KCRQF "Twilling" with Of One Mind

Hi all -

The second class I took at the Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival was "Twilling" with a group of ladies who call themselves "Of One Mind". Their names are Christina, Kaye and Eula and they each are either a part owner or an employee of the quilt shop in Eudora, KS. I signed up for the class not even knowing what twilling was, so it was a complete learning experience for me. It turns out that twilling is an embroidery stitch that is a series of knots along a line of stitching. It's a really pretty stitch that I think will be nice around appliques or as an embellishment for quilts.

This was another class where we didn't have to bring much.The only thing we really needed to bring was a pair of scissors. They also asked us to bring pens, but they ended up supplying them in the class. We then purchased a $30 kit in the class. There was just one pattern, but it was offered in three different colorways:

I chose the blue one in the middle for my kit.

To start the class, they had us gather in two circles so they could teach us the stitch. Here's the other circle:

And here is the teacher in our group, Christine, working with one of the other students:

 The ladies were all really nice and helpful. We learned on a practice piece that was just a little heart;

I need to get some more red pearl cotton so that I can finish mine. Here's a close-up so you can see what the stitch looks like:

Pretty cool stitch, huh? Can't you just see that going around an applique shape?

Then we started on our kits. This stitch is done without a hoop so that you don't crush the knots when you move the hoop around. So, we started by ironing a fusible stabilizer on the back of the background fabric. The stabilizer they provided was Pellon SF101P. This stabilizer just feels like a cotton fabric with a fusible on the back, and I found it perfect for stitching and will definitely be using it in the future. With the fabric stabilized, we used a lightbox to transfer the pattern to the background fabric. I used a Fixion pen, which is why the stabilizer had to be applied first, but you can also use a thin permanent pen since the stitching will cover up the marks. Then we began stitching away. We were using DMC size 5 pearl cotton with a size 22 Chenille needle. I got a lot done in class and then used this project as a carry-along and was able to finish the stitching last night. Here is my piece:

The pattern itself isn't my style, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. The kit included the border fabrics so I can finish this up when I get a chance and am thinking I will use the practice piece heart as the label for this one.

Nancy