Polyester thread

Am I the only one that hates polyester thread? I hear so many people recommend it. Maybe it's just because I pick out so many stitches. I would much rather use cotton. Cotton thread slides so smoothly through cotton fabric that picking out stitches is relatively easy...not that I ever enjoy it...but at least it's easier than all the dragging and snaring and curling and knotting and breaking that I experience when I pick out poly thread.

When I started on the RRCB quilt, I pulled all my neutral, partially used thread spools to use in the string blocks. I didn't think about those being spools of polyester and I didn't do any picking out on those blocks...hard to make a mistake unless I didn't like two fabrics together and I gave myself permission to just get over that.

Anyway, now I'm back working on the ships baby quilt and this morning, I made a mistake on some sails and had to pull some stitches. It took twice as long to get that poly thread out as it would cotton.

I thought about that a while as I grumbled and then I found a way to both use the poly leftovers and get the ease of cotton and I loaded a bobbin with cotton and used the poly on top. Next time I had to pick out stitches, the cotton slid out easily and I was much happier.

I suppose that I should probably work on making less mistakes instead of finding tools to make mistakes easier to correct. But, hey, that would mean lots more planning and I kinda like flying by the seat of my pants and taking chances, and that comes with a risk...the risk of picking out stitches. And, that explains why I own something like 20 seam rippers in about 4 different styles and they are spread out everywhere in my sewing room; every box with a needle in it has a seam ripper.

Just a few more ships and I'll be able to show you my progress on the baby quilt. It's sailing along now (I just crack myself up). I figured out the corner blocks and I've tentatively decided to quilt continuous ship's anchors in the sashing. Wind and water will be easy to quilt into the blocks.

But, with inspiration comes distraction. Now, I'm ready to start shopping for shirt fabric for the shirt sew-along. And, Bonnie released the last step of the RRCB mystery. And, there's a Linus quilt all cut and sitting on the floor (staring at me...what is it with staring that makes me feel guilty?) and another that needs me to buy batting before I quilt it. And, I want to make some "britches for boys" to go along with "little dresses for girls" to send to children in Africa (thanks Hazel!). I have tons and tons and tons of denim, and am going to try to adapt the pattern from the website so I can use some of it up. Or, maybe I'll stick with making them out of some of the excess (and excessive) t-shirts around our house like the pattern calls for.

So many ambitions. So little time.

But, hey, who needs sleep anyway. Sleep is way overrated.

(Yawn!)

Lane