In this earlier post, I wrote about testing some new-to-me threads from Gilbreath Threads, and said that they were made in the same factory as the Aurifil.  It appears this is incorrect, and I’d like to thank Alex V. from Aurifil for helping me get the information correct.   Aurifil, which makes VERY high quality cotton thread, does not manufacture thread for Gilbreath.

The message I had received from the US representative for Gilbreath wrote:
We are the only US  importers of Cucirini Tre Stelle
cotton thread from Italy.  It is a 2 ply cotton thread w/a long staple.
We carry cones &   spools.  Our thread compares to Aurifil apples for
apples.  We feel ours is even better as it is made in the same factory
for the last 100 years.

I must have misunderstood that to mean that the Gilbreath thread was made in the Aurifil factory (it is not), rather than it was made in *A* factory, the same one for a hundred years.  My apologies to both companies! They both make great thread, and I’m looking forward to picking up some from each company at Quilt Festival in Houston in a month’s time!

Some days are just perfect, and this month’s Frayed Edges was just that.

Birthday cupcakes from Kathy

My birthday is around about now, and Kate and Kath were amazing!  We met at Kate’s home, a quintessential New England Cape home that is WELL over a hundred fifty years old if it is a day!  It has, of course, been updated, and the skylights and double-paned windows make is so sunny and homey! On the way down, I decided to go via route 24, which runs along the western bank of the Kennebec river, so I turned west onto Route 17 to head towards Augusta.  At that point I turned the GPS on to head to Kate’s home.  It told me to turn before I got to my usual spot, so I thought “Why not?”  OH MY GOODNESS!   The sad part is I was driving and couldn’t take pictures at the same time, but I think I drove through the most beautiful non-coastal part of Maine I have seen yet.  Autumn is just beginning, with flashes of scarlet and gold….small Maine towns, white steeples, babbling brooks, blueberry barrens glowing crimson and auburn and russet….oh my!

This was the table that greeted us:

Kathy arrived before I did, and Kate’s lovely autumn setting (notice her felted-sweater napkin rings, complete with acorns made with real acorn caps and felted wool balls?) was so welcoming!

Kate has these incredible hand-made dishes and silverware that she takes out for our special days.  I just love the cheerful sunflowers:

Kate's place setting...so lovely!

Then we filled them with a new squash and sausage soup, accompanied by salad and some awesome sourdough bread I bought at the Market Basket in Rockport (I really did NOT need to learn that their breads are SO good):

Those goodies you see on the left are birthday prezzies….  Kate UTTERLY indulged me with a Pashmina scarf/shawl in my all-time favorite turquoise/teal/aqua, and Kath bought hand-made chocolates given on a one-of-a-kind pottery spoon rest, accompanied by the adorable Egbert (  made by Kathy and christened on the spot).  What a perfect funny bird!

And here we are, beak-to-beak:

Sarah and Egbert, getting acquainted

He just makes me smile!  He is now on my dining table where I work at my laptop and keeps me in good humor!

We ate lunch a bit early so we could play with paint; a couple weekends earlier Kath and I had attended the SAQA-Maine weekend (more on that in a future post), and I shared a couple techniques I learned.

Playing with paint

What could be more perfect:  wonderful friends, food, art, friends, fabric and ideas and warmth, glorious Maine, friends…. I am so truly blessed!  As you can see…. the cupcakes were delectable with Kathy’s made-by-her ganache (talk about melt in your mouth heavenly):

A post or several ago, I shared my new class sampler for my Intro to Free-Motion Quilting and mentioned I had received some threads from Gilbreath Threads to try out.  I used the sampler as a way to test the threads:

From left to right:

• Gilbreath  Emerald green, cotton 30-wt, #253
• Gilbreath Yellow wool 12-wt
• Gilbreath hot pink silk (lying down) Seta Bozzolo 24-wt., #196
• Superior Threads 40-wt. poly, hot pink #820
• Superior Threads 40-wt poly, rainbows, green variegated #820
• Gilbreath orange/mango 40-wt Palio poly
• Gilbreath 40-wt ecru cotton, 2-ply, #025
• Gilbreath 50-wt white cotton, 2 ply, #000
• Superior 60-wt white poly (used in the bobbin), # 621
• Superior 60-wt  yellow poly (used to sew down the binding), #641
• in the back, two Gilbreath threads not used because the colors didn’t work for this piece: 60-wt purple cotton, 12-wt deep red cotton

I don’t think I’ve ever used that many different types and weights of thread in one piece, but I’m thinking this could be something to add to my arsenal of techniques! At the top you can see the completed, washed piece before the final line of stitching in the ditch on the binding.

I applied the binding to the back, wrapped it to the front (the front side is 1/8″ wider than the back, so the stitching to apply it is on the back of the quilt, not the binding), and stitched it down using a buttonhole stitch and Superior Threads’ Bottom Line thread, a very fine polyester that blends in and is unobtrusive:

The last step is to use the triple-stretch stitch (a bold straight stitch) in the ditch to outline and accent the binding with the hot pink poly from Superior.  See how it crisps up the edge in this photo which shows with and without the outline stitching?  It’s a design choice; both ways are good, just pick the version you like.

Here are close-ups of the quilting in this big-print class sample, which uses motifs from the Free-Motion Sampler (the magenta and lime quilted grid that is in the book) and my “More Machine Quilting” sampler which is featured on the cover of the book, the peach quilt:

It has been a LONG time since I’ve washed a quilt after quilting it, and was very happy to see how the fabric holes closed up around the stitches.  In this last photo, you can see where I added some stippling (ugh, but sometimes useful) around the ecru leaves after it had been washed.  The needle holes in the checkerboard have disappeared, but you can (faintly) see them around the leaves. The quilt is now dampened and back in the dryer to remove those needle-holes too.  Hmm…good learning piece:  Use thick threads in the bobbin!  Rinse and fluff in the dryer…. will have to try that with a very fused and densely quilted sampler and see what happens to the edges of the raw edge applique…. guess what my next class sample will be?

Hope you’ve enjoyed! Cheers, Sarah

Wow….Kathy gave US a major treat for her birthday!  Summers are difficult for the three of us who still come every month (Hannah is overwhelmed with family and her burgeoning business, see her blog here, and Deborah is now in Maryland, which is blissfully closer to Maine than was Texas):  Kathy has lots of family gatherings, Kate and I have kids underfoot.  So we are now skipping meeting in July, but reconvene in August.  The end of August is Kath’s birthday, and she happens to have a deal to use a waterfront cottage down the peninsula south of Damariscotta for a week.  This was a barter for a major quilt she made for a friend…I don’t know who got the better deal!

Here are a whole bunch of photos with captions…enjoy!

The owners found the old whale rib washed up on shore and added it to the front porch

We ate on a small patio off the living area...glorious!

The birthday girl snapped this photo for me (on left) with Kate (on right)

Bundt cake, berries and fresh whipped cream for dessert

the cabin, with the tail of my car on the left--Maine doesn't get any better than this!

sea glass wired to the dining table lamp shade

Lobster buoys that must have washed up, clustered under the pines

Kate’s Delectable Salad

Kathy made peanut-curry soup, I think the recipe is from Mrs. Cutko (kates MIL) --either that or from Kate's mom. It is SO GOOD!

Kate and I have been sidetracked by summer and kids, but Kathy actually had work to share. Here is her floss box..beautiful colors!

And a nearly finished bird of  from Kath:

And I have NO idea why the formatting changed.  I put the text into the same places, but clearly I am missing something!  Oh well…at least you get to share.  What a wonderful place to be:  in Maine, by the sea, with friends who make and love art and cloth and thread!  I am blessed.

My dad was, quite literally, born in the Victorian era, in 1899.  He would NOT believe what I did this week, or what Joshua did:

Yes, that is my  nearly 17-year-old with pirate-stud-earrings.  He actually tried to pierce his own ears (unbeknownst to us, in the bathroom, using a kit, an apple–behind the ear, and a safety pin).  OW! He has been after me for a while to allow this, and I of course stalled.  However, after having attempted it on his own, I decided it was time to just cave in.  I am weak.  So we went to WalMart.  Since he already had steel metal studs, he picked these…quite suitable for the son of a Fiber Pirate!
But still, my dear old dad would be (if he were buried instead of cremated and scattered outside the Golden Gate) spinning in his grave.  And yes, Joshua has a beard.  How do I have a son with earrings and beard who is nearly 17?   That vortex you hear is time disappearing at warp speed…….