Thread Painting with Glide Foot

Hey Friend,

I’m going to tell you all about my thread painting with the Glide Foot. Are you ready?

I know you’ve been dying to hear what adventures, My Moxie and me have been embarking on in the new year. Here’s your update on what Mimi and I have been doing. Yes! You heard that right. My Moxie got herself a new name. She didn’t like that I kept calling her “my” and that she didn’t have her “own” name. So, I named her Mimi. She doesn’t know that Mimi is short for My Moxie – Letter M and Letter M. And we’re going to keep that just between the two of us. Okay. She’s never going to know. 🙂

So, what have we been up to? Thread painting with the glide foot.

The other day, I tried thread painting on Mimi, my style, and it didn’t turn out that great. Don’t get me wrong. It was a good start. But far from perfect. (Check it out here) My style of thread painting is quite different. So, I wanted to challenge myself to give it another try. You know what, I haven’t found anything like a self-challenge that can get you to do things you thought you couldn’t do and build skills so fast you won’t believe your eyes.

For this challenge, I turned to one of the older pieces I did in my first ever challenge Stitch the Sketch Episode 6. Just like the previous time I tried Thread painting on Mimi, I wanted to see how I’ll do recreating this Table Top Medley. Of course the difference between this new thread painting challenge and the one I did a few years back in Episode 6 is that I’m using a longarm machine which doesn’t quite lend itself to thread painting that well. So that’s where the challenge is.

To start, I did a rough sketch directly on the fabric. I wasn’t planning on using the finished piece so I didn’t worry that much about the pencil marks. However, if you’re doing something for keeps, you can check out this post about alternate tracing methods.

Initially, I forgot that I’d just received a new foot from Handi Quilter. Oh man, the Glide foot 2! Let me tell you. The glide foot is just what it name says. First, changing feet on the Handi Quilter Moxie is a breeze (watch this Youtube video and see me do it). Then, when I started thread painting with the glide foot, what a difference in visibility that clear plastic made. I tell you; using the right tools is everything.

Thread painting with the Glide foot is certainly an improvement on using the standard foot that the Moxie comes with. The Glide foot is a transparent plastic bowl-shaped foot. It helps you see where you’re going much better. Also, with all the thread that I was building up on the surface of my fabric, the foot was just gliding over that thickness without a problem. My first time thread painting with the glide foot and I’m sold.

You can see the results for yourself. This is much better than my last attempt at thread painting on Mimi. I still struggle with controlling curvy shapes. I had gotten that aspect of thread painting down to a science on my domestic machine. However, here, my hands are still wobbly. I can easily doodle circles. but tracing a circle with the long arm machine or drawing a very clean circular shape is something I’m still learning.

Of course this type of stitching is not for everyone. You might find it simpler to use a domestic machine to do this especially if it’s a small piece. However, you know me and how I take on the most impossible challenges to push myself. So, here are the results of this challenge. In addition to sharing the results with you, I wanted to do something for you that I haven’t done in way too long – I made you a video.

So, I created a Youtube video for you so you can actually see me using my new Moxie machine. I hope you appreciate all the love that went into making it for you just so you can peek into my process. Enjoy.

Friend, here’s the thing. If you’re struggling with a skill, there’s no better way that I know to bring yourself up to speed than to challenge yourself to practice that skill repeatedly for a period of time. You’ll be surprised at the improvements you’ll make. I hope that inspires you.

Thats it for now.

Warmest regards,

PS: If this is your first time reading My Moxie and Me journal, you can catch up on all the previous journal entries here

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Also published on Medium.