> "import child_directory"
Then it's certainly an effect of the "import lock":
http://docs.python.org/library/threading.html#importing-in-threaded-code

In your case, the first call to encode('utf8') indirectly imports utf8.py, while the import lock is held by 'import child_directory'.
Then the self.loglock is the second resource that closes the deadlock loop.

A workaround is to add some call to encode('utf8') before the thread is created.