Thread help
I am pretty new to quilting. And I’m wondering what thread everyone uses for piecing. What I know I learned from my grandmother and she only uses cotton thread. So I’ve only used cotton. However, I’ve had a hard time finding the big cone spools of cotton thread in any of the stores near me. So I wondered if everyone just uses polyester or if you all just buy little spools. I’ve found some options for buying cotton thread online, but the price range is pretty big. So if you use cotton thread only what brand do you buy? Thanks for any insight you can offer! – Andrew
You can buy giant spools at Walmart of cotton thread, if you have a walmart near you with a fabric department. Only a few color options, but I use their "natural" thread for piecing and often for quilting as well.
I use only cotton, either Mettler or Aurifil. Check longarm quilting resources for cotton thread cones, too. One source for Signature cotton cones is Connecting Threads is a little cheaper, but I've never used this brand. I usually piece everything with beige, unless it's black or navy blue, and then I use black thread. If you like YLI, cones are available in neutral colors here
I usually use beige or light gray thread to do all my piecing, and I buy what is on sale, or when I see Gutermann or something similar on sale, I buy lots of spools at once, I have used over 2000 yards of thread this month alone, on piecing. Wow I guess I really have been busy since the beginning of the year.
I tend to buy Gutterman and stock up during sales. I also stick to a limited range of colors for piecing– black, gray, beige and purple (yes purple is a neutral color for me).
i am a fan of Superior's Masterpiece. I usually stock up on cream, gray and black cones at quilt shows where they often have Buy 2-Get 1 free pricing.
When I worked in a theater costume shop, I learned that if you don't have a matching color thread, gray thread will read as "shadow" … and I think that principle works in quilts, too.
Thanks for all the useful info. Buying a color other than white never crossed my mind!
I prefer to use and my Singer machine prefers when I use Mettler brand thread. Unless I'm piecing with dark colors I always buy white.
I'm currently using a Brother machine and it hates the Mettler thread so I use my back up which is Gutterman.