Category Archives: Quilting

The Sock Puppet Method: Hand Tensioning a Whole Quilt for Sashiko-Style Stitching

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Sashiko is stitched with no hoop, no frame, and no tensioning bars. None. The only thing holding that fabric steady is a pair of hands, and that works beautifully when you are stitching a coaster or mending the knee of a pair of jeans.

Now try it on a queen sized quilt.

This is a problem we run into constantly, because we stitch sashiko-style quilting across large art pieces and full quilts, and there is simply no way to gather all of that fabric into your hands while you work the middle of it. We solved it years ago with something we call the sock puppet method, and we are going to walk you through it.

But we are not starting there. We are starting with the quilt itself, because hand tensioning only works on a textile that was built to be tensioned. If the fabric underneath you is unstable, no amount of clever hand work will save you.

First, build a stable fabric

This is what we mean by Textile Architecture. You are not just sewing pieces together, you are constructing something that has to hold its shape under load, the same way an architect designs a building to stand up to weather and gravity and time.

Our clothing quilts make the point better than anything else we make. We piece them improv style, but improv here is not a shortcut and it is not chaos for its own sake. The goal is a large piece of patchwork fabric that behaves as a single stable cloth.

Consider what we are actually working with. Garment fabric means the contents can be anything. Organic cotton and linen. Fabric spun from recycled plastic. Fibers that have never once been near a plant. Poly blends, acrylics, and weights that run from heavy canvas and denim all the way down to gauzy little wovens you can see daylight through.

Every one of those behaves differently. They stretch differently, they resist the needle differently, and they will absolutely fight each other if you let them. So we build with a few rules:

  • Spread the weight around. A cluster of denim and canvas in one corner with lightweight wovens everywhere else creates a heavy zone that drags on its neighbors. We distribute the heavier pieces across the whole top so the load is even.
  • Give unstable fabrics a stable neighbor. A loose weave or a stretchy knit-adjacent piece gets surrounded by something with more backbone, rather than being seamed to another piece that is just as willing to move.
  • Watch the grain on improv cuts. Cutting freely means bias edges show up everywhere, and bias stretches where straight grain does not. We are not avoiding bias, we are just paying attention to where it lands and not letting a whole run of bias edges stack up in one seam line.
  • Back the featherweights. When a piece is too light to hold its own against the fabric around it, we back it with muslin before it goes into the top. It joins the party as a stable piece instead of a liability.
  • Press as you go. Every seam, every time. Skipped pressing is where warp sneaks in, and you will not notice until the whole top is together and one section refuses to lie flat.

Get this right and you end up with patchwork that pulls evenly in all directions. Get it wrong and you have a top that warps, and a warped top cannot be hand tensioned. It will pucker somewhere no matter what your hands do.

Then, build a sound sandwich

Not every quilt needs three layers, and we wish more folx knew that.

We both grew up with summer quilts. Two layers, a top and a backing, no middle at all. They were made for exactly the kind of weather where the afternoon is too warm for anything heavy but the night turns cool enough that you want something over you. They drape in a way a three layer quilt never will, they are dramatically faster to stitch through, and they show off hand quilting beautifully because there is no loft competing with the stitch line. If you have been putting off a hand quilted piece because the thought of pushing a needle through batting sounds exhausting, start here.

When we do go with three layers, the middle is rarely what people expect. It might be a reclaimed cotton or blend sheet. It might be draping muslin off the studio roll. Sometimes it is actual batting, or wadding, if you are reading this from somewhere that calls it that.

The backing has the same range. Reclaimed sheets are a favorite, and one of the coziest quilts we have ever made is backed with an old flannel sheet. Muslin works. Wide back quilting fabric works. And on our clothing quilts the backing is pieced too, which means the sandwich has patchwork on both faces and every stability rule above applies twice.

Whatever you choose, the layers need to be compatible with each other. A backing that moves a lot under a top that does not is going to make itself known the moment you start pulling on it.

Now baste it like you mean it

Before a single quilting stitch happens, those layers have to be locked together. This is not optional and it is not the place to rush.

Here is why it matters more for us than for most quilters. When you quilt on a frame or in a hoop, the tension comes from the equipment and the layers are held in a fixed relationship. When you hand tension, you are actively pulling on the quilt, over and over, hundreds of times. Every pull is an opportunity for the layers to shift against each other. Basting is the only thing standing between you and a backing that has quietly crept two inches out of alignment by the time you reach the far border.

We have used pins. We have used powdered glues. We have used most of the basting sprays on the market.

Our favorite we found while we were writing Scrappy Wonky Quilt Block Extravaganza, and we found it the hard way. We were using a traditional spray basting glue, the highly toxic kind, out in the garage with all the doors open and a fan running to move the air. It still caused nausea, dizziness, and headaches. Basting a quilt should not come with a recovery period.

That is when we switched to Roxanne basting spray. No noxious fumes, no headaches, and we can work as long as we need to without feeling like we are going to pass out. No specialized ventilation, no waiting for a dry day so we can drag a quilt sandwich outside. We baste indoors, on the studio floor, whenever we want to. For those of us in the Pacific Northwest, that alone is worth the price of admission.

The stitching: needle, thread, and stitch length

We borrow heavily here from our background in boro and sashiko, the ground we cover in Boro & Sashiko: Harmonious Imperfection and Stitching Sashiko, where we dig into the traditional Japanese methods for mending, reinforcing, and reclaiming fabric. Layer that over years of hand and machine quilting and you get the approach we use to finish these pieces.

Two tools do most of the work.

  • John James Long Darners The length is the whole point. Sashiko is stitched by loading multiple stitches onto the needle before you pull through, and a short needle simply cannot hold enough fabric to make that work. Colonial Needle Company markets these as our sashiko needle of choice for exactly this reason, and it is not marketing on our end, it is what is in our hands every single day.
  • Presencia 12 weight thread A 12wt sits up on the surface of the cloth instead of sinking into it, and that is what gives sashiko its raised, tactile line. It is also mercerized, which matters more than folx realize. Mercerizing makes cotton thread stronger and more dimensionally stable, so the thread holds its position in the stitch line instead of shifting and slipping around as the quilt is handled and washed.

Stitch length is doing quiet structural work here too. Sashiko stitches are longer than what most quilters are used to, and each long stitch spans more of the quilt sandwich, binding the layers across a wider distance with fewer anchor points. Fewer anchors, more distance between them, and the cloth between those anchors is free to lift. That is where the texture comes from.

Because the thread is strong and does not compress or creep, that tension stays where you put it. A weaker or softer thread would let the stitch line slacken over time and the whole surface would go flat. The stitch length gives you the texture and the thread is what makes the texture permanent.

And we will say the obvious thing out loud: running your hands over that raised stitching and the crinkle around it is one of the great tactile pleasures of this work. It is comfort you can feel through your fingertips.

The sock puppet method

Right. The actual technique.

The key to hand tensioning is pulling the fabric taut between your hands so the needle can pierce it cleanly instead of pushing a wobbling piece of cloth around. On a small or lightweight piece, you gather the fabric into your hands and manage the needle and thread at the same time. Easy enough.

On a large, thick quilt, when you are working the middle of the piece, there is no gathering anything. There is just acres of quilt in every direction. So:

  • Bring both hands up underneath the quilt so the cloth is draped over the backs of your hands.
  • Form a puppet mouth with each hand. Fingers on top, thumb below, exactly like the sock puppet you made as a kid. Face the two mouths toward each other. Hello! Hello!
  • Your needle hand keeps the needle throughout, with the eye of the needle seated firmly in the dimples of your Palm Thimble. Do not skip the Palm Thimble. It is not a comfort accessory here, it is the thing that lets you drive the needle while your hands are busy holding tension.
  • Close both puppet mouths onto the fabric.
  • Draw the two puppets away from each other to tension the cloth. Enough force to make it taut, never enough to stretch it. Stretched fabric will relax later and take your stitch tension with it.
  • With the fabric tensioned, bring the quilt up to meet the tip of the needle rather than driving the needle down into the quilt. Angle the needle up or down as you go using the sashiko unshin needle motion.

That last point is the one that trips people up, so it is worth repeating. The needle stays relatively still and the fabric comes to it. You are feeding cloth onto the needle, not stabbing at cloth with a needle.

Pinch, push, pull

On a thick quilt you will only get a few stitches loaded before the needle is full. That is when we switch to what we call Pinch, Push, Pull.

Pinch the fabric to secure it onto the end of the needle. Push the needle forward using the Palm Thimble. Then pull the fabric back over the length of the thread.

That final move, redistributing the fabric along the thread, is a vital part of the process and the step most likely to get skipped. Once the needle is free, pull it all the way through until the thread lies evenly across the surface.

Then lay the quilt flat and smooth it out. You are checking that the fabric and the thread are working at the same tension, with no puckers pulling the surface in and no loops of thread standing proud. Do this as you go rather than at the end, because a section that has gone off tension is a quick fix in the moment and a genuine problem three feet later.

Go build something

None of this is difficult. It is just a sequence, and every step in it supports the one after. Stable patchwork makes a stable sandwich. A well basted sandwich makes hand tensioning possible. Hand tensioning makes the long sashiko stitch possible. The long stitch and a strong thread make the texture, and the texture is why we do any of it.

So build your fabric on purpose, baste it without giving yourself a headache, get a Long Darner in your hand, and go make some puppets say hello.

Stitch On!

Shannon & Jason

▶️ Watch the full video on YouTube here.

📚 Boro & Sashiko: Harmonious Imperfection and Stitching Sashiko here.

🪡 Shop John James Long Darners here.

🧵 Shop Presencia 12wt thread here.

🖐️ Shop Palm Thimbles here.

✨ Shop Roxanne basting spray here.

Fifty-Cent Glue vs. the Good Stuff: When Cheap Is Fine and When Your Fabric Deserves Better

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A Colonial Needle Company feature with Shannon & Jason

Let’s get the obvious elephant out of the studio first. A purple school glue stick costs about fifty cents, fits in a pencil pouch, and lives at every drugstore, big box store, and back-to-school endcap on the planet. So when someone at a show tells us they would just grab the cheap stick instead of a Roxanne, we get it. We really do. We use school glue sticks too.

Here’s the part nobody says out loud, though: we use different glues for different work. Not because one is good and the rest are garbage, but because a studio full of textile projects is a lot like a studio full of any other kind of art. You reach for what the job actually needs. Sometimes that’s the fifty-cent tube. Sometimes it very much is not.

Think Like an Artist Buying Supplies

Walk into any art store and nobody blinks when a painter keeps student-grade paper for warming up and saves the good cotton rag for the piece that’s headed to a frame. Pencils, pens, sketchbooks, paints, fabric… they all come in student, artist, and professional grades, and every maker learns to match the material to the moment. Practice needs low-stakes supplies so we don’t freeze up worrying about wasting the fancy stuff. That fear of ruining something precious? It’s a creativity killer, and we refuse to let it win. But the work meant to last for generations needs materials that will actually last for generations.

For some reason, the fiber and textile arts haven’t always insisted on that same distinction. We’ll happily spend real money on gorgeous hand-dyed cotton, precision cutters, and a needle for every occasion… and then reach for an adhesive formulated for third-grade construction paper. So let us walk you through how we actually sort it out on our own worktable.

Three Glues, Three Jobs

School glue sticks

These are our accessibility-and-play tier. They’re what we hand out in beginner-friendly workshops where cost matters and everyone’s just there to learn a technique, and they’re what we grab in the studio when we’re testing a layout or goofing around with an idea. Cheap, washable, everywhere. Perfect for low-stakes, temporary, get-out-of-your-own-head basting.

Permanent glue sticks

These (the UHU-style ones) are our middle tier. When we’re teaching art-forward classes, building mixed media pieces, or doing certain visible mending where we want a bond that stays put, this is the reach. More commitment than school glue, different job than Roxanne.

Roxanne Baste-It

This is what we reach for on almost every textile piece that matters here in the studio. Gallery work. Commissions. Heirloom-bound quilts. The pieces we want someone to still be holding in fifty years. It’s the one glue we trust not to gum up our hand stitching or our machine work, it dries flexible instead of crunchy, and it washes out completely and cleanly.

None of that is a knock on the cheaper tubes. It’s just knowing which tool got invited to which party.

What Roxanne Actually Does on Cloth

Sticking two things together is easy. Getting fabric to stay put without wrecking its drape, its hand, or its color is the hard part, and that’s where a glue built for textiles instead of paper starts earning its keep.

  • Smooth, light application. It doesn’t drag on delicate weaves or leave thick, gummy clumps. For our English paper piecing, we can lay down the finest skiff of it on the template and the fabric, just enough to hold, with none of that sticky mess. On the fine garment fabrics in our upcoming visible mending workshops, that light hand is exactly why it beats a school glue stick, which drags and gums up the very fabrics we’re trying to save (more on the gumming in a minute).
  • Fast-drying and water-soluble. It sets quickly so you can keep moving, then washes out completely once the stitching is doing the structural work.
  • Made for the actual jobs. Appliqué, bindings, hems, EPP… it holds edges crisp under the genuine physical stress of textile work without turning your piece stiff as a board.

School glue can hold two pieces of cloth together, sure. But Roxanne is the one that was clearly invited to the fabric party.

The Studio View: Saving Your Needles, Your Thread, and Your Sanity

This is the one we feel in our hands, so bear with us while we get specific, because it’s the difference nobody warns you about until you’re living it. When we’re doing the stitching-heavy work we love most, sashiko, visible mending, EPP, appliqué, the wrong glue turns into a genuine problem. The heavier, gummier sticks do hold the fabric in place, we’ll give them that. But they dry stiff; stitching through stiff, gummy fabric is a fight. Worse, the glue transfers onto the needle. By hand, that means a rubbery drag that makes your thimble slide and your hand ache, and it means we’re stopping to wipe our needles down with alcohol to keep them moving smoothly. That’s not a workflow. That’s a chore we invented for ourselves by grabbing the wrong tube.

On the machine it gets worse, and here’s the chain of events we’ve watched happen more than once. The glue gets onto the needle and, with the friction and heat of stitching, melts onto it a bit. Now the needle is tacky, so it grabs at the fabric and pulls it instead of piercing cleanly, and that drag throws off your stitches, sometimes skipping them outright. Then comes the part that really stings: the same gummed-up needle tugging on the thread until the thread itself breaks. We’ve traced more than one snapped length of good thread back to exactly that. None of this is a lab-certified white paper, and we won’t dress it up as one. It’s our studio experience, learned the annoying way. But it’s consistent enough that we trust it.

Roxanne dries down light and flexible, so whether the needle’s driven by your hand or your motor, it slips through the basted zone instead of collecting adhesive and dragging it into the works. No alcohol wipes, no melting, no mystery thread breaks. Just smooth, rhythmic stitching, which is the whole reason we sat down to sew in the first place.

The Preservation Angle: Why Old Quilts Go Brown

Here’s the one that keeps us honest, because we’ve handled a lot of vintage textiles and old quilts, and we’ve seen the damage up close. You know those brown and yellow stains that bloom on antique pieces over the years? Most of us recognize them on sight. Fewer of us stop to ask what actually causes them.

A big part of the answer is the adhesives. Many old glues were acidic to begin with, or turned acidic as they aged and broke down, and that acid migrates straight into the fibers. Acid is what makes natural fabric yellow, weaken, and eventually fall apart, the same reason conservators fuss over acid-free mat board and archival tissue. Some adhesives off-gas as they degrade too, which doesn’t help. The through-line is simple: put an acidic, breaking-down glue against cloth and give it enough time, and the cloth pays for it.

Which is exactly why acid-free and pH-neutral aren’t just label decoration. An acid-free adhesive isn’t leaving a slow decay bomb tucked inside your quilt sandwich or your garment seams. Roxanne is acid-free and pH-neutral, and that’s the language we’re comfortable standing behind. You’ll hear folx toss around archival too, but in textile conservation that word carries the weight of decades of standardized testing, so we’d rather keep our claims clean and true: acid-free, pH-neutral, and a safe, stable choice when you want today’s work to still be here for the folx who come after you.

Use the Right Tool for the Job

Cheap glue sticks have their place, and we mean that. Mockups, rough drafts, kid projects, quick low-stakes fixes, and every I’m-just-playing moment where the whole point is not to feel precious about it. Keep that fifty-cent tube. Use it with joy.

But when you move past practice and into the work that matters, your tools should match your effort. Not every project deserves the fancy glue. But when the fabric matters, the fancy glue isn’t actually fancy. It’s just the better tool. Roxanne is the one we reach for when we want fabric to behave: smooth application, a lighter hand, easier stitching, and zero drama at the needle. That’s the whole philosophy, really. There’s a right tool and a right material for every project, and the trick is just knowing which is which.

Stitch on,

Shannon & Jason

🧵 Shop Roxanne Baste-It Glue and the full Roxanne glue lineup here.

📌 Explore Colonial Needle’s needles, thimbles, and notions for your next textile project here.

▶️ Catch more Colonial Needle tips and tutorials on YouTube here.

Kogin-zashi Bookmark

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Kogin is completely different than anything else we have ever done before. We love learning and exploring new-to-us techniques and styles of making all the things and kogin-zashi was ticking all the boxes. Creating these gorgeous stitch patterns with such a mindful practice is exciting for us and keeps us motivated to create and explore further. We particularly loved applying kogin to some of our own garment designs and to projects that are common fair among sewists and crafters. Kogin adds a next level of richness to these projects and adds to our understanding of textile creation and use.

Kogin-zashi is a type of darned embroidery meaning the stitches lay closely against one another to reinforce and enhance the base fabric the stitches are worked onto. Kogin is a type of counted thread work with a shared DNA evident in other forms of darned embroidery, counted threadwork, pattern darning, and needle weaving from Norway, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Medieval Middle Eastern counted thread embroidery, and Mamluk pattern darning found in the Middle East and Egypt.

Like other forms of sashiko, kogin-zashi was created by Japanese folx living in cold climates with short growing seasons. Kogin needlework was originally done to reinforce and fortify fabric not as a leisure craft but as a necessity for survival. At the time kogin-zashi was developed (Edo Period, 1603-1867), cotton was a scarce commodity due to the short growing season and the overall cold climate of the Tsugaru region, Aomori, Japan – kogin-zashi’s area of origin. In addition to the scarcity of cotton, it was forbidden for use as a garment fabric by anyone but the ruling class in Japan. This meant folx used fibers derived from plants like ramie, hemp, and tree barks to weave their cloth. Unlike cotton fabric, such fabric does not offer optimal protection from the elements and layering did not provide the needed protection either. Being resourceful, and downright clever, they used kogin stitches made with cotton thread to fill in the gaps in the woven fabric. This created a denser fabric that provided protection and warmth while skirting the strict laws regarding cotton’s use in garment fabric. Fabrics with kogin stitching are complex and dense and contain patterns from geometric borders and lines to intricate key forms and tiled marvels of design. Kogin-zashi fabric is inherently practical but through the lens of time, this practical handwork task has become art and the craft we love today.

Kogin-zashi designs are created by counting the vertical threads of the base fabric and working the needle over and under those threads following the space between the horizontal threads (warp threads) of the base fabric. The stitches are worked into the spaces created by the intersection of the horizontal and vertical threads, filling in the gaps in the woven fabric.

Kogin-zashi was not used to reinforce fabrics by fastening down patches or binding together multiple layers of fabric. Instead, kogin reinforces fabric by weaving thread between the vertical and horizontal threads of loosely woven fabric. The result is a denser fabric that is stronger, more durable, offers greater protection from the elements and, without a doubt, is stunning to behold. Modern kogin-zashi, uses embroidery floss, thread or even fine weight yarns with evenweave fabric such as Congress Cloth, Davosa, or Lugana to create projects.

We discovered kogin-zashi as part of our research for our book Boro & Sashiko: Harmonious Imperfection. We were most excited by the intricate designs created by easy one line at a time stitching. For us, the most exciting part of kogin is how accessible it is as a skill. Regardless of their background as makers and creators, folx can learn the introductory parts of needle handling and pattern reading, almost immediately creating complex graphic designs on fabric. It’s exciting to see the results unfold one line at a time right before your eyes and it motivates you to keep stitching so see that happen. Even if folx have never done hand needlework before, they are going to be able to pick up kogin-zashi and make something right away. The instant gratification factor is big with this craft. For folx who are familiar with handwork and needlework, this is a refreshing change from the norm and we believe they are going to find the same exhilaration and satisfaction we have from this form that is juuuuuuust different enough to be exciting but not so different that is alienating.

For this project, we created a woven knot motif. The pattern was originally released as part of our Maker’s Moments series of workshops on our website at shannonandjason.com. To learn more about kogin-zashi and other forms of sashiko, checkout our books Boro & Sashiko – Harmonious Imperfection and Contemporary Kogin-zashi. Both titles are available on our website at shannonandjason.com or from your favorite local bookseller.

Find the instructions here.

Find the pattern here.

As always, Stitch On!

Shannon & Jason

Using the CNC Palm Thimble for Big Stitch Quilting

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It’s no secret that we have a special place in our hearts for scrappy quilting and we carry just as bright of a torch for hand quilting with sashiko style stitches. We have done our fair share of machine quilting on our domestic machine (as in our latest book Scrappy Wonky Quilt Block Extravaganza) but nothing comes close to the texture of a hand stitched sashiko style running stitch. For our last couple of projects, we have used the new palm thimble from Colonial Needle Company to make this process even easier and certainly more enjoyable for us. We certainly still use this versatile thimble for all of our sashiko projects and mending but it is a game changer for big stitch quilting. Paired with the John James long darners, and Presencia 12 weight thread held double, the combo is a hand quilter’s dream team.

Now you might want to sit down for this part because we are going to say something controversial.

But stick with us.

Here goes: we don’t like buying new fabric.

<insert gasps here>

We know… who doesn’t like perusing racks and aisles of freshly bolted fabrics in immeasurable variations of color, prints, solids, weave, and content types? We do like looking at them but purposely buying yardage is reserved for specific projects like garments and quilts that require a certain type of fabric or unifying fabric such as a single background color. But, when it comes to every day stitching and projects, we like to shop the flat fold and odd cuts section of our fabric store. More than once we have absolutely raided the clothing and fabric piles at tag sales and the 50¢ racks at thrift stores are not safe from us. Everything comes home and goes into a sanitizing wash and is pressed before disassembling into large pieces of flat fabric. This process of rescuing and repurposing found fabric is almost magical to us and we love the textiles they create.

Our latest joy has been working on our clothing quilts. We made a clothing quilt a while back for a charity auction and NEEEEEDED one of our own. For our personal clothing quilt, we sourced all of the fabric from our own garments which wasn’t exactly difficult considering we don’t throw away anything that even remotely resembles fabric. We sorted through bags and boxes of “old” clothes, the mending pile (from which we used anything that had been in there for longer than a year), and clothes that didn’t fit anymore or weren’t exactly suited to us anymore.

As a result, assembling and quilting this piece has been a walk down memory lane. That purple plaid flannel shirt that Shannon used to wear hiking when we took the Shibakidz everywhere with us. The stripped “designer label” button up that was a gift from one of us to the other when we were first married (that was thirty years ago, y’all) and both of us wore as a throw on top layer until it was pretty threadbare. Jason’s red western shirt he used to wear when we went dancing, the fancy shirt he used to wear to teach in. All of these bring back memories of times and places as we assemble them into new textile panels and create this quilt that will live with and beyond us.

The esthetics of this type of fabric cannot be ignored. The amazing feel of these newly created textiles as they move through our hands. The feel of the needle slipping through the layers of fabric and batting. The crinkle (if you know… you KNOW) of the fabric after a section of stitches are completed. And the weight and density of the layers of fabric and batting is like nothing else.

Overall, the process of making a clothing quilt is very different from a patterned quilt made using more traditional quilting cottons off the bolt. The top is pieced together with panels of individual framed improv motifs and larger sections of fabric as well as smaller scrap pieces tucked in to fill space. The back is large panels put together with as few seams as possible to make the quilting easier so the needle doesn’t have to go through too many odd seams at a time. The batting is organic cotton from Hobbs batting pieced together from leftover panels from our last quilting book. Every piece and seam is thought out and considered as part of the whole and serves to create the intricate decoration of the quilt but also is a meditative practice for us where we disregard any of the outside <waves arms about wildly> stuff-n-things that put our nerves on edge. We can, for a time, immerse ourselves in the physical sensation of the weight of the fabric, the feel of the fabric texture, and the ssshhhhhhp sound of the thread being pulled through the quilt layers.

Did this turn into a love letter to fabric quilts and hand stitching? Probably. Do we suddenly feel compelled to go sit and stitch on our quilt again? Definitely. So yeah… gotta go.

But seriously, we hope this inspires you to consider using found fabric for at least one project this year. There is so much joy in repurposing fabrics and in giving them new life while giving our planet a little bit of a break from just that much more fashion and textile waste. Now, really, it’s time for a cup of tea and some ssshhhhhhp, ssshhhhhhp.

– Shannon & Jason

*For a video tutorial of using the CNC Palm Thimble for Big Stitch Quilting, see our YouTube video:

When Disaster Strikes: Repairing A Thread Break

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We’ve all been through it: You have a favorite quilt, it’s been with you through thick and thin, more like a cozy confidante than a mere blanket. But suddenly, disaster strikes! A quilting line breaks, literally threatening the very fabric of your cozy companion. Now, you could take it to a professional, but is that really necessary? It’s like sending your best friend to therapy when all they need is a one-on-one chat over coffee. Hand sewing quilt repairs is like giving your quilt a little spa day—it’s personal, it’s intimate, and let’s face it, you get to bond with your quilt on a whole new level, whispering sweet nothings to it as you stitch, ensuring that it’ll keep you warm and cozy for many more slumber sessions and rainy afternoons to come. So, grab a needle and thread, and let the healing stitches begin!

Quilting lines break… regardless of what thread you use or the tension you stitch with, sometimes it just happens. And when it does happen, it’s a simple process to repair that line and keep the damage to a minimum. We re-check our quilts for thread breaks before cleaning or before putting them up for the season and make quick mends before they become bigger problems.

For this video, we were repairing a random quilting thread break from one of the quilts from our new book Scrappy Wonky Quilt Block Extravaganza before it shipped out for a trunk show.

How To Repair A Thread Break

Our Video Tutorial can be found here.

Tools Needed:

  1. Thread pick or tweezers (for taking control of those unruly threads)
  2. Sewing machine (for the fast and furious fix)
  3. Matching colored thread (of course we’ll keep it stylish)
  4. Needle threader (for those tiny eye-of-the-needle challenges)
  5. Good hand sewing needles (because not all needles are created equal, dah-lings!)
    – We use the John James Signature Collection Between, size 11. If you like Sharps better they will work great here too.

For quilts where one line of stitching has broken (i.e. the bobbin thread broke on the back as shown in our video) the steps are simple and straightforward as long as you take it one step at a time. First things first, let’s tie off the existing ends of the thread.

Now, onto the grand performance of quilt surgery!

1.Untangle Any Mess: On the backside of your quilt, delicately unpick the rebellious thread in both directions. We need enough thread to secure the line, tie a knot, and tuck it away discreetly—about 4–5 inches should do the trick.

2. Making the Cut: Cut the remaining thread on the top side of your fabric, again you need at least 4–5 inches, more if you can manage it… pull this through to the back. Thread both the top and bottom threads through your needle (needle threader to the rescue here) and finish the stitch on the backside, stitching through the back fabric alone.

3. The Disappearing Trick: Tie a knot roughly 1/4” from that last stitch. Then, like a skilled magician, make that knot disappear by inserting your needle into the fabric coming out an inch or two away from the insertion point and gently tug the end until the until the knot vanishes into the fabric. Snip off any excess thread and repeat the process for the other side. TA-DAA!

4. Time for Round Two: Now, let’s sew that quilting line back! Using a thread that matches the existing one, re-sew the quilt line, making sure to start and stop about 1 stitch length away from the original start/stop points. Leave plenty of thread for finishing touches and tying off—doing this last stitch by hand means your quilt fix will be invisible… even to your MIL or that one member of your guild who loves to point out everyone’s mistakes.

Bonus Tip: We always keep track of the fabric type and brand, the batting type and brand, and the thread brand, type, and color number. This allows us to make fixes later if necessary. It is not a bad idea to add a label to your quilts with this information on it… because who can remember where they put that notebook anyway? Which Dropbox folder was it in?

Label your quilts folx!

5. The Finishing Flourish: Finish the last stitch on the top by hand, then pull through to the back ensuring it cozies up next to the bobbin thread. Thread both top and bobbin threads through the needle, then tie them off with a knot or make a series of small backstitches next to the existing quilt line (it’s in the video), whichever tickles your quilting fancy.

6. The Grand Finale: Bury those thread tails like buried treasure, with or without a knot, and repeat the process for the other side. And just like that, your quilt is ready to snuggle into its rightful place—be it on your bed, on your favorite reading chair, or safely tucked away until its next grand adventure!

While you have that John James Signature Collection needle out, now would be a good time to add that quilt label we mentioned… just saying…

And there you have it, folx! Quilt repair made easy-peasy. Give this a shot with your next thread break and you’ll feel like a thread whisperer extraordinaire!

STITCH ON!!
Shannon & Jason

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ROXANNE TO THE RESCUE AGAIN!!!

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By Judy Moore Pullen

I am so eager to share with you one of my favorite NEW tools: Roxanne Temporary Adhesive Spray from Colonial Needle Company. It can be found on their website here, at major suppliers, and hopefully, quick as a bunny at your favorite quilt and fabric shops. There are so many wonderful uses and applications for this fabulous adhesive spray…so where to begin?!

What is Roxanne’s Temporary Adhesive Spray?

Roxanne is a well-known brand of quilting products, including glues, needles, and notions. The qualities of their Temporary Adhesive Spray are many. This spray adhesive is acid free, odorless and colorless meaning it will not stain fabric or fibers. For those of you with pricey or precious vintage sewing machines, it will not clog your machine or needles. As a tool, Roxanne’s spray assists in positioning and holding fabrics for quilting, sewing, and other fiber-related activities, yet it is temporary and disappears when washed. It is almost like another pair of hands assisting you to smoothly position and hold layers in place for the next step.

Roxanne Temporary Adhesive Spray will be loved and adored by quilters who are layering, seamstresses, home décor sewists, embroidery enthusiasts, applique and piecing passionists (that’s a word, right?), craft designers and artists, pattern piecing persons, and so many more! If you enjoy working and playing with fabric, fibers, threads, roving, yarn, etc., you will find that Roxanne’s newest product will fill your needs for fun and ease of use. The time saved with its use will allow you to spend more time playing and creating. As a firm believer in the importance of process, the doing part of a project for me is such an important part of the joy of creating; almost as important as showing off my finished product!

How do you use Roxanne’s Temporary Adhesive Spray?

For years, I have been safety pin-basting backing, batting, and tops together for hand or machine quilting. I do not have time on my hands, but my hands have many years of time on them, and basting a quilt this way is not one of my favorite things to do. My hands and fingers become sore. However, what a joy to layer a quilt now with Roxanne’s Temporary Adhesive Spray!

  1. Prepare by rolling the batting loosely from one end toward the other.
  2. Repeat with the quilt top, and lay both aside nearby.
  3. Secure the quilt backing layer to a clean flat surface, wrong side up, with masking tape.
  4. Lightly spray with Roxanne Spray.
  5. Position the batting at one end of the backing, and unroll the rest of the batting toward the other end, smoothing lightly with your hands as you unroll. Spray backing with Roxanne then unroll and layer batting
  6. Next, lightly spray the batting, then lay the quilt top at one end of the batting.
  7. Unroll the quilt top toward the bottom edge of the batting, smoothing and pressing lightly, flat as a tortilla, and smooth as an ice-skating rink!! Spray batting and unroll and smooth appliquéd top.
  8. Quickly and beautifully flat for hand or machine quilting!

All odor-free, easy-peasy and no sore fingers or hands!! After a few minutes to dry, I am confident that neither my machine nor hand quilting needle will get tacky while stitching.

TIP:
If you are generous with the spray and it winds up on your table or a surface, not to fret! A light spray with water and swipe with a clean dry cloth will remove the light tackiness.

What are some other benefits of using RX Adhesive Spray?

When machine or hand quilting, I sometimes get those undesired little pleats or tucks on the back side of my quilt whenever I approach a previous line of stitching. At times I need to manipulate the layers, or needle-down in my machine, lift presser foot, and give little tugs back and forth to remove bubbles on top, and hopefully prevent gathers on the backing. However, with Roxanne’s Temporary Adhesive Spray, I happily keep stitching when approaching quilting stitches, no bubbles on top and no ruffles on the back! My machine quilting has improved so much and in such a short period of time. Time saved basting layers together and quilting add up to the probability of getting more projects finished and more begun. Win~Win! More play time and improved finished product, means I am one happy quilter and excited about sharing what I have learned and experienced with this wonderful product from a name we know and trust to do what we love to do.

What else can you do with Roxanne’s Temporary Adhesive Spray?

Here’s how Roxanne’ Spray helped me easily add borders to an old incomplete project:

Adding batting with Roxanne spray to new borders.
Adding batting with Roxanne spray to new borders.
New Borders!
New Borders!

A wool applique enthusiast, I also discovered Roxanne’s Spray works beautifully to layer wool to batting for quilting.

Wool background layered with Roxanne Spray on batting

Another of my older needle turn applique projects needs help, so I plan to unstitch some of the applique on Sunbonnet Sue, spray lightly, reposition Sue’s dress and sunbonnet, and needle turn applique back in place.

In an upcoming blog, I want to share ways I have used Roxanne glues, needles, and notions. I guess you could say I am a fan of Roxanne products. Oh, wait, I happen to know where some vintage fan blocks are, and can hardly wait to applique them to backgrounds with Roxanne’s Spray. Then, I’ll turn them into a quilt, and move on to another fun project! Yes, I am very excited about this new product.

Go ahead, thank Roxanne for adding more playtime, fun, and pleasure to your fabric and fiber projects. You can thank me later.

Happily sew on and sew on…

Judy Moore Pullen