Aurifil's New 80wt Appliqué Thread

The changes that getting older bring can be amusing at times. When I was younger I eagerly awaited hearing about a new job or pay raises, what the weekend might bring, what art I hoped to make soon...those kind of life experience kind of things. Lately though, my 'awaiting moments' are far more simple.

 

Thread! Yes, I have been eagerly waiting to try Aurifil's new appliqué thread...an smooth, strong, 80wt cotton. It seems that my 'making' life has been dominated by hand sewing and hand appliqué lately. Therefore, anything that tends to make my stitches look smaller and blend better is on my radar. Over the years I have used a lot of varieties of appliqué thread. Who doesn't love stitching with silk thread?! It's soft, lustrous and blends so well! My issue with sewing with most silk threads was that it tended to break a lot. I tried to love Superior Threads Bottom Line poly and Wonderfil's Invisifil poly. The problem? I really tend to be old school and I prefer sewing with cotton thread. Superior Threads pre-filled bobbin rings of their many colored Masterpiece 50 wt cotton have been my go-to appliqué thread for quite some time now. The bobbin rings are so handy and the color range is large...what's not to love?! Masterpiece replaced my myriad small spools of Mettler 50wt that had been my appliqué staple for many years before the wonders of Masterpiece pulled me in. I have two Mettler thread carriers one with the warm side of the color wheel and the other filled with the cooler side. An investment for certain....and I still return to these stashes quite often for particular shades of blues, reds and purples especially. Money well spent back then.

 

Amid all of these options though I kept dreaming of something even more perfect. I wanted a thin, smooth, strong cotton! Recently I discovered that one my favorite thread purveyors, Aurifil, would be introducing a new, cotton, 80wt appliqué thread at Market this fall in Houston...and,ostensibly, it would be available at Festival too. Alas, my personal exchequer would not allow for me to go to Houston and so I started searching the 'net' .... and found The Fat Quarter Shop, the bountiful, wonderful, online purveyor of all things quilty had some sets of this wonderous new product but they were out-of-stock. Once again, patience off. Since I had requested re-stock notification I found out as soon as this set was available again and pressed the magic "buy-me" button. Voila! Today I received my set of "Essential Appliqué" colors and I may be in thread love heaven!

I find that most appliqué works very well using these "essential" colors and so I had to begin my Aurifil 80w collection with this set...oh my! another sewing addiction to add to my "I want more" list. This 80 stars cotton is veerrry smooth and amazingly strong. Later today I will play with it some more and hope to have some examples to show before long. If you are a hand appliqué/hand sewing fan I think that you need to give this amazing new thread a try. I think that Aurifil has a new winner in their "thread stable"!

I wish I had ALL weights of Aurifil for examples in black, but I don't...so I have used similar weight and the image above shows

from RIGHT TO LEFT:

  • SUPERIOR Threads POLYESTER Bottom Line in Raven (black)
  • AURIFIL new 80 weight COTTON appliqué thread in black
  • AURIFIL Mako 50wt cotton in color 1130 ( dark brown)
  • SUPERIOR Masterpiece 50 wt cotton in Raven (black)
  • WONDERFIL Konfetti 50wt cotton (an all time favorite of mine)
  • SULKY 12wt cotton in black (I am a big fan of Sulky 12 wt, but SUPERIOR thread has come out with a delectable line of 12wt thread called "Sew Sassy" I love to use 12 wt for top-stitching and "big stitch" quilting...more than perle cottons which tend to spread much more.

Threads have come such a long way since "the old days" when one brand dominated the market. I am so happy to have such an amazing and varied selection these days. The thread companies have really responded to consumer requests I think.

Do you have favorite threads and/or thread brands ?

So you use a favorite hand appliqué thread?

Do you use 'essential thread colors" for most hand appliqué or do tend to carefully match colors?

Have you tried a variety of thread brands? Which ones and why?

Now...back to my regularly scheduled hand sewing projects!

 

Comments

  1. I'm still in the 'grab what's there' school of stitching! But I remember the days when all I did was needlework and would moan and groan about using DMC after using silk threads for a project. And I think I have a piece of that same fabric for a border in a lap quilt I'm working on!

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  2. I'm still using that same Mettler we bought so long ago! But replacing with Aurifil when I need cotton.

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  3. AURIFIL 80 breaks every few inches as I use it for hand. Appliqué. Back to my MASTERPIECE and YLI SILK 100.

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