Sunday, November 6, 2011

Another Ode to Aurifil!

Oh, Aurifil, How do I love thee!!! You brighten my day like a new box of crayons.

I had the opportunity to open a new spool of thread tonight. I am so happy it was Aurifil. My friend Christine and I went to a quilt show yesterday, and I showed her the block I made for Eleanor Burns' Facebook Page contest. The Treasure Chest Quilt contest is a block of the month. You make the block, submit the picture, and there is a voting contest for the favorite. The winner gets $50 gift certificate to Quilt In A Day. Since it's one of my favorite online stores (except she doesn't sell Aurifil yet, lol) and I love her directions, and am always up for a quilting challenge, I entered one block and made the second.



I needed dark blue thread for the applique. I had purple (not Aurifil) and was looking at the venders at the quilt show to see if they sold Aurifil. The venders didn't sell it, but 2 of the women making charity quilts at the show were using it, and both said it was their favorite thread. We discussed places to purchase, and discovered none of the Long Island, NY stores carried Aurifil. The closest was City Quilter in Manhattan, but since I seldom go into NYC, it isn't practical just to go for a spool or two (or 10) of thread.

After a great lunch, we decided to run to the local JoAnn's chain store. I almost purchased a small spool of Gutterman embroidery, but put it back. Christine remembered she had purchased a pack of threads, and probably had a dark blue she could let me use. Wow! What a great friend who will share Aurifil! She also mentioned that she had gotten an extra spool during the Quilters Conference in NYC in August. And she met Alex.

So, today I went to her daughter's birtday party, and Christine handed me this goody bag. Isn't it the best??


And I got Chocolate covered pretzles!!

As I opened the blue thread to use in my machine, I felt this wonderful sense of anticipation and possibilities. Aurifil comes wrapped in plastic, as you can see, to protect it from various temperature changes and dust. It helps to add to the shelf life of the spool. Opening it made me think of all the wonderful things I felt on the first day of school when I opened a new box of crayons, and knew I could create anything. It was a great feeling. I hadn't felt the creative possibilities with many things lately, so this was especially sweet. Thanks, Chritine! Thanks, Aurifil!!

The block was pieced with Aurifil 50wt, and the blue applique used it as well. Check Quilt In A Day's Facebook page for the voting in the beginning of December, and look for my block! I do hope you "like" it then. Thanks for reading.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary

Your comment about the new box of crayons at school, struck a chord with me. Here, in Australia, we offer our stores a thread club program and the members of the club in one store named their collection the "Derwent" collection. Like you, they thought the box of thread was as good as the box of coloured pencils on the first day of school.