Aurifil Artisan Challenge: September 2019
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It's time again to share my participation in the Aurifil Artisan challenge for September 2019! We were challenged to highlight Aurifil floss (Aurifloss) with an embroidery or cross stitch project.
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My original plan was to cross stitch with two complementary Aurifil colors selected from [my color wheel tool](https://www.stephskardalquilts.com/color-wheel-harmony/), but I had to improvise when I didn't receive floss a couple weeks before the challenge deadline. I have a pretty small stash of floss, and I chose the colors Light Jade (1148) and Light Green (2882). I reviewed my quilt designs (both finished and never sewn) and looked for one that would translate to a cross stitch or embroidery design. The image shown to the left is a never-sewn-quilt-design that I chose.
I printed this design on [Stable Stuff](https://www.rickytims.com/online-store/notions/ricky-tims-stable-stuff-poly-50-sheets-8-5x11), which I've recently been using for foundation paper piecing. I hadn't thought of using Stable Stuff for embroidery, but since I had just received a shipment of it for piecing, I noticed that it said "embroidery" on the label and I thought it would serve as a great printable stabilizer. The printing was a little too light to see through a layer of white fabric, so I drew over these lines with a ruler using a FriXion pen. There are other options like tear or wash away printable embroidery paper that I'd like to try in the future, but I'll have to do a little more research to find out what can work best since these other options are new to me.
I layered my white voile on top of the design and I got to work on the embroidery, with back stitch only. I wasn't sure how much thread I would have to fill the design from my stash of thread, so I limited the embroidery to every other line in the design.
After I finished the embroidery, I wanted to add more texture with domestic machine quilting, so I made a quilt sandwich and quilted the remaining lines with Aurifil 50wt white thread. I loved the in progress photos in high contrast lighting, and the mix of hand and machine work here.
After quilting, I considered two options for finishing: framing in an 8"x8" white frame (my original plan), or binding with skinny white binding. I stuck with the original plan and dropped the finished piece into a 8"x8" frame. My 6 year old was unimpressed by the finished piece, but the 4 year old immediately asked if it could hang in her bedroom, so I'll consider it a success! :)
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Stay tuned for a September challenge summary blog post from the other Aurifil Artisans at the Aurifil blog!