Decorative Stitches and Holoshimmer Thread

Let’s discover what a few decorative stitches and Holoshimmer thread can do to our Halloween door quilt!

Yesterday, we learned how to set the scene for our charming, spooky, cheerful welcome for Halloween night by creating a charming owl to perch on a appliqued tree branch and bask in the glow of an appliqued moon.

What this picture needs is some texture! Coming right up, using Sulky embroidery Holoshimmer embroidery threads. Technically, these beauties are more like filaments, so some extra care must be taken when using them.

• Use a machine embroidery needle — a new one for this new project — and a slightly loosened top tension in your machine. It’s also important to change to a new bobbin, filled with bobbin thread. Switch to your machine’s darning foot. We’re going to paint some bark onto the tree branches. Drop your machine’s feed dogs.
• Place the door quilt top into a large embroidery hoop, but rather than having the work sitting on top of the hoop like a drum, reverse the installation so that the inner hoop is on top of the quilt and flat to the machine bed. (see the photo below).
• Grip the sides of the hoop and move the tree area up and down in a random way, “drawing”, as in free motion quilting, some lines up and down the branch, to create the illusion of bark.
• Trim the threads away as you stop and start to get all the branch areas covered. This is an easy task using 4 1/2 inch EZ snips. The blades curve upwards, away from the work, and the simple squeezing action is a perfect way to get a precise snip without any hand fatigue. I love these little snips.

I’ve become a pretty big fan of the Holoshimmer threads. The thread effect is quite subtle, but effective. It picks up just the smallest bits of light and creates a noticeable shimmer. It’s just perfect for the spooking cheerfulness of our door quilt. It reminds me of dewy spidery webs — EEEK! I added some plain black thread to the tree bark too.

• Remove the quilt top from the hoop and press on the reverse side.
• Switch to your machine’s clear embroidery foot, and engage the feed dogs. Change to a yellow-gold Holoshimmer thread. Select a decorative stitch and outline the moon. I used a combination of two decorative stitches.
• Cut 3 – 2 1/2 inch co-ordinating sashing strips. Attach them first to the bottom edge and then to the sides, pressing the seam inwards toward the dark sky fabric.

Our Halloween door quilt is looking spook-tac-ular! 

See what a few decorative stitches and Holoshimmer thread can do? Come back tomorrow when we make a sandwich and create some currents.