Solids & Thread Colors
I hope all of you folks who celebrated Thanksgiving had a good one. I know that we had a wonderful long weekend with family. I always love having my girls home, even if they get a little bit feisty sometimes. =) Today, I thought we could talk a little bit about solid fabrics and threads.
Let’s begin with solid fabrics. I get asked quite often which color solids I like to use and/or which ones coordinate with my lines of fabric.
I love a warm, “sherbet-y” palette–you can tell from that peek into my sewing room. And, the solids I choose reflect that love. I really enjoy working with Moda’s Bella Solids and pretty much exclusively use them.
From top to bottom, these are the colors I always have on hand:
9900-241(Flax), 9900-310(Taupe), 9900-34(Aqua), 9900-269(Bermuda), 9900-132(Breeze), 9900-65(Green), 9900-100(Light Lime), 9900-134(Pistachio), 9900-250(Daffodil), 9900-211(Citrine), 9900-272(Canary), 9900-81(Goldenrod) 9900-78(Peach), 9900-147(Coral), 9900-89(Tea Rose), 9900-299(Flamingo)
I also have these colors available as Fat Quarter & Half Yard Bundles in my shop.
Another color I use a ton of is 9900-171(Etchings Charcoal) and equally 9900-170(Etchings Slate). These are both beautiful dark warm greys. In my sewing room you can see Etchings Charcoal on the left side of my solids. Etchings Slate is just a few notches lighter but still a darker grey.
I used Etchings Charcoal for the background of both my Gingersnap quilt (pattern available here):
And my Starflakes quilt (pattern here):
And the last color I really enjoy using is 9900-178(Etchings Stone)–another warm grey. But this one is a lighter grey. It’s the fabric I used for the grey in my Idyllic quilt (pattern here):
Some of the other solids in my bundle I’ve used as backgrounds are Pistachio in my Kindred Quilt (pattern here):
And Green in my Rummage Sale quilt (pattern here):
Isn’t it amazing how much a solid can change the look of a quilt!?
And now, let’s move onto thread colors. For piecing, I primarily use Aurifil 50 weight thread in a white or cream shade. I haven’t always used Aurifil thread for piecing but since I have made the switch I find that I do really enjoy using it. I was a bit put off by the price tag initially but because it’s 50 wt. there is a lot more thread on each spool. It also means less time spent filling bobbins because they don’t need filled as often.
My favorite threads to purchase though are heavier weight threads–8 weight & 12 weight.
I love using these threads for hand quilting and embroidery. The threads I’m sharing today are Aurifil 12 weight thread which is a beautiful weight for both hand quilting & embroidery. I also like Presencia Finca 8 weight thread which is slightly heavier.
From Left to Right the colors are as follows: 2277, 2225, 2435, 2214, 2130, 1147, 2835, 2479, 6732, 5013
If you enjoy these colors, keep your eye out as an Aurifil thread box is coming soon curated with my favorite thread colors in the 12 weight thread.
Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope that you find this information helpful and inspirational and that it encourages you to try out some new colors you may not have thought about using.
Happy Sewing!
This was such a helpful posting! Made a file of your choices-it also helps to see background colors actually in a quilt. Thanks-Susan R
You are so welcome–and I’m glad you found it helpful. Solid choices in quilts make such a big difference!
I am absolutely hooked on this palette of “sherbety” colors. Just finished a block-of-the-month quilt using the Moda Bella solids that coordinate with Prairie and it turned out really pretty.
That sounds like a wonderful quilt!–I love the quilts that I have made using sherbet colored solids. They always turn out so pretty.
Thank you so much for sharing! I have requested notification when the thread is available. I recall you using a grey fabric in the past that was linen looking. Do you remember the name of it?
It might have been an Essex Linen(The one in olive is lovely). Take a peek at this post and see if that might be what you are remembering: https://corianderquilts.com/2015/08/summer-happenings/
That’s it!!! Thanks 😉
This is a very helpful post, thank you. I have not used Auriful Thread because of price. But I just may try your 8 and 12 weight threads. I have been following you for a while and I really want to try a quilt that you hand stitched (I call it utility stitching) the quilt using colorful thread, you used pearl cotton. Since then you are now a Moda designer and you are really making your brand. I love it all. What is the difference between pearl cotton and the Aurfil 12 weight?
I also loved when you used the Etchings Charcoal solid. It gave your line of quilts a new look. I have also used the Essex Linen and that is really, really nice to work with. It pressed beautifully.
I am so glad you are back to blogging more =)
Hey Linda!–It’s good to see your comment here! =) If you’ve never tried hand quilting before (or even if you have) utility stitching is such fun! If you ever hear anyone refer to long stitch or big stitch or pick stitch they are all referring to the same thing as utility stitch–it just seems like you hear it one way or another when growing up. I use the Aurifil 12 wt for the same situations I would use 8 or 12 wt. perle cotton. They are both made up of a couple strands of thread but they don’t divide apart like embroidery floss does. The Gingersnap quilt I shared above actually uses all three types of thread–Aurifil 12 wt., perle cotton (the Finca brand) in 8 weight, and one color is 6 strands of embroidery floss. And they all blend together to look like the same type of thread. While you don’t notice it when you look at the quilt, you will notice the difference when you are using the thread. The 12 weight Aurifl pulls through the fabric nicer with the 8 wt. coming in right behind. The embroidery floss doesn’t pull through nicely at all and has a tendancy to want to twist–I would never recommend using it for hand quilting but sometimes you need that color. I’ve also tried using crochet thread which is even worse than embroidery floss. I, too, love the colorful threads on the darker solids–that Gingersnap quilt is so eyecatching in real life–and Essex linen is wonderful as well–I love the texture it brings to a project.
I first noticed the utility stitching on a quilt you called “Candy Scraps”. I believe that is the one you used the pearl cotton. Thank you for explaining the difference between Auriful thread, pearl cotton, floss and crochet thread. I never thought about the feel of thread going through the layers. It would be nice if you blogged on how you do utility stitching, keeping stitches consistent size and how to make a straight line and do you use a quilting frame. I am sure you will let us know when the Auriful 8 and 12 weight thread becomes available. I think I will give it a go. It was a great learning blog for me today. I can’t wait to see more. Thanks Corey.
Oh yes Candy Scraps!–I have that quilt tucked away somewhere. =) So glad I was able to pass along some nuggets of information. I know that I have learned a lot from different bloggers over the years.
Oh yes! Tips like those she asked for would be great for those of us who are beginners. I’ve found that wrestling a large quilt on my regular machine is too much for my arthritis and am going to purchase a small frame and try hand quilting. Thank you!
These are all great ideas for another post on hand quilting!
Love this post!! Thanks so much for this information. SO inspiring AND I love your quilts!
Thanks so much Jayna!–I love talking quilts! =)
I love that you’re posting on your blog again. I follow you in Inoreader because I find Instagram hard to navigate.
I’m so glad you stopped by! I used to love Instagram (and do still enjoy it) but it’s much harder to keep track of the people I follow since they changed the order I view things in. It was so much easier when it was chronological.
Is it possible to use the heavier WT threads on our machines? Are there needles for them? Love your quilts and the gorgeous fabrics!!
Some machines will allow you to–my Bernina does not like when I use heavier weight thread (and I only use it for the top thread–never the bobbin). I don’t think I have tried it on my Juki. However, the stitches won’t look the same as they do when you hand quilt. In this post: https://corianderquilts.com/2012/08/journal-it/ you can see a couple projects where I used heavier weight thread in my machine. I did, just this month, purchase a Baby Lock Sashiko machine which is able to replicate the look of hand quilting. I haven’t had a chance to do more than play with it a bit but I’m sure I’ll share more about it–it is a really neat machine if you want your project to look hand quilted without all of the time spent hand quilting.
I know there are some machines that have the hand stitch look, but you need to use the invisible thread in the bobbin. Have you ever tried winding a bobbin with invisible thread? Oh my, it is a nightmare. So when I was at Quilt Festival this fall, I stopped by the Superior Threads booth (their invisible thread is not so stretchy) and they have pre-wound bobbins with their invisible thread. Woohoo!! So now I am waiting to try out the hand stitching on my girlfriend’s machine. I don’t have a fancy machine. I still want to try the utility hand stitching thought.
these colors are very yummy!