Thread makes such a difference in a project. I’ve known this to be true as soon as I made the switch from using whatever random thread that I had on hand to making a deliberate effort to use what wouldn’t cause me problems. I know, that sounds super obvious, but as I think we’ve all experienced, you don’t really know this until you’ve experienced it first hand.
After trying many types and brands of thread, I landed on using Aurifil for most everything. I discovered that I had fewer problems with tension, thread breaking and overall consistency.
When the opportunity to put together some sets came up, it was an easy decision, because it was already what I was using. My first sets came out a few years ago, and more recently, I’ve been able to put together some new ones, which I’ve finally added to my shop.
The 50wt cotton is my go-to for
+ basting (in appliqué)
+ any piecing (by machine or sometimes hand–although I’ll hand piece with 80wt also)
+ machine quilting
It’s reliably consistent, strong and the colors are beautiful. With the sets, I also try to cover a useful range that can work with many different projects, coordinate with my fabrics and just be pretty to look at.
There’s a larger set with 12 big spools, as well as a smaller set with 10 small spools.
I basically live off of the larger spools, and the smaller spools I find to be handy for travel–or if you’re just wanting a taste of a certain color.
For appliqué, I’m a MASSIVE fan of the 80wt cotton. I do a lot of appliqué, and it is always what I use. Always.
In fact, I was able to test their 80wt thread while it was under development, and I was so hooked that I basically refused to use anything else even if the color didn’t work. At the time, I only had 1 color–which was similar to the cream (top, right) in the pic below, and in using it, I realized that the fineness meant fewer colors could serve a wider range of needs.
It’s great, because you get the benefits of it being all cotton, but a thinness that totally disappears into your project.
Using a thinner thread makes you appear more skillful, because your stitches disappear more easily while still being quite strong.
I thought really hard about this set, because I wanted the most essential range of colors that would be ready for most any project you were working on. With handwork being so portable, the smaller spool is great, and having the right mix of colors is even better.
And by the way, I recently discovered that the smaller petal pouch (by Noodlehead) fits these spools perfectly!
This last set is a really fun one–it’s a combination of 12wt cotton and aurifloss.
The 12wt cotton is great for big stitch quilting. I love the look and feel of textured, colorful big stitches, and this thread just glides through a project.
The Aurifloss is great for embroidery or other embellishments, like what I did here on some Crew pincushions.
All of these sets can be found in the shop, and all of them come with free domestic and discounted international shipping.
Happy sewing!
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