I had to do some basting and some hand sewing recently, and I had two spools of thread I had found in the sewing table I had inherited from my grandmother. One was on a plastic spool, and the only label on it was family dollar. I never want to use that thread again, even for basting.
The other thread is on a wooden spool, on one side says Coats & Clark's Heavy Duty Mercerized, made in USA 100 yds. The other side says Extra Strong Heavy Duty 15¢. This is a dream to work with. Since it is old I don't want to use it for things other then basting. Being new at sewing and quilting, I was unsure if they still make thread similar to this.