I’m working on the marking for quilting the Amish nine-bar at the moment (see picture posts) and ended up with having a couple questions you all might be able to answer for me:

First off, I ended up with Gütermann instead of the Coats and Clark I usually use, simply because C & C didn’t have matching hand quilting thread. I did see some (C & C) machine quilting thread that would have matched but was unsure what the real difference was so opted out. Would that have worked? Isn’t thread thread in the long run?

Secondly I’m still trying to figure out a decent approach to quilting cables. Vines are easy because of the continuous running line but cables kind of lap over in a way that baffles me because there is a jump in the stitching. The only thing I can thing to do is to run the thread underneath to each new entry point. Does that make any sense?

It all ‘looks’ so easy, yikes!
:roll:

Thread is different, and so are machines. A thread brand that works well in one may tangle in another. I had an old Kenmore that would probably have sewn with baling twine if I asked it to, but those machines are few and far between. Hand thread for quilting is usually glazed, and too stiff for most machines to deal with.

As to cables, you can either slip underneath, or go on to the next intersecting one. This is hard to explain, but take a pencil and paper and you will see what I'm saying.

If you use machine quilting thread,don't make your string as long as you would in the glazed hand quilting thread or it will knot up. At least mine did.. :evil: then I decided to run the thread over some beeswax that I have. Then it was fine.

Thanks! Yeah Moonpi, I think that's what I'm thinking. Oh dear, Steve was injured one day when a thought struck him. :lol: