Greetings Aurifil thread lovers! As Master Educator and Aurifilosophy Program Coordinator I’m thrilled to welcome back fellow Aurifilosopher Heidi Pridemore of The Whimsical Workshop to Thread Matters. Heidi is a talented and creative pattern & fabric designer, educator, and cheerleader for all things quilting. You’re going to love Heidi’s bright, whimsical design style and supporting tips. Today, Heidi shares her love of Aurifloss with us — you’ll be inspired by the many creative applications for this high quality 6 strand, divisible floss. Many thanks to Heidi for sharing her experience with us.
Is your shop, group or guild looking for insightful, inspiring and educational information on thread? Consider booking a virtual or in-person program with one of our skilled Aurifilosophers. Learn more about Aurifilosophy and find your favorite Aurifilosopher here.
Happy Stitching!
Karen L. Miller ~ Redbird Quilt Co
Heidi Pridemore here from The Whimsical Workshop and I’m excited to share my love and uses for Aurifil’s 6-strand divisble floss in this month’s Thread Matters. I have been a huge fan of Aurifil threads for fifteen years, but I did not discover Aurifloss until 2020 when Aurifil invited me to become an Aurifilosopher. It was then that I was introduced to the entire product line, including Aurifloss, which prepared me to share Aurifilosophy to guilds and groups across the globe.
Over the past three years I have been working with the different weights of threads and Aurifloss has become my favorite embroidery floss of all the brands I have tried. There are several reasons for this: first, the floss comes wrapped around a beautiful wooden spool. This means I do not have to wrap the floss around a bobbin card or use a floss drop. It comes ready to go and in such a stylish way.
Aurifloss has 18 yards of floss on each spool versus 5 to 8.7 yards per skein of other brands. This means one spool is usually enough for most projects. Since I do most of my handwork while traveling, it is so convenient to just have one spool for each color. They travel well, never tangle, and I have not run out of a color when out and about stitching.
The main reason I love Aurifloss is that it is so nice to work with. Due to the silky finish, it seems easier to thread and it just glides through canvas and various fabrics. The strands separate easily , and never bunch up or break. The best part is when I sew with the floss, it doesn’t get tangled or knot up. These are all the things I look for in an excellent floss and AuriFloss has it all.
Now let’s go over all the different techniques I have tried with Aurifloss. I really wanted to put the product through its paces since I had decided to carry the large basic set and some of the smaller floss sets on our website www.TheWhimsicalWorkshop.com .
CROSS STITCH
I chose to use Aurifloss for my first commercial cross stitch pattern, “Puppy Love”. I love how it has a gorgeous sheen once the stitches are all in place. I enjoyed this one so much, I decided to kit the floss to sell with our pattern. Aurifloss is truly my favorite for cross stitch and I was happy see that there are multiple online resources for converting colors from DMC to Aurifil to make it easy to use for commercial projects. Grab Aurifil’s chart via the button below!
SASHIKO
Then I moved on to the lovely and simple technique of Sashiko. This is a type of traditional Japanese embroidery used for decorative or structural stitching. I have been teaching this technique to guilds this past year. I generally use traditional Sashiko threads but for this project from Yazzii Craft Bags, I decided to use 3 strands of Aurifloss in various red and orange hues to create this piece.
PUNCH NEEDLE
Next, I tried using floss for punch needle. This involves threading the punch needle pen with 3 strands of floss and punching the tip through the canvas. This is a fun and easy technique, but it can put wear and tear on the floss. I was excited to learn that Aurifloss was up to the task. It did not break once while I was creating our Lucky the Unicorn piece.
NEEDLEPOINT
After I knew the floss was strong and easy to use, I moved on to needlepoint. The canvas traditionally used for needlepoint is stiff and you pack the floss stitch tight against each other. I also added in some metallic threads to see how they played together. I just love how this piece turned out. I purchased the pre-painted canvas design while on an adventure in San Francisco.
EMBRIODERY
Finally, I designed an embroidery piece called Crazy for Daisies to prepare for this post. I started this piece in January, using various embroidery stitches on linen. As you can see, I am not quite finished,but still wanted to share my progress. Be sure to follow along with me via @whimsicalworkshop to see the grand finish!
I hope you have enjoyed seeing the projects that I used to experiment with Aurifloss. What I learned going through them is that you must have good materials to enjoy creating. Pick floss that is easy to use, glides through your fabrics, and looks amazing in the finished piece. I would definitely recommend Aurifloss for all your stitching needs. There are a variety of great options available– you can start out like I did with the Aurifil Best Selection set that offers you a beautiful range of 45 colors or you can dive in with a set of 10 colors curated by one of Aurifil’s incredible collection designers. There is always a little something for everyone!
ABOUT HEIDI
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Heidi was born and raised in Rochester, New York, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from Rochester Institute of Technology. In 2000, Heidi began offering her services as a product designer to a number of fabric companies. She created her own line of quilt patterns beginning in 2002 and in 2004 Heidi started designing fabric in her own bright and whimsical style. By 2005 the work load warranted expanding to a partnership and The Whimsical Workshop, LLC was born with Heidi as the chief designer. Heidi is known for her fun and whimsical quilts which she often makes in dramatic, bright colors. She also designs quilt patterns for a variety of popular quilting magazines. In addition she has written five books; Quilted Whimsy, Bold Batiks and Dazzling Designs for Leisure Arts, Pop Up Paper Structures for C&T Publishing and Fabric Jewelry-Wrapped, Braided and Sewn for F&W Media.
The Whimsical Workshop, LLC is a full-service design studio and retailer led by Heidi and Matthew Pridemore. We specialize in bright, fun quilt patterns, fabric, fabric kits, books, and licensing. We also offer lectures and workshops about design, quilting and crafting. You can also find quilting tutorials, tips and tricks from Heidi on our YouTube Channel. Although The Whimsical Workshop is based in Arizona, their products are available worldwide through their website. The Whimsical Workshop continues to create new and exciting products that spark people’s imagination and make them smile.