I used warm and natural white with mine. Also a jeans needle and a slightly longer stitch length. I knew that all the quilting I was planning would give it enough body. I am kind of bad to follow a pattern to a T, so I quilted all my fabrics first and then cut and assembled the pieces. This made it to where I had to cut out the batting from the seams after sewing them to get a smooth seam, But that wasn't as bad as you would think. If you use a applique pair (duck bill) of scissors. I also cut down the batting in the handles to half the size they stated, pressed like they say folding the sides in and ran four lines of stitching to give it some stability.