Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Perle Cotton

Both embroidery floss and perle cotton give you a showy stitch when you quilt with them. Embroidery floss has the advantage of easy availability and a wider variety of colors. The disadvantage is that it is 6-ply - there are six different threads wrapped together. It makes it harder to thread the needle and maybe I'm the only hopeless one here, but I seem to get loops in one of the little threads and so it pulls funny and unevenly from the others. Anyway, you can separate the plies (plys?) and 3-ply will give you the same effect as using perle cotton size 8. Use all 6-ply for a very bold stitch.

I didn't know if I was going to be able to find embroidery floss here, so I stocked up before we left the states. And then I found floss on sale for 11 cents a skein. Eleven cents. That's a steal. Had to buy even more. As it turns out, I can buy good quality DMC floss here, tho I've heard rumours that may change.

Perle cotton size 8 comes in balls. Larger perle comes in a twisted length almost like floss. I've never tried quilting with that larger size and I'm not sure if it can be done. Anyone tried it?

Anyway, when I talk about quilting with perle cotton, it's size 8 I'm talking about. You can usually find black, white, red and blue fairly easily; other colors at specialty craft, art, or thread shops.

This is the back of one of my quilts done with the perle cotton. And my knots - makes it look interesting. You can see how much thicker the perle is than the quilting thread.

7 comments:

  1. OK Tonya,this is gettin' tooooo weird...LOL. I came into the sewing room (computer is in here) and scanned the corner of a quilt I had done in perle cotton, thinking it would be a logical followup to yesterdays posts. Soooo I did that, responded to your comment/question and then scrolled down to see if you were here today...LOL. AND what do I find...LOL..you also decided to write about perle cotton today. WOW ! Are we in sync or what? And both of us prefer # 8. I love the pic of your floss, and how great to be able to buy it at that price. Best I can do here is .35 a skein or 4/$1. I think you should stock up while you're there. Keeps really well. I have quite abit of older .05 a skein Coats and Clarks from my Mom back in the 1960's...still as bright and strong as ever.

    Perle cotton here in WI is as high as $2 to $4 a ball. I have found it on sale(like that orange at Ben Franklin) occasionally. Friend Betsy and I always check for it at any new quilt shop we stop at.

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  2. The 11 cents a skein sale was in Maryland at an A.C. Moore's. Great price. Here it's more like 55 cents a skein, depending on what the exchange rate is. But it's instant satisfaction, so sometimes that's necessary.
    Best price I have ever gotten on perle size 8 was $1.75 at Pearl Paints, also in MD.

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  3. Anonymous2:45 PM

    Tonya,
    Checking out your blog from link on Bonnie's site and I just sent you an email. Check out crochet cotton - you'll love it. I normally only find size 10, but I've had good luck with it - and heck dye it to be the color you want!
    I have a quilt I quilted with crochet cotton if you ever want to see a picture.
    Dawn Denman

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  4. The puke green is my favorite color :c)

    Bonnie

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  5. Hey, the puke green is perfect for Halloween.

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  6. Hey, the puke green is perfect for Halloween.

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  7. Anonymous2:28 PM

    New to quilting, new to using perle cotton (or anything, LOL). From where I stand I can not imagine why one would NOT use perle cotton or embroidery floss. I want my quilts to pop and this seems just the thing to help.

    Thank you for posting this oh so long ago. It still applies today.

    Namaste,

    Lyric
    http://www.sewandcro.com
    http://www.facebook.com/sewandcro

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