My favorite thread company is Superior Threads.  They carry a wide variety of thread contents, colors and spool sizes.  Occasionally they have a sale and that’s when I like to purchase for my “collection”. Recently they had a sale on their “Try Me Specials”.  These are thread options that you select the thread content, but have no selection of the color.  Because the price was so good, I decided to purchase some spools of thread that I had been wanting to try.  I also purchased several spools of Masterpiece thread. This is my favorite thread to use for piecing and quilting.  It is a 50wt thread and does not add much bulk to seams or on the surface of the quilt.  I thought that if I received a color I already had  in my collection, that would be fine because I knew I would be using it.  But, if I received a new color, that would add to more options for quilting.

I order five spools each of Masterpiece, King Tut, Bottom Line and Metallics.   When they arrived the colors were beautiful.  But, when I brought them up to my sewing room, I realized that my thread racks were full.

So, I needed to figure out a way to store them.  I thought about making a pegboard thread rack (like I have done before), but wanted more flexibility in the location for mounting them.  So, I looked around at Home Depot for other options that I could try.  I really like these because I can mount them in any configuration and more easily sort my thread options rather than having them all on one large rack.

Supplies Needed:

• 3/4″ x 1 1/2″ x 8 ft White PVC Trim. Purchased at Home Depot for about $6.  Unfortunately I could not buy this in a short piece, so I have some left over for other projects, or more thread racks.
• 1/4″ x 12″ Plexiglass Rods, opaque white. Purchased from Amazon for $10.
• E6000 Industrial Strength Adhesive – already had available. Can be purchased at Hobby Lobby.  Use a 40% off coupon and its only $3.
• Total spent was $16 for four thread racks.

1. Cut PVC trim to length desired.  I used 12″ to fit the space I would be mounting them. The trim cuts really easily with a circular saw.

2. Cut the rods to 2″ pieces. The easiest way to cut the rods is to score them with a hand saw and then snap the pieces apart. Use fine sand paper to smooth the edges of one end of each rod.
3. Mark the locations for the rods, making sure that they are space far enough apart to fit the thread spools.  My spools are spaced 2″ apart. Using a 1/4″ drill bit, drill holes about to about half the depth of the trim board.
4. Fill each hole part way with E6000 adhesive.  Place one plexiglass rod piece into each hole.  They will be snug and may require a small tap with a hammer to fully seat them.
6. Allow to dry.  I mounted mine to the wall with velcro strips.

I now have space for 48 more spools of thread.

For my long-arm machine, I normally use 50 wt cotton thread (Masterpiece from Superior Threads). I purchase these in cones that hold 2500 yards and are stored on wooden coat racks mounted to the wall in my sewing room.

Occasionally, I like to use other thread – 100 wt silk for fine stitching (Kimono Silk) or variegated silk (Tiara Silk) for adding variation to the stitching. My supply of these mini-cones and spools was getting too large to just have on the shelf – I was getting annoyed by them looking messy.

So, I needed a better way to store them, but I also wanted to easily be able to see my supply.  With space limited, I opted to make my own thread racks that would fit on the wall.

Supplies Needed:
Pegboard – we had scraps, so no cost

¼” wooden dowels – $0.69 for 36″ lengths
Wood Glue – already had available
White Spray Paint – $4 at Home Depot
White Frames – two at $9.99, one at $8.99
(with 40% off coupons, paid $18.50 total)
Total spent was $26 for three thread racks!

Steps involved:
1. Cut pegboard to size that fits in the frame.
Cut dowels in 2″ segments.
2. Determine the spacing for the size of the thread spools/cones.
I made two racks with the dowels in every other hole to fit Kimono mini-cones.
I made one rack with the dowels in alternating holes for smaller Tiara spools.
3. Glue the dowel segments in the holes of the pegboard. My dowels fit very snug so there was no need to clamp or support them while the glue dried.
4. Spray paint the pegboard/dowels – three coats of paint were needed to fully cover the brown color of the pegboard and keep the surface smooth.

5. Once dry, attach the frame.
6. Mount to the wall and load the thread.

My three thread racks, loaded with spools/mini-cones, work great and add a pop of color to my sewing room walls!

 

 

About a two years ago, I moved my long arm sewing machine into the smallest bedroom in our house. When setting up the room, I decided I wanted to stencil a phrase of encouragement on the wall.  Looking on-line, I found that the custom stencil I was thinking about (“Dream it…  Plan it…  Do it!) would be expensive.   Instead of ordering one, I thought I should check out options for a personal cutting machine to make my own stencil.  While more expensive, I realized that if I purchased the cutter, I could use it for a lot of other ideas. So, I purchased a Silhouette Cameo cutting machine, made my own stencil, and it turned out great.

Since then, I have used my Cameo for a few other projects – personalized cards, applique templates, and recently glass etching stencils.  One of the things I never really thought I would try to cut with the Cameo was fabric – I just didn’t think that the blades would not be able to cut smoothly.

However, last week, while reading one of my favorite blogs (Cedar Canyon Textiles), I began to rethink that opinion.  In her blog, Shelly Stokes described her attempts at fabric cutting with a similar cutting machine.  In her description, she commented that from what she had been told and read, you need to “stabilize the dickens” out of fabric, in other words “turn it into paper”.  Realizing that sometimes heavy stabilizer are not wanted, she set up several tests to see if she could cut fabric.  She tested:

– Plain fabric (no stabilizer)

– Fabric stiffened with Totally Stable

– Fabric stiffened with freezer paper

– Fabric fused to Steam A Seam Lite

– Fabric fused to Steam A Seam 2 (not lite)

She found was that fabric alone did not cut well, but when stabilized with Totally Stable and freezer paper the outcome was acceptable (but not perfect) and the fabric retained original feel after the stabilizer was peeled off.  Fabric stabilized with fusible web cut cleanly, with the heavier the fusible web the cleaner the cut.

Since I like to use Misty Fuse when doing applique so that there isn’t a lot of extra bulk, I really don’t want to use a heavy stabilizer when cutting out applique pieces.  So, I decided to do my own experiment.  I liked the freezer paper idea, but thought I would try to enhance that approach to make the fabric stiffer for a cleaner cut.

Experiment #1 – Starched fabric with freezer paper

 

I thought that if I heavily starched the fabric prior to stabilizing on freezer paper, I may get a better result that must freezer paper alone.

I used my own starch spray recipe, to have control over the stiffness created.

Starch Recipe: 1/4 cup Sta-Flo liquid starch

                        1/4 cup Potato Vodka (a natural starch that evaporates quickly)

                        2 cups distilled water

This recipe makes a fairly stiff starch spray (for normally pressing when I am quilting, I omit the Sta-Flo from the recipe).  The starch in the Potato Vodka gives a very nice, soft feel to the fabric while pressing very smooth.

After starching, I fused freezer paper to the back of the fabric, attached it to the sticky cutting mat and loaded it into the Cameo cutter. The cut file that I had created included some basic shapes with straight lines and curved lines. I also included an intricate butterfly to see how well the details could be cut.

The Cameo cut the basic shapes really well.  But, the details of the butterfly were less than impressive. The blade tended to pull the fabric when moving.

So, I thought – what if I load the Cameo with the fabric “sandwiched” between the cutting mat and the freezer paper?  Would this keep the blade from pulling on the fabric?

Experiment #2 – Starched fabric with freezer paper above the fabric

After starching and fusing to freezer paper, the fabric was and loaded it into the Cameo cutter with the freezer paper facing upward. This configuration  meant that the fabric was sandwiched between the sticky cutting mat and the freezer paper.

I was amazed to watch the Cameo cut the basic shapes and the details of the butterfly with great precision!