Today we are thrilled to share the ninth project showcase from our 2022-2023 Artisans! Each year we partner with an amazing team of Aurifil Artisans to share their masterful creations and talents and help spread the joys of working with Aurifil Threads.
For the month of February, we challenged the team to create or share a project using their absolute favourite weight of Aurifil Thread. We have loved seeing where this challenge took the Artisans. It has shown their individual personalities and given us a little insight into their favourite ways to use Aurifil. HUGE thanks to all of our participants for February — we are grateful for you, your creativity, and your incredible willingness to play along with us month after month!
Sue de Vanny
Grow Around You – Partial images of the flowers that surround Frida Kahlo. Designed for a challenge ‘In Full Bloom’ These are a few of my favourite threads 😍 50 wt, 40wt and 28wt. More than 60 beautiful Aurifil Threads colours in the whole piece! They brought the whole piece together literally as well as bringing it to life.
Yasmeen Kreebani Branton
Whenever I do any of my hand applique projects, Aurifil 80wt is my go to thread! I’ve used it for many years now and it’s not only beautifully melts into the fabric but super strong too! I have recently been using it for EPP for the first time and the results are equally amazing! It’s my current favourite for creating the blocks for my new BOM I have just released. My top tip for using this thread is to make sure it’s not too long – measure a piece from your hand to your elbow to avoid too many knots and help with the natural rhythm of the way your arm moves when hand sewing.
Kerry Keeble
One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most about being an Aurifil Artisan is the opportunity to explore the various thread weights and learn more about them – in particular 80wt for EPP! So this month I’ve delved deeper into my love affair with EPP and 80wt thread, using the opportunity to make great progress on several projects.
I get such a buzz from finding the perfect fabric, fussy cutting sections and then colour matching the perfect Aurifil shade – collecting thread has definitely become my new favourite thing to do!
Kate Sandford
Favourite weight? 🤔 It’s got to be 50wt Aurifil. It’s just sew damn reliable. It is the workhorse behind the scenes keeping it all together, minimising bulk in seams and lint in machine, but at the same time, is absolutely at home up front, doing lovely quilting .
Carrington Elliott
One would think that your bag should be subtle and not fight against your outfit, but what fun is it to follow that rule?! I love making things I want to wear, and that includes my accessories. I used fun granny square and hexie print patterns accented by bold solids to create fun patchwork fabric…but the boldness didn’t stop there. I added contrast zipper colors, and fun rainbow iridescent hardware to top it off.
Katrina Hadjimichael
The 50 weight thread is my go-to for so many techniques including English paper piecing, hand applique, machine piecing, machine blanket stitch applique and paper foundation piecing. The thread is very strong and can withstand the fine, tight stitching when joining hexagons together but it is so fine that the stitches disappear. I have recently completed a new quilt using colour #2000 in 50 weight for all the piecing. Beautiful!
Ama Frimpong
One of the most difficult questions ever asked is for me to choose a singular thread weight as my favourite. If I could I would say them all but I have to go with the weight that made me fall in love with Aurifil to begin with the 50 wt! It’s what I use to piece all of my quilts. For this month’s challenge, I used my favourite thread to make the Pacific Sun quilt by XOXSEW into a pillow.
Alison Carpenter-Hughes
Spring has Sprung! A handy and easy-to-make pouch made using my favourite 50 weight Aurifil threads, which are lovely to use for free motion embroidery, with the vibrant colours and they blend so smoothly! I love making my own unique pouches which have so many uses and I get a little buzz of pleasure using something I’ve created myself!
This project is exclusive to issue 141 (Feb/March 2023) of Stitch magazine, which can be ordered here: https://www.hobbies-and-crafts.co.uk/store/back-issues/stitch© Warners Group Publications plc, 2023
Janine Heschl
I’m excited to share my finished barn swallow portrait with you. When we were asked to create a work of art in our favorite thread weight, it was clear for me that I’d choose Mako 40wt and with spring around the corner, I wanted to embroider something colourful and uplifting. Although stitching the swallow has been a bit of a handful, especially her wings and the tail, I am really pleased with the amount of detail I was able to add considering her size. The Mako 40wt worked perfectly here and has a lovely matte finish, which suits especially the feathers of the wings and the body. Birds in flight are one of my favorite subjects! Not sure if it is the freedom they incarnate or just the light and feathery feeling they convey … I just love them!
Genesis Hall
Aurifil 50 thread weight is by far my most favorite and most used thread. This month I made a foundation paper pieced block and attached it to a thrifted denim jacket. I also attached a few fabric stamps to the front. My goal was to easily be spotted at Quilt Con as it was my first time ever being at a convention.
Brandon Wulff
For the month of February, the challenge was to use our favorite Aurifil thread, and I took this opportunity to feature one of my absolute favorites – the 12-weight thread.
Danielle Webb
Blooming Poppies Cross-Stitch Bookmark using Aurifil’s Aurifloss in 2250, 5016 and 2692 from the Little Quaker Christmas Collection. The pattern is available on my website!
Debbie Jeske
When I saw that the theme for this month’s Aurifil Artisan Challenge was ‘Favorite Weight of Thread,’ I didn’t have to think twice. As much as I’ve been loving experimenting and using a wide variety of thread weights in the past year, there’s no doubt I use Aurifil 50wt the most. And my most recent small make shows one reason why.
The Open Up Box Pouch by Minki Kim @zeriano begins with quilt-as-you-go panels. For this step alone, selecting a thread that works well for piecing and quilting was an obvious choice. For the leather zipper tabs (my addition), 50wt also worked great both on top and in the bobbin. Love that it was strong enough to handle that added detail.
Zeïba Monod
For this month’s challenge I decided to make a little keepsake for my youngest son. Aurifil floss is my absolute favourite thread (closely followed by 12wt), whether it’s hand quilting or embroidery. I love that I can vary my stitches by adapting the number of threads I use and Aurifil floss always delivers beautiful stitches.
For this project I particularly had fun experimenting with mixing thread colours to create Barry the Bear’s strawberry plant.
Anna – The Hackney Quilter
I used 40 and 28wt threads in blue on my New Moon quilt to create texture and movement in the quilted ‘waves’ but it needed something extra and so I added some ‘seafoam’ in 50wt in Silver White. 50wt has to be my all time favourite weight. I love that it works for any project, it’s not to light and not too heavy whether that’s for piecing or quilting. It’s definitely my desert island thread.
Sarah Harris
The idea for my Aurifil Artisan’s February challenge is based on a drawing that I made with one of the 5th grade classes at the school I work at. Combining the design with this month’s Aurifil challenge to use of favourite weight of thread, I picked 5 different coordinating colours of 12wt thread to echo the lines of the improv curves. I love using the 12wt for hand and machine stitching. I find the way it glides through the fabric so satisfying especially while slow stitching.
Anorina Morris
My favourite Aurifil thread is the 12wt cotton thread. I especially love using it for some big stitch quilting in combination with Aurifil 50wt machine quilting. Aurifil 12wt cotton is a beautiful, glossy thread which comes in such a wonderful variety of colours, that it’s hard choose only a couple for a project.
Carl Brown
Circles of My Mind” has been selected and will be exhibited during the 14th edition of Quiltmania’s Pour L’Amour du Fil in April 2023 in Nantes, France.. I used 50wt 2600 dove grey for both piecing and quilting!
Karen Foster
Playing favorites with 40/3 weight. I love the way it shows off the thread, even with double batting and 2610 Light Blue Grey was the perfect color for my beach inspired palette.
We encourage you to click through and check out each of these amazing projects in more detail!