Friday, August 29, 2008

Rainbows thread success

When my friend and fellow CyberBee member JoAnn brought me this quilt, she brought along a spool of Superior Rainbows thread to try. I was pessimistic that it would work on my Gammill, but was willing to give it a try. To my surprise, I was able to run it without too much trouble! This is a thin poly thread with lots of color changes and a nice sheen. Typically, I either have thread breakage or tension problems with specialty threads.


Superior Threads has a reference chart on their website with recommendations for needle size and other adjustments. They recommended reducing the tension for this thread. I loosened both tensioners until the knobs were about to fall off. That didn't get the tension right. Then I took the thread out of the three-hole guide and just threaded it through one hole.

Still needing to reduce tension, I wrapped the thread only once around the rotary tension instead of the usual one and three quarters.

I also used a thread net around the spool to keep the thread from slipping off. Voila, good tension!By the way, I also had to unscrew the three prongs that go in the center opening of the spool. Now, why can't all cones of thread have the same size opening?

Anyway, here is the quilt draped over the machine before quilting the black border. Isn't it stunning? I loved the colors.

Here is the center medallion.



And the outer border, inner border, and blue area.



I am glad to get this done before the Labor Day Holiday weekend. We are staying home to get ready for the installation of new floors in our entire downstairs. We are exchanging our old, damaged and stained vinyl floor in the kitchen with porcelain tile. The living room, foyer, and dining room will be hardwood. Lots of stuff to pack up and move, but I think it will be well worth it!

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