mary r

I'm new at hand quilting and was wondering what color and type of thread you would use hand quilting a black background of AOTH. The embroidery will be dark gold and the inner borders blue with gold metallic scrolls. I'm a newbie and I'm open to suggestions as I feel sort of lost. Also where would you purchase the thread as I live an hour from the quilt shop so I'd rather get it online. How many spools would you get. I don't mind having extra. Help please. mary r

Gay

I think I would stay with black, as a colour or variegated thread might look overdone. Only my opinion Have a pic of this quilt with a soft multi-coloured sashing, quilted with black - looks fabulous. It's on my to-do list. Post a photo when finished, please?

mary r

Thank you for your help. mary r

woody

I would love to see a picture too. I only have the borders to do on my AOTH and would love to see yours
Mine also has a black background and I am thing black thread also. I think I will machine quilt mine.

Tartan

​Black thread on black fabric is going to be hard on the eyes if you are hand quilting. If I was going to the trouble of hand quilting, I would want to see it so I would probably use gold.

JT

What is an AOTH?

IrishgalfromNJ

Affairs of the Heart.

When I want to know what an acronym means I just do a search for it on the board and it usually pops up. You can also look at the sticky post at the beginning of the main section that has a dictionary of terms and acronyms.

ManiacQuilter2

I didn't know what AOTH was either. NEVER heard that used on this site before.

I agree with Tartan. Hand quilting black stitches on black fabric is going to be very hard to see how your stitches are coming out. It is very difficult to stitch on black fabric. I normally for piecing use a medium grey so I can see my stitches.

I would make a small sandwich (top being the black, the batting being a scrap and the backing being any fabric) and try hand quilting with different colors of thread such as the gold or a color in the quilt. This will give you an idea of what the actually quilting will look like. It is hard to give advice without a photo.

Kitsie

I just googled it! Oh my! Its wonderful!

feline fanatic

Even a newby can be confident in their quilting stitches. If your stitches are nice and even I would go with a contrasting thread color. Here is an example of a yellow variegated 100% cotton 35Wt quilting thread on black. Please disregard the blobs of cat hair this was taken while quilting so I had not yet de-haired the quilt. [ATTACH=CONFIG]488634[/ATTACH]

the higher the contrast and heavier weight, the more the stitches will show. For example if you opted for red in a 50 wt they would not show as much. I don't think I would use black thread as you will just about go blind trying to see what you are doing. Plus as Tartan stated, you want all your hard work to show. I like the idea of a gold quilting thread too, but not necessarily metallic.

As far as where and how much to order. I barely put a dent in a 500meter spool to hand quilt a 75 x 75 so one 500M spool should be ample. Where to order depends on what thread you want to use. I love Valdani quilting thread (used in above example). If you google it you will get loads of places to buy on line.

Red rock Threads carries many different threads. You could try them. here is a direct link to their handquilting thread by Superior
http://www.redrockthreads.com/superi...r-treasure.asp

But they also carry loads of other brands, including Valdani, but only in the 50wt which I prefer using a heavier weight for hand quilting. With thread, the lower the number the heavier the thread.