I have a smaller wholecloth for my kitchen island. that coordinates nicely with the table runner I'm working on. It's a bright yellow, and I used a plain muslin backing. I'd love to take this little project with me on a weekend getaway to our cabin for Mother's Day. I have no idea what color thread to use for the hand quilting. I used bright yellow thread for the runner because of the floral pattern, but I want my stitches to show on the wholecloth. Any suggestions??? It sure is bright. :)

Why not use one of the colors in the table runner fabric?

If you want it to show, how about the red/maroon color in your tablerunner. Nice design to the topper, be sure and show us when finished.

I think a varigated would be lovely. But love the simplicity of just plain white.

If you're happy with how your stitches look, try red. If you're not so confident, try something a few shades darker than the yellow, but not contrasting, like a gold or light orange.

Janet

I think that white is hard to beat,but otherwise I'd match a red from the tablerunner.

I'd go with this choice too.

I'm thinking either orange or red.

I would suggest a darker yellow. However, agree with a previous post about your confidence in stitch quality. If very confident then a high contrasting thread will work. However, if not then something in the same color range might be better. I see that your whole cloth is "Prairie Flower" which is one of the designs I did for The Stencil Co.

if that is the table runner peaking out from the corner of the whole cloth... I'd suggest the deep red to match the runner....
or other bold color in the runner.

Thanks for the advice! Here's a picture of a few different color options. As for the stitch quality, I'm a 'semi confident' hand quilter (definitely don't want anything that will totally blend in that you can't see - already been through that phase! tee hee). Please ignore any ink bleeding through the quilting in the picture as I messed up BIG TIME when marking the pattern and accidentally used a REGULAR pen that somehow migrated into my sewing room instead of my frixion!! Thankfully, got most of it out with alcohol, but obviously still have some to go. :roll:

And, Holice, I LOVE your pattern. The quilt is already basted, and can't wait to start on it. That is, once I make a decision on thread color! :)

Honestly, you could go with any of those colors. I'm not wild about the white or yellow, but either the green or red would be nice.

Janet

I think your work is lovely. I like the contrast of the red or green, but favor the green. (goes with yellow in my pea pickin head - all my 8 crayons had partners LOL)

do a test run in the seam allowance and pick the one YOU like?

..someone is bound to wonder
red + orange
yellow + green
blue + purple
brown + black

no idea why.

What a great idea of 'auditioning' the colors in the seam allowance! I never thought of that. Here's two pics, one on the front of the quilt, one on the back. I did dark to light. The third one in is actually a mossy-looking-ish green with yellow hue, and it kinda makes it look like a shadow. Not sure if the red is too much contrast or not.

I like all but the white. It just depend what effect you want.

Just to throw in my two cents worth here...I would go for one of the greens. I really love contrasting threads (right now I am quilting with a rust colored thread on a golden shaded fabric) but the red would be too dark for me and it doesn't look like red any more - it seems to be just "dark".
But, of course, it is your quilt and you have to decide! :)

IMHO, I like the light green or the white. The other 2 are a little bright/dark for my taste.

I made a small whole-cloth quilt using teal green fabric with evergreen thread. The darker thread not only emphasizes each stitch, it also brings a bit more definition to the design on the whole quilt.

My favorites are the 2 middle ones. The white doesn't show against the yellow and, for me, the red is too high of a contrast.

Karen, your quilt is lovely!

Janet

I third this answer!

Think about visual comfort as well, some people find certain colour combinations hard to look at. I'm going to be doing a yellow wholecloth eventually, where the backing is a pretty flannel in an owl pattern in cream/golden yellow/orange/pink/purple. I was originally thinking red, but when I tried it against the fabric, I didn't like how it looked and I found it rather unpleasant to stare at. I then tried a couple of deep pink threads, and despite being an avowed pink-hater, found that I preferred the contrast and that they generally looked nicer. So just keep playing around with samples and thinking about what you like in terms of how it really looks, as opposed to what you think should work.

I still say green. It shows up well but is not as overpowering as the red.

Or white, can you do a little stitching in the area where the binding will be and audition colors that way

I like the green...

Karen, you did a wonderful job, I would really like to see a picture of the complete quilt. It's a Welsh design, isn't it?
Beautiful and marvellous stitching!

Holice, I have this one too! Thank you for your beautiful design.

Green

After reading all the posts and looking at your pics I would say definitely green. It is strong enough to show up, greens are soft on the eye and it coordinates well with the yellow and the table runner. But, in the end it has to look good to you and only you.:)

I think one of the darker colors --red or green-- would show up best. You might try stitching a small area on the actual piece, using each color (without a knot) to see which one pleases you the most. You can always easily pull out the stitches afterward.

Choose a darker color that may already be in your kitchen.

I agree with Andrea. Beautiful quilt, Karen! I would love to see it, too. I really like the colors, and I love the idea of using a slightly darker thread than the quilt top so the quilting looks almost like a shadow. I'm afraid too dark would just over power the beautiful design.

Thanks for all the input. I'm leaning towards the greens as well. I figure I'd take both with me the weekend and see what hits me when I'm there. I'm JUST about done quilting the table runner, and only have a day or two before that one's done. DH asked this morning why I'm doing another table topper. Like there could ever be too many quilts! I told him it's our "summer topper". ha ha. He still doesn't get me. :)

grey green would be my choice You want your stitches to show right? Not stand out and be the attraction that one sees first
good luck to you

i would use the red, from the table runner.........looks like they will make a great pair!!

I'd sure like to know what you used for your fabric marking on the wholecloth. Thanks.

I agree. ♥

It's actually a pre-printed wholecloth I got from The Stencil Company. The last one I got from them was black with white print, and it's supposed to come off with water. That one did NOT, and I'm really hoping this one does. They carry really beautiful things, but didn't really give me any satisfaction in regards to my problem. They pretty much said I needed to deal with it, and after spending hours and hours on the quilting, it wasn't what I wanted to hear.

I like the two lighter colors.

The table runner is bright. I would go with red thread to coordinate the pieces.

I like the red

Did you think of using a variegated thread!