MonoPoly

Today I played with MonoPoly.  Not Monopoly the game, which I played with my siblings for hours on end, but MonoPoly, a clear polyester monofilament thread by Superior Threads.  When I first got my longarm, I tried to use MonoPoly thread without success.  Taking classes and talking with other longarmers, I found this thread to be one of the more temperamental threads to use on a longarm.  But there are lots of people who have used this thread successfully so I figured it would be a matter of time and learning how to adjust the tension and quilt with this thread.

Today was the day!  After almost two years of using my longarm machine, things have been coming together quite nicely this summer.  I've amassed a good selection of templates that are both straight and curved, the threads I've collected have worked nicely on both the customer quilts and the quilts I've quilted for the Quilts of Valor and the early problems with thread tension have almost disappeared.  The big thrill - - -  I finally have mastered the tension settings for using MonoPoly thread.  Yippee Yeah!

One of the tricks I've learned is to keep the bobbin tension adjusted around the same level regardless of the top thread.  With the bobbin tension adjusted correctly, adjusting the top thread has been much easier.  I've eliminated the loopies that plague new longarm quilters.  I've had my share of loopies in the past - which means I've also done my share of unquilting.  Funny how it only takes 10 minutes to quilt a freehand pattern that takes 10 hours to take out.

The MonoPoly thread is the shiny spool on the horizontal spool thread.  I skipped the first thread guides, bypassed the Thread Counter, only went through the Intermittent Tensioner (black knobby thing) rather than 1 3/4 times around, and only 3/4 times around the Rotary Tensioner (white knobby thing).   Then, I lowered the tension on the white knobby thing by loosening it one full turn.  Works like a charm and the stitches on the back side are lovely!

How does this border look?  I still need to do some filler quilting around the vine but I have the outline stitching completed with the MonoPoly thread.

This is the bottom border with the flower pot that Melissa inspired.  She did a wonderful applique border on a quilt at BIQR last year and I liked her flower pot.  Looking around the house, I found a flower pot that the daughter of a friend made for me.  It was a pleasing shape so I used that for this pot.  What a lovely base for this quilt.

I'm so excited about this working so well that I can hardly stand it!  The thread didn't break once!!  Yippee Yeah!!!

Cheers!

Margaret