NOT allow me to enter their site and gives me all sorts of dire warnings about how dangerous it is. Hmmm....maybe the computer is protecting me from myself?!