Having a thread emergency. Advise needed.
 

Need suggestions. I have a quilt that i've used the same color all over and am now quilting (not piecing. Quilting) the Piano Key design onto the borders.

I've got 3 1/4 more borders to go and it looks like I'm going to run out of the color. :( I'm using the Essential Pro color called Corn Silk by Connecting Threads. Yikes!!! They no longer carry this color. I've talked to customer service and they tell me that the closest they have is a color called Tea-dyed (which she stated had a name change to gold).

I ordered that but when I got back on line it looks waaaaayyyyy darker than the corn silk.

My first question is: Any suggestions about what to do if it isn't the same?

My other question is: If the color doesn't match, do any of you have Corn Silk by Connecting Threads that I can buy from you???


Had no Idea this would happen when I started. I'm a fairly newbie to the actually freemotion part of this and had no idea when I started that a cone of thread wouldn't be enough for this queen quilt. However, I must admit it's a heavily quilted queen.

I haven't quilted enough to be able to quess my thread needs yet. Any tips on how to do that so this won't happen to me again?

P.S. Fortunately it's a quilt for myself, so all isn't loss. It would be a catastrophe if I was being paid for quilting this.

Thanks in advance for any advise on all my questions.

I try for middle ground. Not too light and not too dark. Slightly noticeable but not too!

If I understand you correctly, you have quilted 3/4 of one side of the border. I would unpick this (muttering under my breath the entire time), then do the whole border with the new thread.

If it's too far off but you really want that color, they do still have that color in their Essentials (cotton) collection. The downside is that eventually the cotton will fade more than the poly, but supposedly dying technology has improved to extend the amount of time before the cotton noticeably fades if well cared for.

I usually do a different colored thread in my borders anyways but I make kids quilts where that's more desirable. If you really can't find anything, I'd do a hard break at the border's ditch & go with a duller version of the color so it kind of fades away into the border rather than drawing more attention to itself.

I would use the cotton thread in the same color. It's nothing to worry about.

I also have resorted to bobbins when running short on a thread color.

Dray965, I have a cone of their cotton Corn Silk #20979 but not their Pro which is polyester. I find though they have the same name, they don't always match. My cone is brand new so think there is 5,000 yds on it.

I've even had some of their cottn spools ordered at different times not match each other so I try to order at least 3 spools of each color as I know I'm never use more than that at one time. If anything I can use a close matching thread in the bobbin.

Let me know if the cotton cone will help you.

You asked about calculations, to quilt a twin at 1/2" spacing for a design with minimal thread build-up, I need 4000m of thread. I then do math from there & build in a 500m cushion. So for a queen I'd want 5000m of thread just for the quilting. If I'm doing a lot of pebbling or such, I'd want to add in more. I'd try to guesstimate what percent of my quilt used microquilting or thread build-up and then multiply that by 2 (to account for going around an average of 3x). For example, if I was doing pebbling on 10% of my quilt, I'd take 10% of 5000 (500) and multiply that 2 (1000), then add that into my original number (5000 + 1000 = 6000). Yes, I usually end up with 100-200m of leftover thread, but I'd rather a bit too much than not enough.

If I'm doing 1-1.5" spaced quilting, I would start my calculations based on 2000m of thread. I really don't quilt much farther apart than that -- never more than 2" apart -- so I can't really speak to how much thread you'd need for minimalist quilting.

Maybe you could find another brand of thread that is a good match.