Thimbles continued

Quilters are wonderful people.  Thank you to all who offered to keep an eye out for a replacement thimble for me, and to those who sent me links to places to buy what looked like my old thimble.  I went ahead and ordered two thimbles, one EZ7 like my old brass one and a second similar one, also by EZ Quilting, in a different metal.

The one on the left is my old worn out favourite.  You can see the one in front on the right is very similar, but the “recessed top” isn’t quite as sharply and deeply recessed so my needle is slipping out occasionally, but overall it feels just about right.  It is just as comfortable.  Turns my finger grey just like the old one too! (Nothing is ever perfect!)

I noticed that there was only one size available in this thimble, and one site specified that they could not order more, so I wonder if the style has been discontinued.  I thought it might be replaced with the same style in a different metal, so I ordered one of those as well. It is the silver coloured one in the back. It looked very similar, and was described as having a dimpled, recessed top as well, but that is really more of a decorative bump around the edge than a recess. My needle just skitters right off.  The metal is very slippery.  I think this shiny thimble will be relegated to decorative-only status.

Of course I had to actually start quilting something to discover all this. I was very good when they arrived on Thursday afternoon. I finished clearing the desk of paperwork before turning to the sewing corner to prepare a quilt back for Whimsy.  Groceries and laundry  and ferrying kids to and from school couldn’t be put off, so I didn’t get the quilt onto the basting frame until Friday night.  I basted on Saturday and finally tried my new toys on Sunday.  Here’s how far I got on Sunday:

Tonight I finished quilting in the white background and in 4 more green triangles.  That took me 2 hours.  I’m not sure I should have kept track.  It seems like so little accomplished in that time!  There are eleven more of these, plus 3 borders…  Oh well, it took me three years to get the top finished. I guess a few more months to finish the quilting won’t hurt!

Thimbles

Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville has asked her readers to link up with her blog to tell about what thimble works best for them.  I’m looking forward to seeing what others have to say, and perhaps find a new thimble to try, but first here’s my contribution.

I do enjoy hand quilting. The stitches on the back are not as even as on the front, but I’m working on that.  I think I did a better job of it when I wore the brass thimble. You can see it has a smooth, rolled edge so that it doesn’t dig into the side of my finger.  It also has a bit of a ridge at the top that is also an indentation inside the thimble so there is room for a fingernail.  The dimples do a great job of keeping the eye of the needle in place while I rock the needle through the layers of the quilt.

I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m not still using it.

Can you see why?  You aren’t supposed to be able to stand a needle up in your thimble like that.  That little white dot in the second picture? That’s daylight shining through.  Yes, I wore a hole through this thimble!  Yes, I did find out by getting stabbed by the eye of he needle breaking through.

I scoured the hobby stores and quilt shop for a new one, but couldn’t find the same kind.  I found the selection to be quite limited, unless I was willing to spend large sums of cash online for a custom fitted one.  I tried soft silicone ones for comfort but found the needle just slid right off the tip of those.  The closest I found to my old thimble was this one:

I’m sorry I can’t tell you what the brand is.  I found it on the notions wall at JoAnn’s a couple of years ago.  It is just OK.  The grid does help keep the needle from sliding off, but the thimble is nowhere near as comfortable as my old one.  The edge digs into the side of my finger if I quilt more than an hour at a stretch.  There is no room for anything more than a very blunt cut fingernail.

As I prepared this post I tried on the old thimble again and it reminded me how much more comfortable it was!  I miss it!  If anyone knows where I could find one I’d love to hear from you.  The only identifying info on it is “EZ 7”.  I bought it at a Walmart about 10 years ago for about $2.00.