Maybe this will help some of you:
http://www.generations-quilt-pattern...ng-fabric.html
Read a bit down for the answer for thread count...all in all the entire article is very interesting. Course it's her opinion and we all have our own but I do tend to think as she does.
Also if any of you have the book "That Perfect Stitch" by Roxanne McElroy you can learn a lot about fabrics and how the thread counts, weaves all interplay in a quality quilting fabric. She believes that the 75 thread count is better for hand quilting although 60 thread count is also fine but anything lower is not preferable. These are all of her personal choices and she was an internationally famous hand quilter as is her daughter, Dierda. This particular book has helped me so much because it can be applied to machine quilting as well. There is a wealth of informaton in it and I refer to it all the time. Since the book came out there have been many changes in the quilting world as far as products available but using the information she provides it is fairly easy to determine what she would choose and advise today.
Course there are many books, articles and opinions on this subject. I have my particular preferences as everyone else has theirs. Hopes this helps :-D