Hand Quilting Question
 

As I've committed to hand quilting my Jane Stickle quilt I thought I should practice. So.... I have this Challenge piece to practice on. My question is how to decide what colour Thread. Does it matter? Can I use more than one? or is there a universal standard. I know the Jane quilt is primarily beige but this is grey/black.

Depends on whether you want it to show or blend with the fabric.

Oh, boy would I love to have that pattern!!! I especially like the way you used the green tree. I was surprised that you didn't put that on the 25th block. Just saying.
Beautiful job.

I don't think it matters what color thread you use... I sometimes use more than one color thread. of course I am far from being an expert!

Beautiful. When I first posted comment, I did not see the photo. Maybe a variegated grey/black thread?

Fabulous challenge quilt and a good candidate to practice your hand quilting as you will quickly learn how to navigate the bulk of multiple seam allowances with this, especially on your one focus block with the green tree. As far as color, as Tessagin posted, it all depends on if you want the quilting stitches to stand out or not. It doesn't matter really, all boils down to what YOU want and like. But the "mood" of this particular quilt seems to call for a blender so I think I would go with a taupe/gray thread. On some blocks it will stand out and on others it will blend right in. As I was always one to not like tying off and doing a lot of starts and stops when I hand quilted I always opted for the same color thread throughout. One usually tends to get a rhythm or flow with hand quilting and having to stop and tie off to switch thread colors interrupts the flow and rhythm of the rocking motion. Just my .02

I agree with tessagin. Just depends on how you want this quilt to look. Good luck.

and yes, you can use more than one color. I'd keep to the fabric colors but different shades of grey or what ever you choose should look great. You always do beautiful work!!

I agree with those who suggested maybe just matching each section you're quilting. Unlike machine quilting, you only grab 12-18" of thread at a time for hand quilting anyways so it's easy to change thread color. The only thing you'll want to consider is what it will look like on the back since it's the same thread front and back.

Personally, I think it also might be fun to do a couple of trees in a green thread (same tone as the evergreen). Or you could do the whole thing quilted in a red or black. So many beautiful choices that will really highlight your beautiful piecing. I can't wait to see the results!

I especially like your idea of using green thread for a couple of other trees and for me personally I would do the first tree in the first row, second tree in the second row, etc. It's a beautiful quilt and I don't think she is going to go wrong with any of er color choices. Have fun!

I use multiple colors of thread in most of my quilts. And yes, it just depends on if you want your quilting to 'show' or not. Personally I am of the belief that if I'm taking that much time and effort to hand quilt - you're going to SEE my hard work.

Beautiful top. Love it. I believe whatever you do for the quilting it's going to look great. I'm thinking I really like the variegated gray to black thread idea but all the suggestions have been great.

Cool challenge piece ........since it is on the " modern" side, go all the way and use red thread!

I love your quilt! And I love the suggestion of red thread too

***
*** Whatever color you like.
***
*** I have used 2 colors before.
***
*** I think a nice Gray to start and a Brown around trees, & the Bright Green for the one tree.
*** It will make them stand out.
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*** It also makes a nice design on the backing.
***

Just my 2 cents...how about using a black/grey/white variegated thread?

Love the quilt!

love your quilt. i'd use a grey, I've hand quilted over 300 quilts and use usually white or grey or beige. have fun!

Are you just using a quilting stitch? If so I would use one colour which shows your handiwork. If you are using embroidery to enhance then different colours for the different stitches.

One thing to remember, when hand quilting is that you don't see the thread like you do with machine quilting. When machine quilting the is a line of thread on top of the fabric. With hand quilting, the thread is mostly between the layers with a little stitch of thread peeping through. Color does not make a difference with hand quilting like it does with machine quilting. I prefer not to use variegated thread because the thread doesn't show enough and I find it looks very disconnected and some of the stitches almost disappear because they blend into the fabric and others really pop. I like using a neutral color that is just enough different that I can see the stitches. Recently I used navy thread to quilt a navy print fabric and I could barely see what I was doing some of the time. Don't give up...hand quilting goes better the longer you do it!

Beautiful quilt.