DecoBob ThreadTalk on Off the Wall Friday

 Let me start this by saying I am in no way affiliated with Wonderfil.  In fact, as you might have noticed, I never monetized my blog 'cause I really feel like we have enough ads in our lives and I'm not adding to the clutter.

 Wonderfil is a thread manufacturer in Alberta, Canada.  I came across their thread by mistake back in 2020 when I saw somewhere (I think it was on the AQS site) that they were giving away free samples of Wonderfil thread.  Because all the national quilt shows had been canceled that year,  they had all these thread sample boxes left.  Let me tell ya, they were very smart to send me one. 

The next thing ya know I've totally fallen in love with their threads, especially DecoBob.  Over the next two years, they ended up sending me a lot of samples to try out which were great.  You can see reviews on them Here and Here.  Testing them out like that was so useful because it really gave me a good idea of how the different threads could be used.  

Today, I fed my inner thread geek even more by taking off a couple of hours from work to join a live ThreadTalk about DecoBob given by Calista and Stephanie Ngai (whose family founded the company).  It was so fun to watch the two women talk so enthusiastically about their product.  Since I sell clothes for a living I can really tell when people are authentic and these two were!  Plus it was fun knowing that 175 other people world wide were along with me.  

What did I learn?

• DecoBob is very versatile.  You can use it in your bobbin of course.  Also,  when you do applique (machine & hand), machine piecing, machine quilting (long arm and domestic), in your serger (especially on filmy fabrics), machine embroidery, paper piecing (English and regular) and thread painting.
• What it is not recommended for is garment construction sewing and hand piecing.  
• It is a cottonized polyester thread.  Cottonized means that the polyester has gone through a manufacturing process so that it will mimic the properties of cotton.  It has a matte finish, resists shrinking and is heat resistant.
• Although dependent on fabric and machine, a good needle to use with DecoBob is a Microtex 80/12.  In free-motion quilting, a top stitch 90/12 or  90/14 is recommended.
• Because DecoBob is an 80 wt thread (very fine) when you piece with it the seams will lie flatter than they would if you are using a 50 wt cotton thread.  
• DecoBob now comes in 60 colors which is up from 36.  Soon all colors will be available in all three size spools.
• Bobbin thread makes up 30% of your actual machine stitch.
• A smaller stitch length will result in more precise piecing, especially in curve piecing

They also gave a good speal on why we should all be using pre-wound bobbins.  That has me wondering if it's actually true or not.  They showed several samples with work done by regular wound bobbins and prewound.  Also how the two look side by side.   It's made me curious enough to give some a try that's for sure.  I think for my work where it would make a difference is when I'm free motion quilting and when I'm using monofilament thread.

My takeaway?  I think I'll try more machine piecing with decoBob.  I definitely am making sure all my bobbins are wound with decoBob (I think I still have a few in there with 50 wt aurifil and I can tell the difference when I'm sewing). And yes, I'm adding some of the new colors to my Christmas list.

If you're a thread geek like me (and you know you are!),  I highly suggest you take a look at the threaducation links on the Wonderfil website.  If you go to the bottom of the webpage you will see the interesting links.  If you want to learn more about DecoBob than really necessary, the talk was recorded and will posted to their YouTube channel.   

So What Have Been Up to Creatively?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter