Mount Yo-Yo is Active!

Big hugs to all my quilting friends.  The weekend didn't produce as much as I had planned but at least there was some progress on the Sugar and Spice quilt Blocks.  Machine stitching the dresden's and yo-yo's made this so much easier.  It was a little tricky on the yo-yo's but with a slow and steady pace they came together quicker than I thought they would.

 

As usual I used Superior Threads Mono-Poly Invisible Monofilament thread.  It is second to none in my opinion.  After years of trying other clear threads I was so leery about trying another but I'm so glad I did.  It was a game changer.  It's stronger, finer, not as glossy and the most heat resistant clear thread I've ever used.

 

Each spool comes with this handy dandy little thread/spool net.  Other brands do not.  Superior knows their product and how it will unspool itself for whatever reason.  Yes I've tried to use it without the thread net and it was a nightmare. Lesson learned the hard way.

Not sure why I was so unwilling to leave it on the spool.  Just my rebel nature I suppose.  You would think I would be over that at my age.  

The name isn't the best.  I'm considering writing the company to let them know it should be called angel hair from heaven.  Yes it's heavenly.  But as you all know there's a good and a bad side to everything.  So here' the negatives.  

1.  I barely see it!  2.  My auto needle threader hates it, and since I can't see it, it makes it hard to thread the needle. I can't tell if it's through the eye, I can't tell if I'm even holding it. 3.  My auto cutter hates it as well.   Have you ever tried to cut a thread you can't see or feel?   These aren't complaints I expect anyone to fix.  If the company were to make it larger and harder so I could see it, it wouldn't be invisible, would it?  And that means I wouldn't use it. I'm just letting you know so you can prepare for the frustration if you decide to give her a try.  

Just look how well it blends into the fabrics.  I've used this in many quilts and after its washed you REALLY have to look for the stitching.

I'm so happy with how the blocks turned out.  The best thing is I applique better than I piece blocks.  With piecing there's always a little unpiecing.  There was very little distortion of the blocks that can happen sometimes when doing applique.

....And here's the sometime distortion.  It looks worse than it is.  The block still finishes at the correct size.  So I'm not picking out the stitches.  The fullness in the applique can be quilted out of sight.  I know exactly how it happened.  Experimenting with the order of stitching down the applique.  My first block was stitch in the following order.  Outside of dresden blades, outside of the yo-yo's and then inside the yo-yo's last. It came out perfect.  But I thought.....we quilt from the center out maybe I should applique from the center out.  But the problem was all my dredsen blades were already stitched down 2 years ago.  The only thing I did differently on this block was to stitch the inside of the yo-yo's first and then the outside of them.  Not sure why it would cause them to look like a map of the Appalachian Mountains but it did.

All 15 dresden's are completed.  I couldn't help but giggle at this image.  If this picture above is a mountain range then this is a volcano.  Mount Yo-yo is about to erupt and spew technicolor confetti all over my Studio!  HA!  Yes I'm a little goofy sometimes.  

I made this video for those of you who would like to see how I stitched down the yo-yo's.  I've shown this before but you never know if someone new is lurking around Podunk. Click the link.  https://youtu.be/8JO6QTbIvmY

Another day of MOO-ving things along.  My word of the year.  More about it here.

 

Pin It