Aurifil Artisan Challenge for February

This month’s Aurifil Artisan February challenge focuses on my favourite thread weight.

My absolute favourite has to be the 50 weight thread, identified by the orange spool colour. This fabulous strong but thin thread is available in an incredible 270 different colours!

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.  

The fine nature of the thread also means that machine pieced seams sit very flat and neat when pressed. Machine pieced blocks will turn out much more accurately when you use 50 weight thread.  This means all your measurements will add up!

I recently completed machine piecing a new quilt in the beautiful Tilda range called “Chic Escape”. The fabric features gorgeous florals in rich autumnal colours as well as classic urns and beautiful peacocks.

I used the perfect cream 50 weight thread to make my quilt. Colour #2000 is a gorgeous light cream. A slightly darker colour #2312 is also a great versatile piecing choice. I always balance the thread weight in my machine by winding the same thread on the bobbin for perfect stitching.

My quilt is a combination of two blocks.  The first is simply four squares with a cross through the middle and a little centre square.  To add more detail, the second block is made of four little 4-patch cross blocks with the same cross and centre square proportions as the first block. Lots of machine piecing, which I enjoy.  

The blocks were looking rather busy when I laid them out so my choice of sashing was a light cream spot which toned down the busyness and added some relief to the design. A plain pink border and then a gorgeous Tilda floral complete the quilt.

My quilt was beautifully professionally edge to edge quilted in a gorgeous fleur di lis style pattern by Leanne Harvey of Mount Vincent Quilting. Now to sew the binding on!

Aurifil Challenge for January

 Sometimes it just feels great to revamp one of your favourite patterns!

The January challenge for Aurifil Artisans was about new beginnings for the year.  I decided to showcase one of my older projects in a new pretty colour scheme.

I am very well known for using my beloved reproduction fabrics, especially from the civil war era in rich earthy colours, but lately I have been enjoying using the fresh and beautiful prints created by Tilda.  You will notice a lot of the recent patterns on my website are made from gorgeous Tilda ranges including Cotton Beach, Chic Escape and Hometown.

I am remaking my “A Daisy a Day Table Runner” in the newest Tilda fabric called Pie in the Sky. I selected one of the gorgeous floral prints in purple, pink and a greeny yellow for the border of the runner and then selected more of the coordinating prints for the applique flowers and scrolls. Sometimes it is trial and error, so don’t be afraid to try a fabric combo and reject it if it does not work.

This is raw edge fused applique, so I used my go-to 50 weight Aurifil threads for the buttonhole machine stitching.  These fine, strong, pure cotton threads come in so many fabulous colours I can always find a matching thread no matter what fabric I am using!

My Bernina is set to buttonhole with a stitch length of 2.0 and a stitch width of 2.0.  I always balance the top thread with the same thread weight and colour in the bobbin for a flawless finish. Magic! I also always use a stitch and tear stabiliser behind machine applique to keep the stitching even and the background fabric flat.

For piecing I also use my 50 weight (in white this time) as it is fine and stitches beautifully.

Press well, layer with pellon and a pieced backing and pin baste the three layers together. I am going to quilt it by hand using a white Aurifil 12 weight thread to create some lovely texture.

This will be a big year for me, turning 60 when I am in Paris in April, and I am hoping to progress my business and create lots of new stitching projects.  I hope you will follow my progress on my social media on Facebook and Instagram as well as here in my blog.

Here is my finished table runner.  I love the bright happy colours and the simplicity of the hand quilting. The pattern for this project is available from my website here.