I seen so many great reproductions of 30's quilts that use a machine blanket stitch. Sunbonnet Sue, butterflies, and the wonderful Garden Ponies quilt recently posted.

Please advise what kind of thread you are using to get the heavier look of a hand stitch? Are you using regular thread underneath?

Tips welcome!

You can use any threads that you prefer, my machine goes back and forth up to three times for each section of the blanket stitch building up the stitch!

:thumbup:

I used regular thread, on my machine the blanket stitch had extra threads also, the applique stitch looks the same, but only has one stitch over. Janome 9700

When I did it, I used two spools of regular weight black thread on the machine but threaded them as if one thread. This worked really well. When threading the machine, you can pass one thread on one side of the upper tension disc and the other thread on the other side of the upper tension disc if you want; I don't think this made any difference on my machine.

Another option is to buy a heavier weight of thread. The smaller the thread #, the thicker the thread. Regular thread is 50wt 3-ply. A 30wt thread would probably be a nice weight for machine blanket stitch.

Do test swatches so you can get the tension setting right and are sure it is the effect you want.

I should add that on my older Bernina, I used the blind hem stitch (not a blanket stitch) reversed. The blind hem stitch does not double-stitch anything.

Oh, and any thread underneath is fine as long as you can get the tension right so it does not show on top.

I've seen patterns where they use two threads and thread it as one for blanket stitch but haven't tried it. Interesting possibilities in doing that though.

I use #12 cotton sulky. It looks like it is hand done.

I've used Sulky 12 wt cotton for doing blanket stitch around fusible applique. I used regular 40 wt thread in the bobbin. I also used a jeans needle and sewed veeerrry sloooowwwly. Even with those precautions, I did have some thread shredding and breakage on tight turns. Not a ton of thread issues, but some.