BETSY HABICH – Thread Painting 101

Thursday, 20 November 2025
9:00 am to 3:30 pm
Live, in-person at the Millwood Fire House
$        tbd

Intensive thread-painting gives you the freedom to make a very realistic, tapestry-like image entirely with thread, and the only skill you need is confident free-motion quilting! Starting with your own good-quality photo, we will explore ways to create color combinations and textures to transform it into a realistic 8 1⁄2” x 11” thread painting. You will be amazed by what you can do! You will learn the basics of thread painting, including balancing sewing machine tension, straight-stitch and zig-zag thread painting, and tips for avoiding distortion

Note: If you choose to use your own photo, you will be asked to send me your proposed photo two weeks ahead of time for approval, editing, and printing. I will bring the printed photo to class made into a quilt sandwich so students can maximize their in-class work time.

KIT INFO

Students choosing to work with one of my kits will have a $30 fee. Students choosing to work with one of their own photos will have a kit fee of $35, which will cover and include my review and editing of their photos, printing their photo on prepared cotton, making their photo into a fused  8 1/2” x 11” quilt sandwich, providing a second prepared quilt sandwich for in-class exercises and two 8 1/2” x 11” color copies of their photo for in-class exercises.  Students will also receive a multi-page handout detailing the exercises.

BETSY HABICH Supply List

• A sewing machine which is in good working order and is capable of free-motion stitching.  Students often asked whether they should bring their “good” machine – a high-end machine is not necessary (straight-stitch and zig-zag is all we need), BUT the machine must be reliable and able to stand up to being run at high speeds over an extended period.  I strongly recommend students have their machine serviced in the 6 months before the workshop, as their success in the class will depend on their sewing machine working. Students should also bring their sewing machine manual and any tools that came with their machine plus any additional tools they regularly use to clean their machine.
• A free-motion embroidery foot.  The open “C” at the bottom of the foot lets you see exactly where your needle will land and makes thread painting much, much, much easier.  If that is not possible, a clear quilting foot is ok.
• A package of size 14 topstitch machine needles
• Five to seven bobbins, preferably loaded with a selection of the colors you expect to use in your thread painting
• Parchment paper
• Alcohol wipes
• Each participant will need to study their approved photo carefully and bring thread in all the colors they can see. There are often quite a lot of colors! I use and recommend Aurifil 50 weight/2 ply cotton thread because I like the way it looks stitched out and because it is low lint (though not no-lint). For beginning thread painters, it is also perfectly fine to use 50-weight Mettler, Metrosene, or Guttermann cotton or cotton-look thread.  I do not recommend using rayon thread because it is not strong enough to stand up to rapid stitching. (I do not personally like the look of shiny 50-weight machine embroidery thread, but you are an experienced machine embroider and have a large stash of shiny 50-weight embroidery thread, you are free to use that, with the caveat that I may not be able to help you if the thread misbehaves.)