Globetrotting: Block 1 Washington DC (thread choice)

Yesterday, I chose the designs for my Washington DC block from Pat Sloan.

I decided to use cotton thread for this project. I often use polyester thread, or silk thread, or rayon thread... I just picked cotton for this one.  I chose Konfetti from WonderFil.  I use this thread in a lot of projects; it comes in a variety of colors and it quilts well (not much breakage and not much lint).

For my light green area, I pulled out a few shades of green/gray/tan:

The top color was too "happy."  The middle color was too dark.  The bottom color wasn't really green but it blended well so I chose it.  Originally I thought this light green fabric was too close in color to the tan, but once it was pieced it showed more contrast.  If it were really too close in color, I would have chosen the darker green and increased the contrast by using a darker thread.

Moving onto my dark green triangles, I pulled out two shades of darker green:

The top color is a shade darker than the fabric.  The bottom color is a shade lighter than the fabric.  I chose the lighter one ... just because.

Next up, the orange triangles.  I pulled out an orange thread and a rose thread:

The orange was too "happy" but the rose worked well.

For the tan, I pulled out some tan, cream, and light yellow threads:

They all worked well, but I chose the middle one.  It seemed to blend the best.

Once I picked all of these threads, I realized that they match so well that it will be difficult to see them when I film the quilting videos.  So, that was a fun exercise, but I put them all away and instead chose a tan thread that shows a bit of contrast with each of my fabrics:

In the 15 years I've been machine quilting, I've learned to embrace Plan B.  For this quilt, Plan B = use a thread that shows in the video and still looks good on the quilt.

Next step: I plan to quilt this on Hazel, my sweet Sweet Sixteen .  Stay tuned!

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Catch up on the rest of the posts:
Globetrotting: Block 1 Washington DC
basting, design choice