This week’s sewing project was the bunny wall quilt made from the Brown Bunny Laser Cut Applique Kit.  After adding the borders to the appliqued panel, it was time to figure out how I wanted to quilt it.  I decided to tackle the center panel first and then figure out the border quilting.  I had a flower design in mind, first of all I sat down with a large piece of paper and a pencil and made sketches, keeping in mind that several would have to link together.  Once I got a design in mind, I sat and played with some scrap fabrics and batting.  The design evolved even more, and I developed some muscle and brain memory for the flower pattern.

On to the real deal.   Thread.  How can it be when you have boxes of quilting thread, you never have the right color?  Off to my local quilt shop I went.  Well, now I don’t feel so bad.  SHE didn’t have a good color in quilt thread, either!  Machine embroidery thread, yes.  Quilt thread, no.  Well, I have lots of machine embroidery thread, and three colors close to choose from.  This will be a display and wall hanging, so I am not too concerned about the rayon.  Problem solved!  Almost…

Now how to thread a mini cone on my vintage Singer 201-2?   My other machines all have somewhere unofficially that I can run to off the cone stand, but this machine puzzled me.  I decided I needed to fashion something out of wire, AND I just happened to have some short remnants of wire laying around from a recent wiring project for the laser.  (It takes FOUR outlets!)  I stripped the insulation off the heavy copper wire and fashioned a curly thing to thread the thread through.  Moving forward!

I quilted the center portion and then decided to do a trellis on the borders, which I did on my modern machine with a walking foot. I added the binding, and put it aside as I knew I was going on a road trip in a couple of days, and I like doing hand sewing in the car.

While hand sewing the binding I had an “a-hah” moment.  I have been having problems with my thread while hand sewing for a little while now… splitting and knotting predominately.  I have been blaming this on the thread, and this project was no different.  I have used beeswax on any hand sewing project since I was a child.  At some point in the middle of my frustration, I realized that I had given my many year old beeswax to my granddaughter a couple of years ago when she was learning hand sewing.  I bought a new one in the plastic holder at my local, national chain, fabric shop.  I have now realized that that beeswax is not what it used to be.  My guess is, but I am not sure, that they are adding paraffin or some synthetic wax now.  I had a very small chunk of pure beeswax, so I decided to try that.  Voila!   No more thread problems!!!   I am going to melt a block for my holder as soon as I find the right size lid to melt it in for a mold.

Anyway, I am pretty happy with how the quilt turned out, and I have reminded myself again, that when I get frustrated, I need to change something!!!  What do you need to tackle today to eliminate a frustration point?