The End(s)

Even while I was beating myself up about 'my inability' to FMQ, I wanted to try something new on the Sister top, so I decided it would be this: burying my quilting thread ends.

I had read mention of this in Mary's blog, but it always sounded tedious and dangerously in the Final 5% Zone: that last part of any project that seems to take 10 times longer than anything else, and keeps the job from being 100% done for far too long.

But, seeing this

brought home how clunky my current method of starting/finishing/continuing quilting lines really is right now. There's nothing smooth, pretty, nor elegant about them, and I've been quilting long enough to be better than this!

After watching Leah Day's video, I decided I'd try her method while quilting Sister. If I didn't think it worth the time and effort, well... nothing lost, nothing gained. BUT (and this is an important but)--I would finish the ends within seconds of creating them, not after the entire quilt was done (forcing me to search every square inch for dangling threads--5% Zone!)

The first day of quilting all I had on hand was a regular needle and a semi-broken threader*, but they did the job.

The next day I found self-threading needles (as well as intact needle threaders) at the local Mega-Lo-Mart. Honestly, both types of needles have their pros and cons, but I used the self-threader for the majority of this project because that's what Leah used (WWLD?)

I'm a convert! It takes only a few seconds to bury the thread ends (the biggest challenge/time-taker usually is making the knot) and what a clean finish/start I can achieve now:

It's fairly obvious to my eye, but the end/start points are at roughly 8 o'clock on the curve.

I still start my new thread 2-3 stitches back from where I've buried the last threads so there's a little bit of double stitching, but what a difference in appearance!

I'm so pleased to be open to learning new things!

(*Showing-my-age reveal: a few years ago I attended a 'Getting to Know You'-type event at a local academy where The Loud was teaching. The students registering for the forthcoming semester got a gift package, in which was included a mending kit. I had to explain to a student and her mother what the heck that strange silver thing was and how to use it. *Sigh*)