Back to the Polyester

I did a bit of quilting yesterday on the red tulip. After only an hour or so, I was having trouble. The cotton thread just kept breaking. I decided that because it wasn't a long staple thread, it just couldn't handle going through the paint on the panel. It was time to go back to using the polyester thread.

Since switching back to polyester thread in the needle, not only have I had no problem with thread breakage, but the back of the quilt looks even better. The areas where I took a few stitches in place to secure the beginning and end of a line of stitching have little nests of black cotton thread on the back of the quilt. The areas where I began and ended the stitching in the same manner using the polyester thread is cleaner.

I am still not happy with the amount of black thread showing on the back of the quilt but my guess is that there is little I could do about that save changing needle thread color. I am only going to use the black to outline the flowers and leaves. After that I will switch to white and quilt around the flowers. I haven't decided if I will do a random pattern around the flowers or if I will simply echo quilt them. I am leaning toward echo quilting.