This is my new hand stitching companion...literally a THREAD CATCHER. When I am hand stitching, there are little tails of silk thread and snippets of quilting cotton EVERYWHERE...I know things are out of hand when Weasley the cat saunters by with thread and fabric snippets are stuck to his fur coat!
And now, a view of the underside...(this is my favorite Kaffe Fassett fabric in my stash)...
Do you want to learn to make one? Let me demonstrate the magic...first, I push DOWN with my thumbs on the pleated side...
The bottom pushes out and starts to untwist...
Now there is a cute, little container, open and ready to receive your thread tails...
When I take a pause from stitching, I simply push all my little thread tails to the bottom of the container, hold the rim, and twist the bottom compactly into the rim...ta da!! The threads are trapped within the compact, little, twisted container.
SO neat and tidy! I discovered a great video on how to do this on Pinterest, which I will link at the end of this post, but I found that some of the measurements needed to be updated to make it actually come out right...like toilet paper rolls, and so many other things, packaging/product is shrinking while prices stay the same or increase.
The original directions have us make this little gem from "recycled" materials...(a cereal box, leftover batting, and a Pringles potato chip tube are recommended). I think you could make it from other things, you would just have to adjust the sizes of your materials (and you wouldn't "have to" eat Pringles). I have saved an empty plastic mayo jar that might work as well...
After gobbling up all the Pringles, wipe the tube (and your clothing) free of crumbs, cut off the lip of the container, and cut a 1/2" slice of the tube. I used paper scissors, but a nice sharp craft knife might be easier.
Measure the circumference...I found mine to be about 9-1/4". I added 1/2" to this to get the longer measurement for my rectangle of fabric needed for the body of the thread catcher. (In the Pinterest video, the circumference measured 9-1/2"...see...things ARE shrinking in the stores...)
My fabric rectangle measures 8" x 9-3/4" (before I folded over 1/4" on each long side and pressed). (That's 8" x 9-1/4", plus the extra 1/2" on the longer side.)
The size of the components for the thread catcher bottom are dependent on the size of the Pringles ring. The box board and batting circles need to be slightly smaller in diameter so that, once covered in fabric, they won't be too tight to to twist, push, and nestle inside the Pringles ring.
I found this inside size/diameter to be about 2-11/16"...just shy of 2-3/4". Cut two each of the box board and the batting.
Then I made my two fabric circles a little larger so that I would have room to baste and gather the edges around the box board and batting. My fabric circles measured 3-1/2" in diameter.
Now I do a running stitch around the edge of each of the two fabric circles...
Then I center a batting circle on the wrong side of the fabric circle...
...followed by a box board circle, covering the batting circle.
Then I pull the gathering thread to surround my batting and box board circles.
I secure this with a couple of stitches and a knot.
Now I slip stitch these two padded circles to each other, wrong sides together,
Then, I fold my fabric rectangle, right sides together, and stitch along the SHORT side with a 1/4" seam allowance.
Note that the stitching is on the 8" edge of the fabric rectangle.
Now I press the seam open so that it will lie nice and flat.
With right sides still together, I slide my Pringles ring on my tube of fabric and encase the ring as I bring the edges that are pressed under together.
I line up those pressed under edges and pin.
My Pringles ring is now securely located where the fabric tube folds.
I stitch right under the Pringles ring to lock it in a casing.
Ta da!
Then I remove my pins.
I push the inside of the fabric tube out past the Pringles ring.
See how my 1/4" seam is still neatly turned under? I insert my thread catcher bottom and secure with pins. The fabric tube will be slightly larger, so you will have to center the bottom as you pin to ease the slight fullness.
Then I slip stitch around, easing the fullness and removing pins as I stitch.
Then I push the bottom through the ring, and into the other open end with the pressed under edge, center, pin, and slip stitch in the same way.
Ta da!
Now it is ready to accept all your thread tails...
When I stop stitching, I push all the thread mess to the bottom of my thread catcher...
...and gently twist and collapse, trapping the thread tails.
SO easy and satisfying. And it is so compact and small that it will fit nicely in my stitching bag.
Here is a the video I found on Pinterest. She really lays out the steps very nicely.
AngiesBitsandPieces
Note: I found my set of Karen Kaye Buckley large circles very helpful...there is one exactly the size of the fabric circle, and I used another to make my box board/batting template and just trimmed my template a little smaller.
In stitches,
Teresa :o)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Finally, in February, I can post and say that! I have not been able to sew much until just lately, which I am very grateful for...I certainly needed the fabric therapy that these recent bursts of stitching afforded me. But more about that in a minute...let's get to the stitching first!
These are the borders to my "Miss Emilie's Garden" quilt, pattern by Lori Smith. There is a lot of hand applique stitching in those four borders!! This is what they looked like after I stitched them and before I soaked them to remove my glue...
These were very difficult borders for me for some reason...mostly those darn sawtooth strips...I cut them wider than they were supposed to be, then basted the edges before I plunged them into the water to keep them stable. I thought it better to trim them later and waste some fabric in an effort to make sure everything went together well!
I basted any glued-under edges that I didn't stitch down so that they would stay "glued-under" when the glue was soaked out...I found out later, as I was mitering, that I did not need to glue that terminal edge under...that edge was actually caught in the mitered seam...
I was really tempted to invent my own borders that were EASIER, but I was determined to do this quilt AS WRITTEN, which was hard for me...
So I held my breath and plunged the borders into the warm water baths to remove the glue. I pre-wash my fabrics so I wasn't too worried about shrinkage and colorfastness of the reds...I was worried about everything laying straight and not getting distorted in the process, then wondering if I was going to get all those sawtooth borders to line up when I mitered those corners...worry, worry, worry...
So far, so good...nothing ran and things seem pretty straight as I hold my breath and start to press over my towel-lined pressing surface...
I'm not sure I will do these hand appliqued, sawtooth border strips EVER again...the actual applique glue prep and stitching was fine and actually went faster than I thought possible, but I really hated having to be so darn precise while adding those borders to the body of my little quilt. And the corner mitering...yikes!
Finally, I used my sewing machine to stay-stitch around the whole quilt, close to where it needs to be trimmed, ultimately, when I apply the binding.
I feel better about the way the OUTER sawtooth border came together at the mitered corners than the INNER one...no matter how much I fuddled with the top right corner, I could not get it to line up...just...right...this adds character...right?
OOPS! I forgot the final little swag doo-dads in the corners...there we go...NOW it is complete!
All this effort for a quilt that will ONLY MEASURE 42" x 42" when finished! But I think if this had been a large quilt, those sawtooth borders would have killed me with boredom!
Now it is time to baste and get busy with the hand quilting...
OK, here's why I have been so silent for so many weeks...
...I knew going into December, that it was going to be a hard month...we would have our first Christmas after my parents' fatal car accident of May 2014. We chose to spend it in their home in Alabama, as we have the last few years, and my 3 sisters and their young families were there with us. We will be moving this summer to live in their home and be welcoming care-takers to the property so that all family can visit often (I have six brothers and sisters).
But before all that happened, Steve's Dad fell and broke a hip in early December. He had surgery, and we were all taking shifts of being in Philadelphia to cheer him on and take care of Steve's Mom, who suffers from dementia and can't be by herself. So my daughter had a month and more of only having one parent around, which added to her stress level during her senior year of high school.
We were able to be together in Alabama with some of my family for Christmas only because Steve's brother wasn't with his family in Maine, as he took a care-taking shift (thanks Dave!).
We are still sorting out and trying to manage the situation in Philadelphia. Care-givers have been hired to try to keep them together in their home of 50 years, where they are happiest. Due to Mom's dementia, we don't think they could be together if they were in a nursing home situation.
Dad is continuing to get stronger with the help of PT, OT, home nursing, and care-givers. Mom has started having her own issues, but we are limping along, always knowing that at any time one of us will have to jump and run to be in town with them.
Of course, during all this my daughter is in the middle of trying to choose a college, finish a very busy senior year, and deal with on-site auditions for musical theater, French horn, and writing as she tries to settle on a major. (Oh, and then she had her first car accident one snowy morning a couple of weeks ago when Steve was in Philadelphia...nobody hurt, thankfully...).
So, needless to say, I am a complete mess. I have had atopic dermatitis all my life, which flares up in times of great stress and leaves me covered with oozing, very itchy, ugly hives from head to toe. I had handled the stress of last year pretty well, but all that ended in early January when my stress level went through the roof.
So I am on high-powered steroids at the moment in order to get control of my skin...and life... back.
I keep saying "this will pass, this will pass," and I know that many of you are have dealt with, or are dealing with much worse scenarios, but I have definitely struck bottom here lately. And I have had no time to sew, which might have saved me from having a major breakout of my skin condition.
I know the stress is going to continue...graduation, getting our house ready to sell in Michigan, saying good-bye to our life and friends here, relocating to NW Alabama, having to give up my dear kitty when we move, the continued decline and change in my in-laws' lives, and becoming empty-nesters.
I'm still not sure how all this will happen, but I know it will happen and some day I will wake up on the other side of it and discover that I have time to design and enjoy quilting again.
So hang in there with me...I am committed to blogging whenever I can, I have entered my music quilt in AQS Lancaster and AQS Paducah, and I continue to send out music patterns to people who order them. I have started dreaming about quilt design again, and I have started wrapping my head around the monumental task of moving the quilt cave and having it recreate itself in a new, exciting form in Alabama.
Thank you to everyone who has emailed me to check on me...I am so behind on answering emails. I love you all and appreciate your support.
Still In Stitches,
Teresa :o)
