Lee Thomson

I have a lot of thread. I have a lot of different threads. They inhabit two large boxes, roughly sorted by color. The greens are tricky because some are with the yellows and some are with the blues. The purples are all together, the reds and pinks are all together – the sorting is courtesy of Alice and Red Kate who brought order to the jumbled box and put like with like.

In a long conversation with Jane (Hi Jane!!) on the ferry home from Long Island we talked about fabric and then I started waxing rhapsodic about threads. The above shows a tiny bit about why.

Variegated cotton threads from Valdani, Sulky and King Tut are relatively easy to find. Handdyed threads from Oliver Twists are gorgeous, and luxurious, but expensive. Rayons are shiny and pop, but cotton sinks into the surface, and gives a more cohesive look to the finished piece.