Which threads do you have a love/hate relationship with?

[chickenscratch]

I have been struggling to get this quilt done.  I am kicking myself for choosing three different threads.  I love the way they all look, but my goodness, they are tempermental.

 

My hot pink is bottom line.  It is not acting too badly. 

The lime green is Highlights.  OH, I love how it looks, but I really hate fighting with it.

THe white is So fine, which runs fine, but I keep having to change the tension when I change to the white thread.

 

Another one I love to hate is anything King Tut.  If it is a nice day and relatively warm with low humidity in our house, it runs beautifully. I love the way it looks.  But, if it is the least bit cold or rainy, that thread snarls into birdsnests and leaves loops on the back.

 

What threads are you favorites?  Most hated?  Adored, but hated at the same time?

[sewingpup]

I will be interested in hearing the answers.....Teresa...I was having problems with the like button and I don't know what I did....but I like your post...I have been using mainly OMNI because that what was suggested to me as a beginner....I have been winding my own bobbins and had bad tension with one color on the last quilt that I did...I also ordered some pre-wounds and now have bottomline, so fine, and megnaglide classics that I am going to be trying....I just tried the So fine pre-wounds and they worked well for me with the matching thread (50 weight)....I have been afraid to try the king tut..but I have a good supply of that and YLI cotton also from my old mega-quilter set-up and they worked fine on that when I used the same thread in the bobbin .but from what I learned here, king tut is difficult .......I am thinking I am going to order more pre-wounds...just have to figure out what ones....Lin

[pumpkinpatchquilter]

Regarding using different thread weights...just a tip.  I go through and stabilize the quilt with whatever thread color I'm going to use the most of...then go back and fill in.  

 

A lot of times I'll ditch with bottom line...then go back and fill in colors with glide or something else...this helps with having to mess with tension a ton.  

 

Omni is the one that actually is a headache for me.  Sometimes it looks awesome - and sometimes it just doesn't.  

[chickenscratch]

I haven't tried Omni.  I did get a trial spool of Glide and I love it. I am probably going to buy more of it at Paducah.  I also like some of the Auriful colors, but not sure how they will perform.

[pumpkinpatchquilter]

I haven't used Aurifil so I would love to see it if you quilt with it!  I use Omni most of the time because it is low lint and looks like cotton - maybe it would be better just to use cotton!    Aurifil is supposed to be low lint...

[Sue E.]

My "go to" thread right now is Omni. I love it. I have no problems with tension and I like how it looks. It is thicker than So Fine but I have the best luck with it. I also have no problems running Maxi-Lock Swirls. In the past I have had problems with Highlights and Rainbow. I have several cones of King Tut and had no problem with it, but I don't seem to use it very often. I usually run pre-wound bobbins. I was given lots of them by someone who didn't like them and I am still using them up. I also have some BOBs I use. I have used Glide thread only a couple of times and had no problems but the Glide bobbins I bought have thread that is too thick (I'm not in the sewing area so I don't remember which one it is) and I don't like them at all. I need to buy some other Glide bobbins and see how they look and act.

[Busy Quilting]

My go to threads are Glide and So Fine,  I have to do very little tension adjusting between the two.  If I want to use Invisifil ( my thin go to) or Cotton thread such as Cairo or King Tut I change the upper thread path  on the three hole guide above the tension discs - I go down into the first hole and up into the last and then into the tension disc.  Effectively this loosens the top tension.

 

I use Prewound  Magna-Glide Classics  or selfwound Bottomline  almost exclusively in the bobbin.

 

I find  there is too much lint with Omni.

 

I have some Aurifil but after having trouble  with it on my domestic many moons ago I haven't jumped into try it on the longarm as I have many other threads that work great!

[LindaSteller]

I use Glide almost exclusively.  And, you'll never catch me winding a bobbin.  Magna Glide or Magna Quilt, all the way.  I do use Essence (clear) for SID a lot, and I occasionally use Cairo Quilt, So Fine, or solid King Tut, but 99.9% of the time, it's Glide.

[GMALKB]

I love King Tut, but my machine hates it.  So, I just don't use it any more.   Glide, So Fine (all 3 types), Omni, Lava, Magnifico, Fantastico.........all fun to use.  I recently used WonderFil on a whole quilt and it worked like invisible thread.  I also had some WonderFill prewound bobbins that worked well.   King Tut, Rainbows and Highlights just don't work for me, but there are so many other choices that I don't mind.   Glide is probably my favorite.  I also use the Magna Glide Classic prewound bobbins and the Magna Glide Deluxe from time to time.   The other day I used some Super Bobs prewounds and they worked great too.   It's funny how so many of us can have the exact machine, but some threads work and some don't.  I tried everything with King Tut.........tension adjustments, Sewer's Aid............nothing worked.

[WandaGerdes]

I've tried so many different threads. I stick with glide thread and bobbins. I use glide is my dsm as well. Very little lint and rarely do I have to adjust tension.

[RoseCity Quilter]

My favourite thread is Marathon thread. It seems few have heard of it. We stock it in our store for our Pfaff and Janome Embroidery machines. It is lovely, but inexpensive. I tried it on impulse one day and loved it. Very similar to glide.

I too have bad luck with King Tut, especially during our dry winters.

I have mostly used prewound bobbins, both Sew Bobs and Magna Glides. I am currently using up my stock and going back to winding my own. Seems I have better luck with my own....

[Enchanted Quilting]

King Tut does not behave for me. It is especially bad when combined with a batik (and it seems like lots of batik quilt makers

like a variegated thread). I'm not going to hijack this post, but may start one on variegated threads quilters like:)

[RitaR]

Penny Lenni Loves King Tut on top.  I use pre-wound's, wind some with the turbo winder.  Himself winds most of them for me.

On the other side, Natures Colors, Highlights Glide and Maxi Lock (on a few quilts), and all goes well.

I also dip my cones in Mineral Oil, and sometimes even use Sewers Aid on days with 25-35% humidity.  The very low humidity

days I often use spray silicone too.  Protect your machine when you use it.

 

Now and then I find a cone that breaks on Penny and the Viking.  I throw it out.  No sense in getting myself all wound

up over a cone of thread.

 

To try diff threads I buy the sample packages from Superior..  Most work quite well, and I do get a good variety

of threads and color .

I'm making different items for our Guilds Quilt Show boutique this fall, so using some of the ones I don't seem to have

the right quilt to use them.

 

Many of these same threads I can use on my Bernette H70, (one of the very early ones that Janome made for Bernina), my old Singer 99K and

Some on the featherweight.  Quite diverse.

 

When I can 't quilt, I play and am having good results. and having fun.

 

Wishing you can all do the same on QM or dsm.

Edited April 12, 2015 by RitaR

[ffq-lar]

I sold all my King Tut after struggling for a long time to get it to behave. I sold it all to a friend with a Gammill and it works great for her. 

I have such a big inventory of So Fine and BottomLine that I'm not ready to build up another line, though I do like Glide. My style for custom is to not overwhelm the piecing so thicker and "showy" thread isn't chosen very often.

I am building up my stock of Invisafil for blenders--works great for fillers and micro-stitching, and looks good.

[quiltermidwife]

I also struggle with King Tut although I have not used it since buying my new (2nd) APQS.  

 

Glide is my thread of choice (top and especially bottom), but I also run Highlights which I like on top.  Bottom Line &  So Fine run well but I prefer them on the back.  Isacord runs really well too.

 

I prefer pre-wounds of Glide or Bottom Line.

[jimerickson]

I use YLI Longarm Professional on the top and Bottom Line in the bobbin almost exclusively.  Occasionally I'll use Sigma or Glide (I find them inter changeable).  I wind all my own bobbins.  Have two winders, one for Bottom Line, and the second for whenever I use tex 40 in the bobbin (not too often)  I also use Fantastico when I want a variegated thread.  I've never used King Tut, and probably never will.  I don't like cotton thread because of all the lint.   Using only a handful of threads allows me to limit my thread inventory to relatively few cones (maybe 100), and even some colors of them, I don't use often.  If you're going to make any money quilting, you can't spend all your time adjusting the tension and frogging out bad stitches just to get some exotic thread to work, so I don't use many different combos.

 

I just finished a project on Zelda where I changed from a disk tension system to a rotary system.  I've spent most of an entire quilt, working out all the adjustments.  It is amazing how many things come into play to get everything just right.  It is also amazing to me how many parts must be "tweaked" to get them to fit and function exactly as they are supposed to.  As a result, it comes as no surprise to me that different folks/machines handle the same thread differently.  Something as simple as the angle of 3 hole tensioner will affect stitch quality.  It is quite likely that very few people even with the same model machine, have their machines adjusted exactly the same way, or have all the exact same parts.  Jim

[apylinski]

Great timing for this topic. Just about to start a batik quilt (first one) and my customer picked a YLI variegated thread I had gotten with my machine. I've never used it and I'm hoping it will behave for me. I use Omni, Glide and Bottom Line mostly. Omni runs smoothly just like butter thru Madelyn the Millie so it's my go to thread. Interesting to see what everyone prefers and what the variance is from machine to machine. And I also wind all my own bobbins.

Great topic!

[qltnbe]

Yes, this thread (no pun intended) came at just the right time.  I have a quilt loaded and the color of thread that I have to go with it is King Tut.  It kept breaking on me and I adjusted the heck out of the tension to no avail and I feared I would never get it back to where I needed it (tension).  I love Glide and So Fine  and either wind my own bobbins or use the Fil-Tec pre-wounds.  I never have to adjust the tension for those.  I get so frustrated when this kind of stuff happens.  My time is limited on my machine and I don't have time to mess with tension.  Although!!! I went downstairs tonight to take a quilt off the long arm because of the King Tut problems  and thought I would give it one more try.  I re-threaded the machine a different way and wahlaaaa.....it's not breaking.  So....maybe King Tut will work for me yet.  We will see.  

[chickenscratch]

Add some Sewer's aide to your spool of King Tut, or put some on a piece of batting and put it in the thread guide right above the spool, so the thread has to run through it.

[Pepsi Girl]

Gabby likes Glide the best. So therefore I like Glide best!

But also does well with King Tut. I should mention Gabby is a Gammill

I do have some orphan threads that I use from time to time just because they are beautiful!

[RunningThreads]

Spam reported 

[GeoTech]

We use Fil-Tec Glide and their Magna Glide bobbins. We don’t use any cotton threads, only poly, much more consistent, tension wise.

[Still_C]

I'm a true Glide fan. To my mind that's the best thread to work with.

[Sewere]

I'm a Glide fan for all the donation QOV I do. There is hardly any lint in comparison to a cotton which requires cleaning at every bobbin change. Plus you can't beat the price. My Gammill Vision 2 loves it. I don't have a bit of trouble with the tension. And that is worth it's weight in gold. It was even a funny situation, when I was choosing a thread at a store with my husband, he asked for divorce because he was jealous that I didn't analyze him at our first date as thoroughly as those threads.

[quiltmonkey]

I am an equal opportunity appreciator of all kinds, types of threads. You name it, I have it. It's a delicate balance to get the tension just right with each thread, but over time you get it and can really have fun with all kinds of thread. I love to play with metallic thread, rainbows, monofilament, ribbon threads, etc... Depending on the thread, sometimes I need to use more Sewer's Aid, or move up a size on the needle, or loosen the top tension a bit. Practice and play. that is the fun of it all.