Invisafil on Bernina Q20

Today I thought it might be useful to people to share how I use Invisafil from Wonderfil Threads. I have been using this thread for a while, initially only using it for stitch-in-the-ditch but lately also for freemotionquilting. Invisafil is a silk like 100wt, 2-ply cottonized polyester thread. Obviously very fine, I have been using it in preference to invisible Monofilament thread as it blends in like a dream.

This is my settting on the Bernina Q20

The tension is set on 2.0 and I am stitching in the ditch with the BSR2 stitch regulator. Needle-wise, I am using a Schmetz 70/11 Microtex needle to give me the finest stitch quality possible. The tension varies between 2.0 and 1.75 depending on what colour thread I am using. For the bobbin thread I am using a prewound 80wt Decobob thread.

For the tablerunner I am currently finishing, I am using both antique white and tan coloured Invisafil thread. While I have got a small selection of different colours of the thread I do not have a red thread to use, but you will see how well Invisafil can blend in even if it is a completely different colour.

Here are the colours

tan Invisafil thread

Antique white Invisafil

In the background you can see that I need to outline the blocks in white however also need to stitch down between the outer border and the inner red sashing. Red would have been good but I am going to use tan as an alternative.

Stitching-in-the-ditch around the blocks

The white Invisafil thread just sinks into the fabric.

Stitching on the red fabric with tan coloured Invisafil

This is what this looks like and where Invisafil shines. It has this weird ability to become almost invisible taking on parts of the surrounding colour. Obviously if you stitch over the seam you will see the tan thread, however if you go carefully it just sinks in...brilliant!

 

I then used the off white Invisafil to stitch around my snowmen

Following this I changed over thread and used a red 50/2 Aurifil thread to put a channel into the sashing. I left the prewound white Decobob as the bobbin thread to see how that would go. As usual ( never think much about what colour the backing is until I have to do the quilting) I had a backing that needed a white bobbin thread rather than a red. Normally I would match the Aurifil thread in the bobbin, but I thought it might be beneficial to have a finer thread in the bobbin in the hope that it would be completely pulled up into the wadding avoiding those pesky pokies that you sometimes get with different threads in bobbin and top.

Here is my top red thread...nicely embedded with no white pokies coming through.

...and here is the back

Must say, I was impressed...this was even better than I had expected, absolutely no red showing through. Very happy with that!

If you never tried Invisafil thread, I can really recommend that you give it a try...it is the most versatile thread I have come across. It's weird ability to just blend in is just outstanding and I think, unmatched by other threads. 

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Karin