TeresaA

I cut my quilting teeth ;-) on good old Coat's cotton covered polyester. It worked great for me. Now I can't find it anymore. The Coats all purpose thread is now POLY covered poly. And it seems visibly quite similar to the past cotton/poly, but I guess age old habit makes me want the cotton covered.

From what Superior Bob has said, polyester thread is fine to use, so I've been using poly thread part of the time. I've tried to melt it and it doesn't seem to melt, so that's good. I'm one of those who trusts poly better than 100% cotton, although break tests show me that the threads of today break about the same, so I don't have to worry about cotton being less strong. The notion of fabric shredding from strong polyester has never happened to me and I have some 20-year old, machine washed quilts.

I tried the Coat's Cotton/Poly from Wawak's but it's NOT the same stuff home sewers use. American & Efird (Signature) makes some cotton/poly quilting thread, but it's a tad too thick for piecing. I'm looking for about a Tex 30, I'm thinking.

I'm not one to buy expensive thread. My experience is that expensive thread doesn't give me enough incremental value. I want the inexpensive (not cheap) thread of old.

Does anyone know of a good source of cotton/poly by any manufacturer. Also, if you happen to be throwing away Coat's cotton poly, please give it to me! I'm using what's left of my 15 year old stash and I'm about out!

Thanks.

dunster

Coats still makes it, as you can see from this site. http://www.makeitcoats.com/en-us/exp...cotton-covered Is this what you got from Wawak? It says it's ideal for piecing and quilting. I prefer to use a finer thread for piecing, usually Bottomline top and bottom. I like having more thread in the bobbin, as well as less lint.

QuiltnNan

when i've been at Chuck Bailey's shop, he tells me that he always uses Coats & Clark dual duty. I have not tried it yet.

TeresaA

Thanks. I haven't actually been able to find that thread carried anywhere, so I figured that even though it's listed on their web site, it must be an old listing. It's not what Wawak's carries, I'm fairly certain. Wawak's version is Tex 40 and wow is it hairy. I am not picky, but the strands have literally quarter inch hairs hanging off of them!

I do use Gutermann SewAll, which is fairly thin, Tex 27? which is about 50 weight-ish. Bottom line is too thin for me. I would definitely fear melting. The only polyester thread I've ever gotten to melt is Mettler Metrosene, which is also a thin thread.

TeresaA

Ah, maybe the reason I thought I couldn't find it is it's being marketed now as "quilting" thread. I may have seen it and figured it was the 100% cotton quilting thread, and I buy Signature rather than Coat's (Signature is actually less expensive and theoretically "better").

Yep, and obviously they've raised the price. Since we go through at least 500 yards of thread for a quilt, I may just opt for the 100% poly and try and leave the cotton/poly behind...sigh. I miss the days of the 500 yard cotton poly spools. for $2. That was my thread. Ah well.

bearisgray

I miss it, too.