Happy Monday!

Today, a quick bit of Thread Talk – the perfect Tonic for a Monday Morning.

Last week, for Easter, I posted this Spring Eye-Spy image and jigsaw puzzle, and it generated some thread questions.

Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm… Embroidery thread! Oh yeah. Favorite subject. Let’s talk about it!

Well, you know me. I can’t resist talking about embroidery thread when the opportunity arises! There’s just something so lusciously enticing about beautiful embroidery thread.

When I see it in quantities, with all its wondrous colors, twists, and sheen, it’s really hard not to become completely twitterpated.

Do you understand? I bet you do!

The particular embroidery threads in question were the ones running down the left side of the Eye-Spy image:

They ran all the way down the left side of that layout. They’re just so lovely. I almost regret having covered them up with things!

Why ruin a good view of thread with peripheral items, after all?

All these twists belong to one line of thread – they’re Chameleon threads, and this particular group is every lovely color in their Soie de Paris silk overdyed collection.

And that’s what I like about Chameleon threads. They start with really good quality threads (for cottons, they use DMC as their base, and for silks, they use Au Ver a Soie silk as their base), and then they dye them in a gorgeous range.

I have a few designs that I’m bringing to fruition this year, and I want to incorporate some beautiful overdyed threads into parts of the designs.

But there’s always a hitch or two when looking for overdyed threads: either the base thread isn’t something I’m wild about, or the colors aren’t consistent enough between batches, or the threads can’t be produced in the quantity required.

Chameleon uses base threads I’m confident in, quality-wise, and that I already love to stitch with.

Their dye batches are consistently good. Sure, they’re never exactly spot-on-the-same, from skein to skein, batch to batch – but that’s the nature of dyeing and overdyed threads. But they are consistently close enough, so that, when designing something for a wider market, I can be confident that the threads will continue to work as envisioned, even over time.

I’m excited to use it on these projects!

It’ll be a little while before the projects come about, of course. As much as I’d like to concoct an idea and have it ready a month later, it never quite works out that way.

But then, if you’ve been hanging around on Needle ‘n Thread for a while, you already know I’m slower than a glacier made of molasses being licked into extinction by a sloth with a broken arm.

Ah! It’s the Wonder of Hand Embroidery! It ain’t instant!

As I work with these threads, I’ll show you the range a little better. I’ll also share some other threads with you, and I’ll undoubtedly show you some snips and bits of the projects as they develop.

So, that’s the thread running down the left side of the photo. It’s Chameleon’s overdyed Silk d Paris.

And now, I’m off to sort it and make color swatches and so forth.

It’s a tough job, I know.

I think I’ll go find my Muse in a cup of tea first, though. Things always work out better when she’s around.

Have a wonderful Monday!