Hey, hey and welcome to the latest instalment of the Aurifil Artisan: October Challenge!
This month we were asked to use at least five different coloured threads in one piece. And of course I got carried away and decided a new quilt was in order....
Taa dah! Meet 'Paradise Circus'
This design has been in the planning for a good six months with several design changes along the way. Today we are going to chat thread and quilting!
Since its first draft I have felt this quilt needed a bit of the hand quilted touch. I wanted to combine hand quilted sections along with simple machine quilting. I chose 28wt Aurifil Thread to enhance the structure of the shapes found within the quilt without being too heavy. And 28wt is also beautiful machine quilted.
The threads I chose to use were 28wt 4150, 2130, 2240, 2560, 3320, 1147 and 12wt 1125 (the blue one). My hand quilting echoed the pieced shapes with a near matching thread colour. In the navy sections I used a heavier thread and slightly lighter tone of blue so the stitching didn't disappear into the dark background. 4150 is a variegated gold which I used on the majority of the paler green sections. This added just the right amount of interest with the subtle shift between colours.
You will have noticed that Paradise Circus boasts a row of spots. I went back and forth about how to apply the spots. Inset circle? Pieced? And settled on appliqué sewn on with a neutral 80wt thread. Which I think looks glorious on top of the machine quilted lines. Each spot pops!
So, all in all I used seven different colours of Aurifil thread with an additional neutral 50wt for piecing and neutral 80wt appliqué. I hope you have enjoyed a little insight into the quilting of Paradise Circus. I really enjoyed slowing it down and taking my time with the quilting process.
