Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Glow-in-the-dark thread

I've been wanting to try out glow in the dark thread for a while now.  It isn't in any of our local shops though, so I had to first find some.  With my budding free motion quilting skills, I thought I'd give it a try.  I used it to embellish a daisy on one of the kindle ebook covers that I'm selling in my Etsy store.  Not only am I making the covers, but I'm quilting each one too, so I have been getting lots of practice!

I also needed to figure out how to get the "glow" on a picture.  This involved actually reading the instructions that came with my digital camera!!  I found out how to prolong the exposure, but my camera only will go up to a 15 second exposure.  That also involved finding a tri-pod, which we have, and luckily I knew where it was (high up on top of a pantry shelf).  I also had to play around with the image on my computer, as it was very faint with only a 15 second exposure.  But this is what I came up with!!  Cool huh?  I never really knew how many things I'd learn when I started blogging!

Here's a picture of the case.  The daisy is the top one on the top flap.  Yeah, I know, when I sewed the Velcro on, my stitches ended up there...

The first thing I noticed about the glow in the dark thread is that it frays incredibly easily.  You literally have to cut the thread right in front of the needle seconds before threading it.  It's 100% polyester, and costs about 4-5 bucks for only 100 yards.  Because of this, I decided to use regular white thread for the bobbin.  It wasn't the best match.  My machine didn't like the combination very well, but it worked!  My kids are now really eager to have me make something for them that glows.  Music to my heart!

So how about you?  Have you ever used it?  What bobbin thread do you use with it?  Any project ideas for 2 tween boys?

5 comments:

monika@mysweetprairie.ca said...

No way! That's AWESOME! Never heard of it.

I think my guys would want a quilt quilted with that thread! lol Slip covers for their phone / DS / or whatever game/music/communication gadgets they may own?

Very neat.

Beth@IHaveANotion.com said...

Yep isn't it amazing... how our educations continue in life!!!

I would probably use... a thin thread in the bobbin... maybe Bottom Line or Wonderfil.

Lee said...

Wow, that's incredible! Never heard of it, but how cool. Love your blog's new look, by the way!

Becky said...

Thanks Lee! And super idea about the covers. They both have ipods... Guess what my next project will be... And Beth, I'll have to look into that thread. Thanks!

Melissa said...

SO COOL!