ameecharlin

Hi. I’m fairly new to quilting and am struggling with thread breakage. I’ve made a few quilts and pieced them with Aurifil 50 wt and quilted them with Aurifil 40 wt. I’ve been straight line stitching on my own machine. I’ve stitched a 1/4” on each side of a seam mostly with patchwork quilts. So about 5” apart.

My problem now is that after it’s 100% done and after a very short time, the quilting lines are breaking. Even on quilts that rarely get washed. I’m not sure if my tension is off (it doesn’t seem to be) or if I don’t have enough lines or my thread is too fragile.

When I sew on a practice piece and give the fabric a slight tug, the thread snaps. Is this normal? I’m trying to make utility quilts that can handle being washed more frequently and snuggly for children.

Has anyone had this problem that can advise me how to prevent this in the future? Thanks so much.

LAF2019

I am no thread expert, but that should not be normal. polyester thread tends to be stronger, so you may prefer to switch to that for future well-used quilts. is it possible the thread was just old? old thread will break easily no matter how good the brand.

pocoellie

I know Aurofil is good thread, and I don't think tension is the problem, but maybe you got a bad batch of thread. I'm assuming that since you're fairly new at quilting, that the thread isn't something 40 years old. If you take a piece of thread, maybe 8" and give it a "tug", does it break? If so, then I think the thread is the problem.

Tartan

I quilt with 50 wt thread for quilting.

ameecharlin

I have tried 4 or 5 of the Aurifil and all seem to be very fragile when I do a small tug. I’m so surprised because I did a lot of research searching for a good quality thread. I may try a polyester then.

bearisgray

How frustrating for you!

It sounds like you got a very bad batch of thread.- can you contact the supplier (assuming you got this relatively recently) and let them know about the problem.

Do you have some other thread that you can "tug" to compare how easily it seems to break compared to the Aurifil.

I have quilts that are 20 years old that are "couch quilts" and not one speck of thread breakage - and that was using Coats and
Clark cotton covered polyester dual duty thread. Nor is there any "cutting" of the fabric threads from this thread. My quilting was mostly "in the ditch".

Irishrose2

If it breaks that easily, I'd think one of your tensions is too tight. Use a different thread and sew a line across the diagonal of a scrap of fabric. Pull on both ends and see what happens with the thread. Is one (top thread or bottom thread) much tighter and breaks sooner than the other?

quiltingcandy

I agree with Irishrose2, when my machine comes on it automatically sets to 2.2 and that is not good for quilting. And every time I forget to adjust it to a stitch of 2.5 or even 3.0 if I have a deep thickness bad things happen. And cotton thread is not as tough as the poly threads and it will break, especially after washing.

ameecharlin

Thank you so much for all your replies. When I sew a diagonal line and pull, it’s always the bottom thread that breaks. So I will play with the tension some more. Also will increase the stitch length and see if that helps.

Can anyone recommend a really good poly thread that may work better for me?

I truly appreciate all your time.

sewingpup

short quick answer....use a poly thread....I love Superior's So Fine 50 weight or even OMNI 40 weight for quilting ...So Fine also comes in a thicker 30 weight. But I like my quilting threads to blend in more with the fabric. When I first started quilting, I used a lot of King Tut cotton thread also by Superior. That is a lovely thread....but over time, I had some breakage problems....I had done straight line quilting on the diagonal...the quilt was made with homespun...yep...it had a lot of stretch especially on the diagonal...so the threads popped as the quilt was used...lesson learned. I then got a midarm on a frame...it loved my king tut....and I meandered....that worked better...no long runs of straight stitching to pop when the quilt was used...but now over time with several washings and much use...there are areas where the stitching is popping....so now I use a lot of so fine from Superior and haven't noticed any problems....When I first got my new APQS machine...I used a lot on OMNI and that has held up fine too....Oh...and I do have a lot of Aurfil and I use that for piecing and it also makes a wonderful thread for appliqueing by machine or on wall hangings.