The ironing ban has been lifted for a week now, but it took me a little longer than anticipated to get started.

Last weekend, I washed and ironed most of the rest of my fabric; there’s still about 15 fabrics left to do, but none of them is needed for any of the beginner-level blocks, so I figure I have some time to complete the laundering later.

So, my fabric was ready to go, I’d chosen my first block, and I was all set to quilt … except, wait, I don’t have any thread in dark brick red. How am I supposed to sew these pieces of fabric together?

The kit included a tiny 164-yard spool of dark red Mettler brand thread (pictured on the right above); I’d probably need 20 times that much to complete the quilt. A little internet research confirmed that Mettler no longer makes that color.

Also, Mettler thread is fairly expensive. I’m not sure I can continue to quilt in the style to which this fabric will be accustomed, if I start out with this spool of Mettler thread.

The Jinny Beyer book I’ve been using for hand piecing knowledge recommends Conso brand, which is an upholstery thread company that is no longer in business (the book is about as old as Paulette’s supplies).

Jinny Beyer’s website recommends Aurifil thread, which is even more expensive than Mettler. I also haven’t found any local sources for this thread, which means I would have to try and find color matches online – always a daunting prospect.

While searching Amazon for Aurifil thread, I saw an ad for Connecting Threads brand thread, packaged in sets of 5 or 10 spools. A set of five 1200-yard spools is about the same cost as one considerably smaller spool of Aurifil. It might be terrible quality thread, but for that price, I was willing to try it out.

The package arrived two days later (thank goodness for Amazon Prime!). The thread is nice and sturdy, which was a concern of mine. One of the colors in the set was Merlot (pictured on the left above), which turned out to be slightly pinker than I expected (the perils of ordering online), but would do in a pinch for piecing, where the thread theoretically doesn’t show.

The set also came with a spool of Cream, which was lighter than what I think of as cream color, but would do for the fabrics with a white background or very light ivory background.

Looking on the Connecting Threads website, I found that I could order individual 1200-yard spools for less than $3 each. I also found that they had a color called Wine, which looks like it might be an even closer match for my background fabric. Clearly the fabric color is alcohol-based; I’m just not sure which alcohol.

It’s frustrating trying to buy online, not being sure how true the colors are. I spent a lot of time positioning scans of my fabrics next to the online photos of the thread colors, and obsessing about which would be the best color matches.

Then I decided that these spools were super cheap, so I would just buy one (or more) of each that seemed like a possibility. So, I have two more spools of Merlot and three of Wine on order; one or the other, or possibly both, will work for the project.

I’ve also got light, medium, and dark drab greens (Pine, Moss, and Evergreen), and a range of darker cream/tan colors (Corn Silk, Antique, and Taupe) on the way. Plus a spool of Black, because you can never have too much black thread.

The shipping info says it can take up to two weeks for my order to arrive, but I’m hoping since Connecting Threads is based just a few hours away, that it won’t really take that long. If they still had a storefront, I’d have totally made the three-hour drive to pick it up in person.

I’m so impatient to get started that I’ve already started on the first block using the Merlot thread. Hopefully in a day or two I’ll be posting a lovely picture of the completed first block. Try not to notice the possibly mismatched thread color on it.