Kay's Fabric Craft for patchwork, quilting, haberdashery, embroidery, and craft supplies. 146 William St Earlwood, NSW. 2206. ph 02 67183980

Main Page of site: www.kays.com.au

Kay's has a large range of quilting and other threads

Quilting threads:

Guterman Natural cotton: 800m - $12 . 00, 250m - $5 . 50, 100m - $2 . 80.

Mettler Machine Quilting: 150m - $4 . 30

Mettler Hand Quilting: 150m - $5 . 20

Hint. Hand quilting thread has a centre core of polyester for strength and an outer layer of cotton for softness so as not to cut the fabric. It is waxed to help it flow through the fabric and resist fraying. Natural cotton is used for piecing and is pure cotton. Some hand quilters like to use gold or platinum plated needles which are smoother and sharper than normal sewing needles.

General Purpose

Guterman 100m - $2 . 65

Duet 100m - $2 .10

Crochet cotton

Wide range of traditional crochet cotton

 

Embroidery thread $ 1 . 50 per skein, (Metallic $ 3 . 00) Kay tries to keep a complete range of DMC embroidery thread in stock at all times. Here is a copy of the DMC catalogue of 6 stranded embroidery floss. Remember that the colours you see will depend to a large extent on the settings on your computer, so compare some colours of threads you already have to get an idea of the true colours.

Variegated and metallic floss

In stock: Variegated. 52,53,57,69,90,91,103,104,107,108,111,113,115,116,122,123,126.

Putting your quilt together

If you are someone who likes to work to an idea rather than a set plan, then it is sometimes difficult to get a picture of how the design is going as you put the quilt together. Besides the overall pattern, it is important to be able to see how the colour balance is going and the interplay of light and dark. This is particularly important with colour wash quilts. One way of overcoming this problem is shown in the picture. Put a pocket in the edge of a sheet sized piece of material and run a piece of dowel (3/4") through it. Put a screw in both ends of the dowel. Hanging the dowel is easy if you are lucky enough to have a picture rail, otherwise put in two picture hooks high up on the wall, the width of the dowel apart.

If you use pieces of light chain then it is easy to adjust the height of the rail, otherwise use pieces of cord.  Put your quilting table against the wall under the hooks. Pin the quilt to the sheet so that the 'working' end is on the table and then trial assemble your quilt on the flat surface. When you stand back you can get an idea of the overall effect. As the quilt progresses, raise the sheet with the quilt attached so that more and more is hanging on the wall. It will help if you have very good light directly over the table, say from a fluorescent strip light, but make sure it is a good quality tube that gives light close to daylight so your colours do not change. Some fluorescent lights are very 'green' and change the appearance of the fabric.

Lighting for your sewing room

Natural daylight is not just a single colour but contains all of the colours of the rainbow. It is this range of colours and the balance between them that enables our eyes to see in a way that we perceive to be natural and balanced. For good colour matching it is obviously best to use natural light. This does not mean sunlight but the diffuse light from the sky on a clear day. This is the classical 'north' light that famous artists sought in their studios, however in the southern hemisphere it is actually 'south' light. Most household lighting is not suitable for colour matching as it tends to be 'warm' or yellow-red in colour. The degree of warmness of a light is described with its 'colour temperature', the lower the temperature the redder the light. An incandescent bulb has a colour temperature of about 2700 degrees K. The colour temperature of daylight is between 6000 and 7000 degrees K and contains much more blue light than does a standard 'warm white' domestic light globe. Normal flourescent tubes or the new compact fluorescent globes are not suitable for colour matching as they tend to give a light which is high in yellow and blue. 'Warm white' tubes emit the same yellow and blue colour along with a little red and, although more pleasant to the eye, are also not suitable for colour matching. The best type of light for colour matching in your sewing room is a 'tri phosphor' or sunlight/daylight fluorescent tube or globe with a colour temperature of more than 6000 degrees K. Although this may appear bluish in colour and harsher when compared to your normal house lighting, they are much more reliable for matching than any other type, however daylight is ALWAYS better!