Well you know that my dilemma of what to do last night was solved by starting a new stitch, right? Sitting on my stitching table since it arrived (but buried under a few charts) was this
That little box is the Aurifil floss pack for Little Quaker Christmas. I loved Aurifil thread for quilting so wanted to check out their floss. It’s all the colors for the free Little Quaker Christmas chart. The only photo of chart is on the front of the box since the chart is a free pdf chart and doesn’t have a cover image with it – just the chart. If you are interested – both can be found at the Fat Quarter Shop. So about 8:30 PM I finally pulled some fabric. After checking a fabric calculator to see how large this chart would be on 14, 16, and 18 count fabric and trying to decide how big it was I went to dig through the fabric box. I wanted a whitish color fabric so that sort of led my decision because I don’t have a lot of that so I opted for 18 Count PTP Fog. It’s not white white and has a bit of very subtle mottling. Here’s how far I am.
The most difficult thing was trying to figure out which threads went in which spot. The spools have the thread number on them but the chart is in color and the four reddish shades show up very similarly on the chart; however, after a bit of studying and looking at threads, I figured it out and wrote some notes on my chart so I wouldn’t forget which color I decided went where.
On 18 count fabric the stitched area of this piece is only going to be about 5.5″ x 4.5″. I thought about doing it on 14 count to make it a bit larger but didn’t really want to use two strands of floss. Now about this floss (and this is my personal opinion – no association with any of the products/manufacturers I give my opinion on), I do like stitching with it. I haven’t had any issue with tangles. The spools are wrapped with 6-strand floss and each spool has 18 yards on it.
The downside for me – which means I won’t buy any more of it (or any floss that is on spools like Anchor thread that has recently been switched to spools) – is I hate that it’s on a spool. You have to unwind the length you want, then pull out the one thread you want, and then what do you do with the rest of the strands. On a pattern like this where I’m hopping from color to color I have all these unused sections. Winding unused ones back on spool and then having to unwind when you want the next strand -heck that just slows down stitching time. Using a Thread Pal/Keeper or something similar – that’s just one more thing I have to keep on my stitching table so that won’t happen. So I can rule out needing to buy any floss that comes on a spool in the future.
Eventually I will be taking this floss off the spools and putting it on floss drops so it is really easy to pull out on strand of floss only at a time. That may be a task to start on next while I wait for my grocery order to arrive shortly.
Justquiltin with Denise Russart 
Oh my! I can see why you started this design! I’m not into holiday charts but I really like this one. I like the colors too. I may have to check this one out. I had no idea that floss came on spools until Judy showed those spools of Anchor she got at JoAnns. Storing them would be a dilemma for me too since I use the old style cards. But I do like Aurifil thread for piecing my quilts so I’ll probably check out the floss.
I did this pattern last year – it is a lovely pattern and charming in a frame. I will be excited to see how you finish yours up. Excellent choice!
i downloaded this as well…anxious to watch your progress