Lavender Embroidered Cushion - Aurifil Artisan Challenge
As a seasoned quilter, I’ve grown to appreciate the threads that literally hold my projects together. The right color can pop with life or go unnoticed when I need it to blend in. Since I discovered Aurifil years ago, it’s been my go to thread and I love it. The quality is awesome, and we know poor quality could totally ruin hours of work.
It’s no surprise, then, that I was more than happy to act as an Aurifil Artisan and play with their threads as much as I liked. Of course, I may or may not have forgotten to consider the “challenge” bit.
You all know that when I make a pattern, I like to work on it until I streamline it to maximum efficiency, and then make several versions with different colors just to see how it looks. That means that, especially recently, I’ve been focused on speed, measurements, and what’s next in the queue. “Mindful stitching”, which was the theme for this challenge, made my hyperactive mind start to panic.
Little did I know, it was a blessing in disguise. I picked this cute little girl, a design by Kate from LiliPopo, and figured it was small enough for me to do well, and that it wouldn’t take too long. By the third stitch, I was someone else. Just forcing myself to stop, take a breath, think only about manually pushing that needle down and up, it was great.
Of course, I had to re-learn a few stitches and techniques, since usually all my hand-stitching is a bit more straight-forward. But I didn’t mind one bit. I chose these liberty fabrics because they seemed just as delicate and lovely. Look at these scrumptious pink flowers for the dress!
Since I was already going off-book, I decided to use both Aurifil floss and 12 weight thread which, as you can see, have a pretty significant difference in width. But look at these colors! How could I not combine them?
I filled the bag with fresh lavender and the smell made me want to lay down on the floor and pretend to do yoga. It was messier than I meant it to be, but the result is so intoxicating that I know I’ll do it again.
See this spectacularly colorful print? It makes a flawless back for this, contrasting with the delicate simplicity of the embroidered girl. It’s the kind of prints that you just have to stare at over and over, because you discover a new detail every time you look.
Now let’s take a closer look! Notice how the pink and the green seem to have almost the same weight after all? I figured out that using just two strands of the floss thread gave me a result that looks just like the 12 weight thread. It’s cool what you can accomplish when you think outside the box!
Beyond that, though, let’s take a minute to appreciate the tiny details of this figure: the curly hair, the crossed ankles, and the tiny bows at the end of her braids! The bows were easily my favorite part.
Clearly, some experimentation and calmer work makes for really gorgeous creations. It was refreshing to, instead of trying to get every poke of the needle perfect, let the threads do the heavy lifting and bring this girl to life. At the end of the day, I love the result so much that maybe it is perfection after all.
