I am a very frugal quilter, and with a limited budget, I buy any name brand (mettler, coats clark,etc).thread at auction and yard sales, and use it all for machine piecing. I stay away from wal mart, and off brand threads. My Janome likes all threads, except for Wal Mart and K mart, and other dusty wrapped threads. I hand top stitch with quilting thread, and I run it through bees wax to add to the stiffness. any good brand works for me. I don't hand piece with the thinner sulkies though, they work better for me in the machine. I use neutral colors in greys and tans for most machine and hand piecing, but if I am doing a dark quilt, I use whatever is closest dark color.