Motif Five -- Maple Leaves

For another "Exercise Your Stash Challenge", here is a fairly new spool of thread, but still one I had forgotten about. This is YLI Long Staple Cotton. I first became acquainted with this type thread at the local quilt shop, back when variegated threads were hard (for me) to find. This is a fine thread, both in terms of size and quality. I would guesstimate this to be similar to a size 60 thread. If you find YLI thread, look carefully at the label on the bottom, since they make other threads, polyester and rayon, on similar looking spools.



Anyway, I came across this YLI spool in the vendor room at Palmetto in 2008. I thought this was a pretty green/gold/tan colorway. It wasn't until later that it hit me....Ayup, this is camoflage! (Well, next time I need to make a bookmark for a guy, I'm all set.) Since it made me think of leaves when I bought it, I dug out a leaf pattern. This is the Maple Leaf Motif from the Feb 1975 Workbasket as modified by Tammy Rodgers as modified a little more by me. This thread is a joy, just as nice as I remembered. I just need to remember to use it more often.







Here is the same motif worked with vintage Clark's O.N.T. Brilliant, which seems to be pearl cotton. It came from ebay. We used to search out vintage thread to get color variety, before our new Golden Age of Thread with all the new threads at Handy Hands plus all the gorgeous HDT from all our favorite dyers. With vintage threads, check carefully for dirt. Then work a ring or two to make sure it's not too brittle to use. If it passes those tests, then enjoy!