"New fabric" are two words that will make a quilter's heart flutter. You're
hearing it here first – we'll send a newsletter tomorrow. You may notice
that I've
rearranged our fabric pages by color groups. If you go to these pages
you'll see some lovely dots.

The fabric home page has the Packs O' Dots and fabric that didn't fit in with the colors on the other pages.

Blues and greens, reds and pink, yellows and orange each have their own page. These are some seriously happy pages to look at!

I flew into the Greensboro Airport last Thursday. There was an exhibit of art and furniture. I'm not sure if the 'Phillips Collection' named is the Phillips Collection Museum, but it could be. What was sort of unusual was that you could get into the exhibit and sit on those chairs if you wanted to. I was in too big a hurry to sit, but I did take a couple of quick photos.

They look kind of comfortable but I'll bet those strips get dusty at the edges. Not sure how I'd deal with that. 

By the time this post goes up I'll be on my way home. It's always nice to go home to my very fine husband and my own bed. I'll post more next week – enjoy your weekend!

I've been in North Carolina teaching for a week. First at Randy's Quilt Shop in Greensboro, then I visited the Brunswick Quilters in Shallotte, and now I'm in Wilmington with the Quilters By The Sea. Each of the quilters in my classes have been wonderful and we've had lots of fun!

I've seen the ocean twice – and sat on the sand once. On the way to the beach, the pattern of the fence pickets on the sand made me stop and pull out my camera…

Even better in a close-up:

I am a bona fide member of the American Quilt League! I am joined by 3 team members: John Flynn, Hollis Chatelain, and Sue Nickels. Last year the four of us each made a miniature quilt that was auctioned off and the proceeds all went to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. This year there are eight quilters on two teams and all eight of us are competing in the World Series Quilt Challenge.

Sue, Hollis, John and I each got to invite a person to be on the 'opposing' team. I am happy to tell you that Judy Mathieson (my invitee), Caryl Bryer Fallert, Mary Sorenson, and Ricky Tims have joined in the fun. You can read more in the official press release here.

Some of us (but not me) have already started their competition quilt. All eight quilts will hang in the AAQI booth in Houston this fall. All eight will be auctioned off. One of these quilts could be yours so start saving your pennies/dollars now!

You can root for any one of us before the quilts are even made! Click here to go to the World Series Quilt Challenge page and click ROOT for details. Help the American Quilt League bring home the championship – and that would be raising the most money in this fight to find a cure for Alzheimers.

I am going to start work my quilt when I get home from teaching in North Carolina. I
will post about it to keep you informed.

For years I have advised the students in my classes to use cotton thread unless they have reason to choose a thread made from another fiber. That is still my firm recommendation. I believe that cotton thread used with cotton fabric is the best choice from a conservation standpoint. 

Bob Purcell at Superior Threads knows a lot more about thread than I do. He is doing a fine job of educating quilters about thread. He recently wrote about polyester thread (under Education) in the May Superior Threads Newsletter. What he wrote is food for thought.

I do know that new polyester threads are much better than the ones that were available when I began quilting 25 years ago. Polyester is strong and does not make as much lint in your sewing machine. It is available in an incredible range of colors and weights. Lots of big names in our industry love and use it.

If I were a garment maker I would probably use polyester thread all the time. If I made quilts that were going to take a lot of wear and be washed a lot, I might consider switching to polyester. Hand appliqued quilts don’t usually fall into that category.

Polyester thread often has a sheen that makes it more visible. That works well for machine quilters who want that the stitches to show up more. If I wanted my machine quilting stitches to be more prominent, I would consider using polyester thread.

For invisible hand applique stitches, I prefer a thread without a sheen because the stitches hide in the fabric better. I have been doing some applique with more visible stitches (see Applique Outside the Lines) and, so far, I prefer a matte finish on those threads as well. If I run into an area where I want some shine, I’ll consider using polyester thread.

I do have concerns about the possible break-down of polyester over the long term. We know that cotton lasts if it is stored correctly. Polyester fibers may outlive us all by centuries, but it hasn’t been around long enough to know that for sure. It’s funny because in most areas of my life I am a true early-adopting techie but when it comes to quilting I make more conservative choices.

I cannot see a reason in my own work to use polyester thread at this time – but maybe you see a reason to use it in your quilts. My advice to you would be to choose the thread that, based on what you want it to do, works best for you.

FYI – As many of you know, we LOVE and use Superior’s Masterpiece cotton thread. The 'Frosted Donut' at left is filled with Masterpiece bobbins in colors that Linda and I selected and you can find it on our site. I hand applique, piece, and do a lot of machine quilting with Masterpiece. It is my go-to thread.

ABOUT SILK THREAD – Silk is harder to keep on your needle as you stitch, it is a bit harder to find in quilt shops in a wide range of colors, and (the last time I checked) it was more expensive than cotton. When there is so much good cotton thread available that does the job so well, why use silk?

I ran across a wonderful blog and thought I'd share it with you. Leah Dieterich's mother always told her to write thank you notes. So she
does. To everything. thxthxthx is her daily exercise in gratitude. Here is a sample thank you note:

And I especially like this one:

What a lovely way to look at the world… looking for ways to be thankful instead of unhappy and frustrated.