cricket_iscute

I do a lot of free motion quilting, and I've had so much trouble with YLI thread that I no longer buy it even if it is beautiful. The few spools I still have say "Warning! YLI thread!" on a tag attached to the spool. I use it only for couching on wall hangings.

I was in a class at a major quilt festival where everyone was given YLI thread to use, a promotion of the YLI company. There were 32 people in that class with 32 different machines of various features, ages, and models. All quilters were familiar with their machines. Of the machines, 30 out of 32 got seriously messed up with thread so badly wrapped around the innards that the machines couldn't sew. We spent the day cleaning thread out of our machines instead of sewing, and still, six machines had to go in for repair. Obviously, the quilters with those machines were out of luck with their classes on subsequent days.

I was using my trusty Singer 301, which had never had trouble with any thread before (or since). Many of you know that a 301 is ideal for free motion quilting. This machine takes any thread (except YLI). But YLI thread appears to be too loosely twisted, and I had major problems with it. It got itself so wrapped around the parts of the machines that it took me five hours to dig out all the thread - which of course frayed badly - and another three hours after that to get it to sew again. I saw thread in places I've never seen thread go before, and all sorts of little wisps of thread caught everywhere. I should mention that I had all the proper tools with me and that I am a certified sewing machine mechanic. I've worked on 301s many times; usually, they behave very well. I've also worked on many other machines. When I got home, I carefully tried the YLI thread on other machines with the same results, even for regular sewing. It looks to me like it does not have enough cohesion to sew properly; it apparently is made of very short threads which easily fray and come apart. (I've taken classes in thread construction, too.)

I mentioned this to the YLI rep at the show and she said it "shouldn't" have happened. Yet when 30 out of 32 machines had major problems with the thread, it has to be the thread!