French Pearl Cotton Thread

Some vintage french pearl cotton thread I purchased at a local haunt today!  I am thinking of dyeing with indigo and then overdyeing with walnut hulls and leaves!

WIP - Hands 070412

Now with machine stitching.

I will be adding more surface embellishment to the piece once the heat wave passes, right now it's just too hot to do much of anything.

Queen Anne's Birds!

Now with some stitching, I used a varigated thread in blues.

I have yet to decide if I want to include the indigo silk organza net layer.

Heavy Rust What To Do???

Heavy Rust What To Do??? I'm asked this question frequently especailly by quilters who are battling shredding threads, broken needles, etc.  Following is a multi part tutorial that will hopefully reduce the frustration of shredded threads etc.  

As you can see in the above photo there are heavily rusted areas that appear to be actual rusted metal.  That's because it is rusted metal.  The rusting process allows rust particles, iron oxide, to accumulate on the surface of the fibers/fabrics.  The end result, depending on the length of time the fabric is allowed to rust, is sharp jagged metallic edges that shreds thread, dulls needles, and leaves little flecks of iron oxide everywhere.