Quick Thanksgiving Thread Sketch with Free Pattern

I was cruising around on Pinterest the other day when I came across this free printable from the website Living Well Spending Less. I thought it would look great done in thread and sitting in the center of my Thanksgiving table. So that’s what I did!

I started by reversing the print so the letters are black and the background is white, then printed it out on Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy™.

Next, I grabbed some of the new cotton colors that Sulky just introduced and auditioned thread. For the solid color cottons, I can just lay the spool down on the fabric and get a good idea what will work but with the Sulky Cotton Blendables® thread, I always take some of the thread off the spool and lay it down on the fabric. It’s amazing how different the thread looks with the color changes laying on the fabric rather than on the spool.

I chose to use Sulky 30 wt. Cotton thread #1264 Cognac for the letters and Sulky 12 wt. Cotton Blendables Thread #4117 Fall Holidays for the leaf accent. I like to use a hoop when I do free-motion thread sketching but my hoop is smaller than I wanted for this project so I took the medium size hoop from my embroidery machine and hooped a piece of Sulky Cut-Away Plus™ Stabilizer along with my fabric and the Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy with the design printed on it all together. I put the free motion foot on my machine, put in a Schmetz Topstitch needle and reduced my tension. I lowered the feed dogs and changed the stitch to a zig-zag.

BEFORE I start sewing, I do one more crucial step. I guide my hoop under the needle as if I were sewing. This does two things: Gives my hands and mind a practice run at the motions I am about to do and helps me see if I will have any problem areas like the hoop hitting the side of the machine and interrupting my flow. This is what I discovered in my practice run with this design. Since I am using a much larger hoop than I normally use for thread sketching, the side of the hoop hit the arm of the sewing machine. This meant I had to adjust how I was holding the hoop. A practice run only takes a few seconds and it can make a huge difference in the look of your finished project. Now that I am ready to sew, I bring the bobbin thread up to the top.

This prevents those lovely birds’ nests on the back of your project. Next, I just started sewing! Because I really like the flowy aspect of the original design, I set my stitch to a zig-zag and moved my hoop as if I were writing in cursive. I didn’t shift the position of my hoop so the stitch is skinny in some areas and fatter in others.

Don’t try and fill in the dark areas of the design, just “write” the words in cursive. Remember the design on the Fabri-Solvy will wash away, so if you don’t follow it perfectly, no one will know! I used the locking stitch on my machine before I jumped to the next area.

The only thing I did differently for the leaf pattern on the sides is change the stitch to a straight stitch. Since I was already using a topstitch needle, the 12 wt. thread flowed through just fine. I would suggest going slow. Trying to go too fast with something like this will result in uneven stitches and thread breaks. When I washed out the Fabri-Solvy with warm water, I was ecstatic with the results!

The whole project took me just over an hour from printing on the Fabri-Solvy to putting it in the frame. It is going to look great on my Thanksgiving table.

Do you want to try it? Download the pattern here ( give thanks), print it on Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solvy and take it away!

Happy Sewing and Give Thanks!