Thread color

[Sallyquilt]

I am a newbie coming from a background of hand quilting. This seems to be causing me problems in several areas. I guess I'm just having problems breaking form the old ideas and moving into the wonderful world of machine quilting. In any case, today's problem is I don't want the thread to be such a prominent player on the quilt top (perhaps to help hide my bobbles plus I don't care for the look of too much thread). Besides using monfilament, how do you decide what color of thread to use in an e2e pattern that is going to fall on all different fabric colors across the quilt top? Do you go neutral? dark? light? HELP!! Sally in soggy NE Ohio

[gaildrake]

Your best bet in my opinion is to unwind some thread and lay it down on different spots of the quilt and see how you like it. You really want your quilting to show up and not the thread. If that makes sence to you.

[Quilting Heidi]

Sally,

Being a previous hand quilter only I too have struggled with this. In my mind the quilting density is what I want to show and I don't want it to be thready. I use SoFine almost exclusively for this reason. It blends in nicely. Gail is right in that the only way to get a true idea of what thread will be right is to puddle it on your quilt. I use a lot of Mother Goose signature and I think #459 (very close to Mother Goose) of SoFine. This color seems to blend with so many of the fabrics used and I'm always surprised on what fabrics it works on. If you really want thread to disappear try Bottomline. I don't use much monofiliment on quilts, only wall hangings.

[barbm]

Sally,

If you use a fine enough thread, and keep the value medium, you can use almost any color you want. I use Bottom Line thread, top and bobbin, on most of my quilts because I, like you, don't want so much thread to show - I'm just not ready for that yet.

You can use a medium gray, brown, green - whatever blends the most with your top. Like Gail said, unwind a length out on your quilt top - you'll be amazed how little it shows, compared to hand-quilting thread.

On the photo below, I used white Bottom Line everywhere on the quilt - you can see that it just doesn't show, even on the darker green fabric.

Good luck with your choices - be sure to post photos!

[ffq-lar]

Yes yes--to all of the above.....

Thin thread a must (Sew Fine or BottomLine)

Neutrals---taupe, cream, natural white, various grays, peachy-pink, seafoam/sage green. You will amaze yourself with the color choices you can use on busy fabrics that just melt into the pattern. Mother Goose is a Signature thread color that is a warm brownish taupe-y color and blends beautifully on most warm colors. Hope this helps and happy stitching!