I've been having another look through the Secret Santa pictures and I have realised that we fall into two categories. We are either turned on by fabric or by thread. So, if you had to choose, which would it be?

Good question and varied answers! I love fabric and have used a lot of extra thread over the years as I've done a lot of topstitching to set things off. I've even had people think I've paid $90 for a pair of jeans I made and top stitched down the sides and the edge of the pockets (they only cost me about $10 to make!) I also love thread. When it's on sale I buy it, guessing at what I might possibly need it for and how many spools of each. So, not only do I have a stash of fabric, but a stash of thread. Now that I am doing ME I have 2 collections of thread and then some misc. metallic.

I love fabric

Has to be fabric first then thread.

Fabric. That is why I love applique. Wonder why that is??

I LOVE THEM BOTH I LOVE COLOR CLEAR VIBRANT COLORS. BEFORE I STARTED EMBROIDING I PAINTED (STILL DO) I CAN'T GO IN A CRAFT STORE OR FABRIC SHOP WITH OUT GETTING EVEN A REMNANT OR SPOOL OF THREAD. THERE ARE IDEAS AND PICTURES IN MY MIND FOR ALL THE COLORS

Can't have one without the other!
I love both.

Hugs Yvonne

I love both. Love to look at fabric and must tell you when we went for a few days to Marocco, the silks cotton reels in the shops just blew me away. the colours just soooo amazing waaaauw. Will remember that for the rest of my life and wonder sometimes to go back just to look at these fantastic colours.

2 comments

by spendlove 15 Jan 2012

How much did you buy?

by edithfarminer 17 Jan 2012

Unfortunately we were in a group with a protector for our safety and had no chance to buy at all or look if it would go onto a machine.Just minutes by each store window.I looked in like a kid wanting candy lol.

I have to vote Fabric, it determines what I make, how I embroider it, and how much I collect, Ruth

Fabric, fabric, fabric! Although I love it, I'm pretty sure I can live without it [one can always pull threads from the fabric if you need to embroider, right?]...BUT, I know I could not go one whole week without sewing!!!

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Definitively fabric, I believe a nice piece of cloth brings out the "designer" ha,ha, in me.

L love fanric and thread as I love to applique baby quilts and hand embroidery really better than machine emb. I like to make my own designs as I only make one of a ginf never make two alike .
Lenamae

1 comment

by lenamae 11 Jan 2012

i am sory Fabrics make one of a kind

I'll go for fabric. Hugs Marie

I would have to say if its embroidery then it's the thread that makes it great, but if it's quilting it would have to be the fabric. So when I'm quilting ITH I am in heaven!

hugs
mj

I have to go with thread. I love making fsl. I also spin my own yarn for nalbinding and crochet. I do make a lot of clothing but I'm a needleworker at heart. Charla

2 comments

by mjjust2ofus 11 Jan 2012

what is Nalbinding? Sounds interesting

by cclark 11 Jan 2012

Nalbinding is the precursor of knitting. It is done with a needle about the size of a tapestry needle. There are dozens of different stitches, some even look like knitting. Nalbinding doesn't unravel like knitting though. You can actually cut it and only lose a few threads.

I love them both as well as designs. My favorite changes at times. For now I love the designs and threads. When I get back to quilting, the love will be fabric. It's difficult to choose one over the other. Easier to choose machine embroidery over garment sewing or quilting, say. I just love the whole process and supplies. Nan W

What amazing and interesting answers - I'm so pleased I started this thread!

I would say fabric and buy the thread as necessary. Lately, it's a design I like that makes me decide what project to make and what fabric to choose.
Hugs, Lidia

Fabric is the one for me but without the thread it's incomplete, but the best is to buy fabric,not that I have a project in mind, and stash it and after a few months come across it and it have a project written all over it! Hugs Louise

Difficult one - I would say both as one compliments the other. Some very interesting answers. Sarah.

Well, Fabric is made from thread so I can't separate the two.

I can spend hours in a good fabric store, just being surrounded by the kaleidoscope of colours, the feel of the fabrics, the beauty of some patterns, OH and the smells.

Recently I picked up some offcuts of fabric from an op-shop, it is plain white, no pattern, nothing to look at, just three torn strips (probably 12" x 54") with a selvedge along one edge, but when I touch it.....
the feel is amazing, it is such beautiful quality, a gorgeous silky feeling, almost sensual. I wish I could find, and buy, more of it to make something special from it or even bed sheets to lay in between. mmmmmmm.

Threads are what make up the fabric but until I started machine embroidery, I never thought much about them. Threads were just a means to an end, to join the fabric. To start with a flat piece of fabric and watch it metamorphose into a gorgeous garment by the end of the day, that's where the thrill was.

Now, I look at threads by their colours, their gorgeous, vibrant, colours and I can't stop buying them. When I see a shade I like, that I don't have, I HAVE to buy it! 700 spools and climbing. LOL!!!!

I spend almost as much time selecting the colours, to use in a design, as it takes to stitch it out.

There wouldn't be fabric without thread, but it is all in how those threads are woven together to make the fabric beautiful enough to cause the heart to flutter when the eyes first see it.

1 comment

by spendlove 11 Jan 2012

Another great answer - thanks!

I LOVE fabric - it makes me drool! I buy it when I find a piece I love and then stash it away for someday I can use it. I love the colors and the feel of cotton! Jan

I say fabric too. I use remnants specially I prefer cotton and spun material.

Bernadette de Souza.

I rarely sew and don't know how to quilt so for me it is the thread.

It's all about the FABRIC!!!! I'm a fabriholic through and through... No AA meetings for me. LOL....

I would say fabric and 100% cotton yarn. damaris

I have always loved fabric, however I have been so enthralled by FSL that I haven't even looked at my stash! I need to get to work and finish some regular sewing! Live Laugh Download Stitch! christine

1 comment

by hightechgrammy 10 Jan 2012

Boy, I agree with you FSL is so rewarding!

I go to vacation in fabulous places....the first thing I do is check out the local fabrics stores....buy some prints...take them back to the hotel and spread them on the bed and dream! When I'm at home I remember every place we have been by the fabric I have bought....Sometimes its just a bunch of fat quarters. Funniest part of the trip for me

1 comment

by spendlove 11 Jan 2012

Brilliant!

I love fabric and thread but, I am really charged by projects. I love to look at old design magazines to get ideas for my projects. Its all about the process of creating something, out of what I have. How can I improvise. It is the finished project I envision, that my fabric and thread will make. If that makes any sense to any one.

It used to be fabric, but now that I do so much with my machine I think they go hand in hand.

I have been sewing far longer than I have been embroidering. In addition, I have been knitting far longer than embroidering. So in the order of collecting, I have gobs of fabric, oodles of yarn and one set of thread! I am turned on by anything of color...fabrics, thread or yarns! so I suppose time allows all collections to grow regardless!

1 comment

by drro 11 Jan 2012

All the responses are so interesting! *4ALL!

Fabric with thread a very close 2nd

I would have to say both but to put a fine point on it fabris by a wisker...soozie

I beleive mine come from the design - then both fabric and thread - but then - I am a bit strange.

1 comment

by snowbird42 10 Jan 2012

not strange at all different strokes for different folks.....soozie

Fabric. Definitely. I don't think I've bonded with my thread in nearly the same way.

I luv to look at and buy fabric my hubby gets confused that a person can spend so much time looking at material I luv to bring home material and say look at this and this he just will not get it heheheh

2 comments

by hightechgrammy 10 Jan 2012

My husband doesn't "get it" either, but I think he at least understands now that I have a need to stop at fabric and quilt stores, especially on vacation. It's taken over 25 years of training, but at least he doesn't complain too much. I hate it when he comes in with that look on his face that says, "Aren't you finished yet?"

by hightechgrammy 10 Jan 2012

when he comes in a fabric store with that look on his face that says, "Aren't you finished yet?" grrrrrr more training needed!

I would say I'm definately a fabric person, lol! I've got a HUGE stash of it, and this year have decided I am going to try to go through at least two bins of it by years end. Wish me luck, lol! I hope I can do it, because I have somewhere around 40 (maybe more) big rubbermaid bins full of material. Time to stop collecting and starting moving it out in some form, lol!

Well........ I do buy fabric when I don't have a good reason or project in mind. I don't buy thread until I need it - not counting the set of 66 basic colours form Metro... :}

If I absolutely had to choose it would have to be fabric. Then I could use still use it by pulling fabric threads to sew with.

As a static collection to enjoy by sight and feel, give me fabric any day.
AlmaG.

Dear Sue,

As a Patchworker for most of my adult life - I would have to say FABRIC,with thread a very close second.

Love and blessings Chris

I say fabric or a blank first. I am so new to embroidery it is to tell. I finding a hole new side to fabric.

I have to say fabric first and thread second

I don't know, it depends; sometimes it's the fabric that comes first and I get inspiration from that; sometimes I see a design that HAS to be stitched out and project and fabric come second. And at other times there's the project that dictates both the fabric and colour choice and asks for clever decorations.

I think I get my best ideas when doing projects. Like the very simple decoration on the pants I made from remnants or the more spectacular flowers I digitised for a wrap and purse for my daughter - where I use the materials from the skirt and the top she made.

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2 comments

by spendlove 10 Jan 2012

I get my best ideas while walking the dog. Just becomes more difficult to remember them until I get home....

by leenova54 10 Jan 2012

Very pretty!

for me, it is both, the two are necessairy

Fabric, fabric, fabric, despite my stash (you saw pics posted earlier) I am just getting back from buying more, I have to hold myself back everytime I am in a fabric store and today they had some at 75% off, ouf, lucky I got out without to much damage LOL
Michelle

1 comment

by snowbird42 10 Jan 2012

who can resist a bargin...soozie not me

I'd say fabric. As a quilter, fabric is my palette.

I am a thread person. Fabric is essential, but if there is a beautiful thread I just have to try, I will. My fabric stash continues to grow, even after I gave lots of yardage away!

Hugs, Bonnie

I love fabric. its like a portable artist board that you can do so much with. you can take a plain fabric and use wax crayons on it to get a dyed pattern. I love to use it to print onto to make scenes. A piece of material can say things like look at me when turned into a classic garment for power dressing, It can change a black bag into a fashion statment. With todays machines you can pick up a £4.00 top and make it a designer garment worth ten times the amount within a couple of hour. fleece can give someone a warm hug when you are not there to do it, be it as a quilt backing or a scarf with pockets in.
and lets face it, without fabric we would all be rather chilly when autumn comes and hte leaves fall off.
Threads have to be in there because just as fabric can change things so can a few threads if used to decorate or highlight. I use a hair braider to create my own cords and so make them to match or co-ordinat with things.
they are great when several coloures are mixed and then sewn on with a small zig zag in a free motion style over a cushion or a vest.
Fabric and threads together give a complete artists pallet to create rainbows of love. and bring joy to the maker and the reciever.
just think what happened in the SS.
annie in the UK

3 comments

by spendlove 10 Jan 2012

Well said Annie!

by zoefzoef 11 Jan 2012

I have to join Annie in this statement !

by marthie 16 Jan 2012

Annie on my next visit to the UK I will come for classes!!!

O both, I have to stop myself buying everything I see, I love to have stacks and stacks of both and throw nothing away what a pleasure to be surounded in your sewing room by things you love.Not sad, but HAPPY, Hugs Pam.

Fabric, I love fabric, I use alot of baby prints to make baby linens which I sell. Baby prints and soft fabric, I love them. Hugs Geeta

Overall confused by the selection process. I find a design then try to figure how to get it done. I have yet to make something for myself... so, I honestly don't know. How sad is that.

How about by a design then comes the fabric and then the thread (colors). I would normally see a design and then picture a project with fabric and colors.

Can't have one without the other!
I'd say equal.
MJDG

I have to say fabric. I love to go into the fabric store and decide what to buy.
Bev