Newly Threaded
When I first discovered the world of stitching, I had no idea what kind of thread to use. Living in a remote village, I also didn’t have a store nearby where I could look for options. So I did what I do for most things- shopped secondhand on eBay.
I found some very charming hodgepodge collections, usually inherited from someone’s Oma- like this one:
More often than not, however, they were more on the dusty, worn, or even smelly side… with no hope for getting exactly the color I was looking for or more of what I found.
Considering the way my thread collection started, you can imagine my absolute glee when I found out I was chosen as an Aurifil Artisan for 2026. There was such a skilled, diverse, and inspiring group of artists selected- I am ridiculously honored and humbled to join this group. You can meet all of the 2026 Artisans here.
And THEN this Welcome Box showed up on my village doorstep. Click here if you’d like to watch the unboxing.
The colors! The variety! The possibilities!
Of course, I couldn’t help but dig in right away- and doing the hand-quilting of the words “I am” on the first quilt in this series (which you can read more about here) was the perfect opportunity to start.
I quilted with Aurifil 12-weight cotton in dusty lavender 1243, 12-weight wool in coral 8212, 8-weight cotton in loden green 2840, 28-weight in dark carmine red 2460, and did the applique with cotton 40-weight in white 2024. They are all so smooth, easy, and dreamy to work with. You can check out all the gorgeous threads here.
I already have a clear favorite (which I could gush about for hours, but I’ll save it for its own special post)… but I’ll give you a little preview by showing how charming just a single thread of this wool can be.
As a hand stitcher/embroiderer/quilter who until now has used exclusively 8 or 12-weight thread, I have to admit I am quite intimidated by the thin thread in my box.
But maybe this is the year to dust off my sewing machine? Or finally make my first attempts at English Paper Piecing?
The possibilities are endless, and I am so here for it!
I’m going to thread multiple needles and see where they take me.