Aurifil Artisan Challenge: September 2019
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.
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! :)
Stay tuned for a September challenge summary blog post from the other Aurifil Artisans at the Aurifil blog!