Have I Mentioned I Love Thread?

Some quilters collect fabric.  Other crafters find themselves drawn to buttons.  For whatever reason I am finding my fascination is THREAD!  Experimenting with their different uses, textures, and effects is as thrilling to me as an artist experimenting with different kinds of paint.  I often look to established well known quilters for inspiration and to see what I can do to improve my own quilts - one of my favorites is Diane Gaudynski.  She uses silk thread to achieve amazing effects with her quilting.  Her feathers made me just fanatic about mastering free motion feathers!  I'm still not there but after looking to her quilts for inspiration and a lot of practice I'm getting better.  She also uses paintsticks to shade in and add depth to her feathers - oh DROOL! 

So inspired by Diane I picked up silk thread this evening while at Jo Anns.  Just an itsy bitty bit - 125 yards to be exact.  Sometimes two different thread brands can offer the same type of thread but are worlds apart when the two are compared - so I don't know what to expect from Gutermann silk thread, but I'm really looking forward to playing. 

I also picked up some bronze metallic thread.  I tried a different kind of metallic thread years ago but had just a nightmare time with tension.  This metallic looks much easier to sew with.

I bought half yard of the pretty sparkle fabric to match the threads I picked up (isn't that the way you do things?) and then found those buttons - they are made from coconut shells!  Isn't that neat???  I love  them!  I had just put lotion on my hands but I could swear they even smell like coconut...

...so off I am to sleep and I bet I will dream about thread and trapunto.  :)  I hope all the quilters in blogland are finding time to sew this week. 

- Valerie