Aurifil Artisan Challenge :: Favorite Weight of Thread | Open Up Box Pouch

When I saw that the theme for this month's Aurifil Artisan Challenge was 'Favorite Weight of Thread,' I didn't have to think twice. As much as I've been loving experimenting and using a wide variety of thread weights in the past year, there's no doubt I use Aurifil 50wt the most. And my most recent small make shows one reason why.

I'd recently purchased a new pouch pattern from Minki Kim @zeriano, her Open Up Box Pouch, and because it began with quilt-as-you-go with a bunch of scraps, I chose a neutral thread - Aurifil 50wt 2600 [Light Gray]. I pulled from my stash of Carolyn Friedlander scraps (yes, I keep them separate, as I do solid scraps), and subsequently pieced and quilted the necessary panels. For this step alone, selecting a thread that works well for piecing and quilting was an obvious choice.

Just for the record, I purchased the double slide zipper from Minki's shop, though I did cut it down by several inches as the pattern asked for. Gotta say, Minki's pouch has an extremely easy zipper installation, which was great.

Though it may look metal, the zipper is actual nylon, so I could easily sew over it to add my personalized zipper tabs. Not sure what made me think of using leather scraps for those tabs, but I really like them, and it's super easy to do. First, I used a little Fray Check on the cut ends of the zipper tape. Then I used my rotary cutter to cut two 1 1/4" x 2" tabs. I have good luck using a big glue stick on the back sides of the leather, pressing them in place over the zipper ends, and then stitching across the edges. For my JUKI, at least, it's easily done, and though I changed my thread to black for that stitching, 50wt worked great both on top and in the bobbin. Love that it was strong enough to handle that added detail.

One reason I like to try a variety of pouch patterns is for the exploration itself - just to see how it comes together; and also to try different techniques or hardware. The 'open up' feature of this pouch involved an interesting - and easy - construction technique, as did that double-slide zip.

And quilt-as-you-go isn't something I've done a lot of. I'm not sure I've done one of Minki's patterns before, but a terrific feature is that she provides a video of the construction. That really helped me as I did the QAYG, and the zipper as well.

In case it's not obvious, the above photo is of the pouch bottom. I also loved that this pouch pattern suggested quilting the exterior panels - just another way to let that Aurifil 50wt shine.