My Date With Alex Veronelli & Aurifil

Well, technically, it wasn't just me and Alex, but a room full of quilters anxious to enjoy an afternoon of Italian thread and accents. Alex Veronelli is the face and voice of Aurifil Thread; and he is in the Austin, Texas area this week for THE end-all, be-all modern quilt convention - QuiltCon. So what does any good "Brand Jedi" (as he dubs himself) do? He holds workshops at area quilt shops to promote his product - Aurifil Thread.

Alex took us inside his factory to show us how Aurifil thread is made from start to finish (except for one or two top secret steps) via video - a 15 step process. He also shared a few tips about using Aurifil, and a whole lot of eye candy!

Here's a few of his tips.....

• The color of the plastic spools indicate the weight of thread. Orange spools are 50 wt., green spools are 40 wt., gray spools are 28 wt., and red spools are 12 wt. Easy to differentiate without a label.

• Aurifil is a 2-ply cotton thread produced in several weights for different uses. Alex recommends 50 weight thread for piecing and sewing; 40 weight for machine embroidery and machine quilting; 28 weight for hand quilting; and 12 weight for hand embroidery. Of course, there are no hard and fast rules as Alex quickly showed a quilt that was machine quilted with 12 weight thread. A great way to make the quilting stand out.

• Alex recommends using 50 wt. thread in the bobbin when using 50, 40 & 28 weight thread on top; and 40 wt. thread in the bobbin when using 12 wt. thread.

• He also recommends using a 90-14 needle with 12 wt. thread; 80-14 for 28 wt.; and 70-14 for 40 & 50 wt. thread.

• Aurifil also makes a wool thread; and 6-strand embroidery floss wound on wooden spools - no more tangled skeins of floss! Aurifil is also in the development stage of a linen thread.

Of course, no quilt workshop would be complete without some eye candy! Alex shared an array of quilts made by various designers (sorry, I didn't get that info to give credit to everyone) using Aurifil thread.

Alex closed the show with this portrait quilt made by an artist of the dashing Alex Veronelli. See the resemblance?

Stay tuned as next week I hope to check out what all the excitement is about QuiltCon!

~Sharla