10 Aurifil winners

I will announce the winners at the bottom of this post but just want to mention a couple of things first. [Two winners have been deleted as they were not contactible and have not come forward to claim their prizes so numbers have been re-drawn on 22 and 23 July].  Firstly, a few of you asked where you can find Aurifil. I am linking here to a list of Aurifil stockists around the world or, for those of you with an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, these are available from the Aurifil app.

A few of you have also asked for a brief explanation of what each thread is recommended for. I will in time review each of the threads and recommend my favourites for different tasks but here is a short explanation of the recommended use of each thread as well as my impressions after using the 50wt for a number of different tasks.  Katy I'm a Ginger Monkey also gave a quick breakdown of the different uses for the different weights of thread last week on her blog here.


50 weight (orange spool) - hand and machine piecing and applique

The 50 wt is the thread I have been trying so far for machine piecing. The thread is very fine, very smooth, almost lint free. It is giving me more accurate seams and points, the seams press flatter and I am finding noticeably less lint in the machine. It runs through the machine like butter with no snagging or breaking and also slides back out again like butter if unpicking is needed. Who am I kidding. Unpicking is often needed.

I have also been using the 50wt for the Hexalong and am absolutely loving hand sewing with it.  It is barely tangling at all and is easier to untangle if it does.  It runs very smoothly and is giving a very neat finish to my English Paper Piecing.

I have also tried FMQ, straight line quilting and top stitching with the 50wt thread but am going to try the 40wt and 28wt for these tasks and report back as I prefer a slightly thicker thread for all of these. That's just personal preference.

I have also hand sewn a binding on with the 50wt and it was beautiful to hand sew with. Again I will try the 40wt for this as I prefer a heavier weight for finishing bindings.


40 weight (green spool) - machine quilting

28 weight (grey spool) - for a bolder look when machine quilting and for hand quilting and blanket stitch

12 weight (red spool, available in cotton or wool) - decoration, embroidery, embellishment and sashiko

I have ten winners of the Aurifil trial packs and colour cards.  Could each of you email me with "Aurifil Winner" in the title of the email and the number commenter you were so I can make sure I have emails from each one of you when I pass the information to Aurifil.  You need to provide me with your full name and mailing address so that your gift pack can be mailed to you.