Choosing Thread for Big Stitch Hand Quilting

hello everyone I'm Becky from piece of cake I have recently rediscovered the joy of hand quilting specifically big stitch hem quilting the thread I like to use when I'm sewing is a number 12 cotton thread there are some very fine 12 white Cotton's on the market but I have two favorites give me just a second and I'll show you the two I like the best before I go further I should probably point out what big stitch quilting is now this is a kantha cloth throw that I bought a few years ago it's made out of very old sari fabric and it's very worn I mean the fabric before it was ever quilted is very worn and I don't even think there's a batting inside here so it's 2 layers of fabric that have been quilted together in what is basically a long-running stitch or quilting stitch where the these stitches aren't even they're not particularly perfect but they take on a lovely quality because they're very uniformly spaced it's all the same color it makes me happy I actually love this thing even though I didn't make it I just bought it the other thing I wanted to say is I have some old quilt tops and I've been thinking that these might be really fun to do the same kind of quilting on I don't think they'd be as pretty machine quilted I think they need the softness of hand quilting but they don't need fine hand quilting this is going to be on my list for big stitch quilting now the thread that I have used the most is probably this by precense II it is a 12 weight pearl cotton that comes on a ball and I like it I do not dislike this thread at all it's colorfast it's very strong it has a slightly stronger twist than does my next favorite thread in and I've got to say I like this one a whole lot too I like both of these a lot now this box is a set of colors put together by K facet and liza-lu see they're calling it glorious kantha because of kantha quilts right in the big stitch quilting and inside here are 20 beautiful spools of 12 white aurifil so the thread I'm using in the quilt I'm making right now is this one and I want to pull in really close let's see if it'll stay focused so this has a twist that is a little softer than the 12 weight percent sia twist I mean it's very very subtle these are very similar threads but the aurifil is just a hair softer that said these are both really really strong threads you can't you can't pull them and break them easily as I sew with these they both tend to lose the twist just a little bit and that's a function of the way you work the needle in your hand the more you work the needle you either untwist it or over twist it and I have a tendency I don't know I usually over twist but sometimes I under twist either way I noticed that the twist when I'm sewing with both tends to soften which makes it look not a whole lot like I'm sewing with embroidery floss but just a little bit so let's pull this out this is the quilt that I'm working on right now and let me pull in close right there so if you can see it on a big enough screen you can see that the twist is not as pronounced now the white thread is presencia and this lighter blue thread that's the aurifil i will show you quickly how big stitch hand quilting works so I am right here let me pull this in so my last stitch was right there last night what I want to do is take my needle in just into the quilt top and I've tied a single just a single knot on the end of my thread I'm gonna bring my thread out here and pull that tight and pop the knot between the layers fan the tail underneath and I'm gonna put on my very fine cymbal and then this is the stitch I have I'm right-handed so my left hand is underneath the quilt I am pushing the point of the needle into my index finger I'm going to place the dimples in the thimble at least one of them on the eye of the needle now I'm holding the needle between that underneath finger and my my thimble I'm gonna slightly push down with a needle as I rock back and push up with the underneath finger I'm shoving the needle forward with my thimble enough make a stitch whoops I pushed it a little too far now I'm gonna drop my bottom finger and push down with the thimble until the needle has pierced the underneath fabric by whatever length of stitch you want mine is not quite an eighth of an inch and I'm pushing that down and sometimes I can pack three stitches onto the needle just like that so the stitches are bigger than they would be if this was traditional quilting with a tiny needle and finer thread it's bigger stitch I could make bigger stitches than this if I wanted to I'm not entirely sure that I could make smaller stitches not with this needle which is a bone number nine cruel needle I am NOT positive you could find a quilting between that would hold the twelve weight cotton but there may be one out there there are a variety of needles that you could combine with this weight thread you know the main thing is that the shaft of the needle is big enough to make an opening in the thread in the batting so that the doubled thread pulls through without too much drag so you need a slightly thick needle with a big enough eye for the thread you're using and that that is that is 12 weight thread being big stitch quilted one other thing I want to note before I move off the aurifil thread is very lustrous it has it really does have a nice sheen on it the presencia thread has a subtler sheen it's still got a luster but it is not quite shiny this is good you know it's really nice to have choices I will never use only one or the other of these I am likely to mix and match depending on what I want the other thing is that 12 weight cotton is really nice in embroidery and being able to have a slightly shinier thread at times in a slightly more matte thread it's like having more crayons in in your box it just gives you more to work with and don't we all love that I hope you liked this video if you did please do click the like button I look forward to seeing you again and until then may you have many happy stitches thanks for watching

Channel: Becky Goldsmith

Views: 5,871

Rating: 4.9897957 out of 5

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Id: w-qbpUl5zNQ

Length: 9min 49sec (589 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 12 2019