It used to be cotton covered polyester thread.

All I've seen lately (Winter 2011) is polyester covered polyester thread.

Is the "old" thread still available?

I never actually noticed. I haven't bought thread in years, other than the cotton for my machine quilting.

We can certainly still bet it here in the UK. :lol:

Have just googled and see that there are a number of outlets in the USA including Amazon.

One of the things I've discovered over the years is things labeled "all purpose" tend to just serve the purpose. They're rarely the best for the intended purpose. There are other economical threads that are just as good and some that are even better. I would check out Connecting Threads threads.

C&C revamped their line of thread in the last few years to apease the quilters. the names changed and how they made their thread is very different from years ago it is a huge improvement less lint etc.