Welcome to the enchanting world of Aurifil Thread, where every stitch is a masterpiece waiting to be born. It’s that time of the month again when we unveil the captivating creations of our Aurifil Artisans, and for October, we’ve woven a challenge that’s sure to set your quilting heart aflutter.
As we transition into the cozy embrace of fall, our talented artisans have taken up the call to showcase their unique quilting styles. Whether it’s the soothing rhythm of hand quilting, the precision of machine quilting, a harmonious blend of both, or the mesmerizing dance of long-arm quilting – our artisans are here to inspire you.
HUGE thanks to all of our participants for October – we are grateful for you, your creativity, and your incredible willingness to play along with us month after month!
Ben Millett
Since I had trimmed down “Not Everyone Wears a Rainbow” to a smaller size than what was quilted, I cut the longarm-quilted (with Aurifil Forty3) remnants to smaller squares to make Tiny Quilt Sketches. These squares were embellished with hand-quilting with Aurifil 12wt and then attached (using 12wt thread) to another quilt I longarmed with Forty3, bringing together my approaches to quiting: structured longarm and loose hand quilting.
Karen Foster
Channel quilting may not be as glamorous as other techniques but it plays an important supporting role to help feature the piecing in a project and that’s just as valuable. Perfectly imperfect spacing was my goal so that the process was enjoyable – almost meditative – and the results have an even-ish visual flow without having to fuss with marking. When there’s a lot going on in the piecing and composition, channel quilting gives structure and does not compete for attention. I like the extra detail achieved with Forty/3 weight and it is nice and strong to hold up to the riggers of the back and forth motion on the long arm.
Maude MacDonald
My fave types of machine quilting is with no marking or burying threads- to just go for it! And my fave kind of hand quilting is big stitch all the way!
Mariana Diaz
One of the last steps when making a quilted piece is, well, the actual quilting. I have to admit, it’s never been my favorite part, and to this day, trying to fit a large quilt into the throat of my domestic sewing machine feels like a workout. So… those go to my wonderful longarmer. But quilting small pieces, now that’s something that I’ve grown to love! I take my time designing what I want to showcase, where I want to be subtle and where I want to shine light.
For this purpose, having an excellent thread, like Aurifil, is vital to achieve my vision. It’s not just the quality of the thread itself, but the variety of options in terms of color, weight, and even spool size. In the case of this project, I wanted the background to have texture but not add more color, letting the acorn stay in the spotlight. That meant that finding the exact color match to my background fabric was fundamental. I used a 50 to achieve the look I was after. Now, for the body and stem of the acorn, my centerpiece, I did want to add color but also give some movement to the piece. I found a variegated thread in a 40 wt was perfect for the job. Look at that shimmery effect! I’m really happy with the result. Just looking at the before and after of adding the quilting, both the subtle threads and the flashier ones, makes my little acorn feel like it went from a project to a piece of art. If you want to make your own acorn, visit my blog and you’ll find the tutorial!
Robyn Cuthbertson
This month’s aurifil challenge is quilting and what can I say? Quilting is my life! Lately I’ve been obsessed with miniatures, and the reels of threads on this first photo really give you a feel for the scale of this piece (14″!). For those who are wondering, no computers here, all free motion. I’ve used 50wt aurifilthread throughout and the detail I was able to achieve amazed me.
Irina Malyukova
The theme of the October Aurifil Artisan Challenge was quilting. It has always been my favourite stage of quilt making. While I do like intricate machine quilting and enjoy creating secondary designs, I love simplicity the most. My quilted jacket demonstrates simplicity in its pure form. I chose a simple design, solid coloured fabric and super simple but effective “wavy line” quilting that is very forgiving even for beginners. I used Aurifil 50 wt 2847 Bright Gray Blue for machine quilting. Then I added a touch of colour and a bit of more definition to the quilting with variegated 40wt thread (3817 Marrakesh). For me, a project often feels incomplete without hand quilting. Therefore, I hand quilted a few circles with Aurifil 12 wt 3770 Stone Washed Denim on the pocket with a simple patchwork in colours similar to the thread. This was my first time designing a quilted garment and drafting my own pattern from scratch. I often say that beauty is in simplicity. In my opinion, this project proved it once again. What do you think?
Annie Tremblay
I love to mix both machine and hand quilting. This quilt has been in the making for over a year and it deserved a special treatment. I stared at it for a few days before I had a plan in mind. I wanted to give an impression of wind blowing in the trees. I freehand marked the design with my trusty hera marker and started quilting on my machine first using 40wt and 50wt. Once that step was completed I sat down with a few spools of 12wt threads to fill the rest of it with hand quilting.
Fiona Johnstone
Aurifil 3817 is my absolute favourite rainbow thread and it was perfect for quilting this rainbow inset star pouch! I love how some colours blend in and others pop out to almost give a sheen to the fabric. It added beautiful detail as the quilting and top stitch thread in this project.
Amelia Ellen
I absolutely loved working with the Aurifil threads on this quilting project. This is by far my most ambitious quilting project to date and I am so pleased with how it turned out. I feel the beautiful variated thread colours and the amazing texture of the thread really helped make my quilt reach it’s beautiful outcome.
Zeiba Monod
After gifting last month’s project away, I wanted my own bold and bright quilt. So I combined a quilting technique I love, to fabrics I love, to a quilting style I love and here is my hand quilted scrappy African wax fabrics cathedral window wall quilt! Phew! I loved finding solace and comfort in slow stitching each “window pane” with all the Aurifil floss threads I could find that complimented my watercolour effect.
Jennifer Cannon
I had a lumbar pillow that I wanted to cover and brighten up my living room couch. I used scraps left from a quilt and added some gorgeous texture using Aurifil’s 12wt thread in Very Light Brass. It came out perfectly!
Devida Bushrod
When quilting add a whole new story to a quit…
Candice Odeen
This cathedral window quilt has been a labor of love. The quilt top measures about 66” square and used 12 total yards of fabric so my challenge in quilting is to make sure I’m not adding in too much weight (no heavy batting here), getting a great quilty texture, and also using thread that’ll be strong enough to hold up. I used 28wt on top and 40wt in the bobbin and I’m so happy with the results. My test blocks came out so great and show so much texture without needing a lofty batting.
Kate Sandford
I always approach each quilt individually, they almost always whisper a quilting plan to me. For this quilt I knew I wanted to thread match to the kona solids And I wanted the scrap sections to have less visible quilting. My aim was to have the solid sections seem to float off the scrap sections. I used 28wt and a walking foot for the floating squares. Colour matching the thread to the fabric, I wanted the thread to be visible and deliberate, kind of solid and hefty. I used standard 50wt in a grey to do the more random fmq in the scrap sections. I wanted the thread to be less visible but create a lovely texture.
Brandon Wulff
Brandon’s quilting style is experimental.
Anna Wraith
I love the simplicity and versatility of quilted parallel lines to add texture to my quilts. For a long time I’ve used 50wt but recently I really enjoyed swapping it out or supplementing it with some bolder lines in a 28wt thread which adds definition without distracting from the quilt itself. You can read my blog to find out how to use it in your sewing machine.
Shereece Nicole
I got into the habit of having my quilts long armed. After participating in the Free Motion Quilting Summit, I was re-energized to start again. So I took the opportunity to do so with my new pattern, Let’s Mingle. I normally do so with 50wt, but I highly encourage quilters to play with other weights.
Anorina Morris
I absolutely love using 12wt cotton thread in my projects, so embraced this quilting challenge enthusiastically. I used a piece of fabric by AMH and layered it with batting then enjoyed adding all sorts of stitches to quilt this gorgeous fabric design – both by hand and machine. So much fun!
Janice Reimer
Meet Neela! My husband and I recently started fostering-to-adopt this sweet girl, but with all the rainy weather we get on the west coast, our couch quickly started to smell like wet dog. No thanks! I designed this quilt block back in the summer and decided that making a protective couch quilt would be a great way to test the pattern out. I used 40 wt thread for all the quilting – partially because I wanted to make sure that the quilting would withstand puppy paws, but also because I really love the how it stands out against the Essex canvas I used on the front.
Sarah Harris
Combining a beyond repair vintage hand pieced quilt top with Carolyn Friedlander Essex linen, I created a quilted triptych. Combining machine and hand quilting is my go to method for achieving my favourite quilted textures. I left the vintage quilt in its bumpy imperfection and started machine quilting in a neurographic style using 50wt, and 12wt threads across the three quilt pieces. Aurifloss was next to add some hand stitched details and aid the flow of the triptych.
Mary Burroughs-Mayer
The October Aurifil Artisan Challenge was all about quilting. My favorite thread to add a big quilty punch to a project is 12 wt. This thread is great for hand-quilting or big stitch binding by hand, but did you know you can also using it for machine quilting? I particularly love using it on smaller bags and pillows to add a fantastic textural accent. I’m using it here on my PB+J Pouch (pattern by Great Heron Thread Co.) in a simple grid for a fun detail. Some tips for using 12 wt. thread in your machine: 1. Use a 90/14 or Jeans needle. 2. Use 50 wt. thread in the bobbin (use a coordinating thread if possible). 3. Lengthen your stitch – I like a 3.5 stitch or longer but play with this and see what works for you! 4. Practice on a scrap piece with the same thickness as your final project. 5. Hold your top and bottom threads when starting a line of stitching. 6. Try to minimize stops and starts if possible . 7. Slow down. This thread is thicker than what you may be used to and needs a little extra patience. Get a good audio book and settle in!
We encourage you to click through and check out each of these amazing projects in more detail!
Great article. A lot of good ideas pictures and explanations so helpful