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Sunday, October 19, 2008

Three thimbles...Not normal

It is not normal for me to post on Sunday. But my oldest daughter took this picture while I was quilting, and I thought I would share it. I thought it was a good photo.
three thimbles
I think I am the only person I know who quilts with two, three, and four thimbles on one hand at a time; here I am wearing three. Sometimes when wearing three I have one or two on the other hand as well, but not today. My favorite is the leather one on my thumb; I have had it for about 15 1/2 years. Side note: my husband bought it for me (while we were engaged) when I was making his wedding gift. Yes, it was a quilt and I had lost my thimble; this is what he found. I wish I had about 4 more of them, but I have never found another like it. If anyone has one they don't want, I will gladly trade you some hand-made crochet lace, made by me, for it. It is adjustable (thus it fits every finger), and my fingers don't get sweaty in it. The stitches are purposely uneven in this quilt because I want it to look like the 4th Graders drawings: rough around the edges, so to speak. I don't know if other people think it works that way, but it does for me. I usually quilt with a quilters between needle; this is definitely not that. This is massive on purpose to hold the size of the thread and to cause my stitches to be more uneven because I usually have very regular stitches. This forces me to be a little more sporadic. I decided to do a mixture of quilting and tying. I am using size 20 omega crochet thread in a variegated red to white thread.
thread I am using to quilt and my leather thimble
The reason I say a mixture is, this is definitely not quilting thread or small stitched, but it isn't truly tying a quilt, either. It is a toss up between the two.

(Bottom of quilt looking up: this has a cotton bat, I was afraid to bring any more wool into my home right now.)
bottom of quilt looking up

9 comments:

  1. Wow. How do you handle all those thimbles? I can't even handle one. I should, but I never do things the way you're supposed to. Instead I usually use my nails. They are pretty sturdy, but I did once have a needle poke through my nail... :)

    I love that you're using a contrasting thread.

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  2. I love those leather thimbles also and found a place to get them - www.fingers-friends.com. I was even able to get left-handed ones! I am amazed yours has lasted that long. I have worn out several because I wear a hole into the metal!

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  3. I tried that link didn't work for me maybe they have gone out of business. there is no metal in my thimble. I think I know which type you are thinking of and they are totally differnt than this one. There is no right or left handed version of this it works for either hand

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  4. Are you echo quilting the stars in red? That will really show off the stars and add to the quilt. Fun fun.

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  5. yep they are being echo quilted I hope I just have time to finish it.

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  6. Three thimbles is not easy to handle. After much practice, I decided that I must be a wimp, and have gone back to one thimble.
    Elizabeth Akana, a Hawaiian quilting luminary, had a series on PBS many years ago. The Hawaiians use three thimbles as a rule of thumb--no pun intended--for their echo quilting around those beautiful designs.
    I have seen a leather thimble like yours somewhere. Let me see if I can find that site. I will let you know.
    ^__^

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  7. maybe I found your thimble.
    There are two views of the same thimble.
    Sorry I don't know how to do a tiny url.
    here is one.
    http://www.sewandquilt.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Session_ID=490133D00008785F0000378700000000&Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SQ2&Product_Code=220164&Category_Code=Notions_Thimbles_Leather

    here is the other one.
    http://www.dritz.com/brands/showcase/details.php?ITEM_NUM=164

    it is called Finger's Friend by Dritz.
    ^__^

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  8. that is it thank you I will send you some lace as soon as I get your address.

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