I cut my quilting teeth ;-) on good old Coat's cotton covered polyester. It worked great for me. Now I can't find it anymore. The Coats all purpose thread is now POLY covered poly. And it seems visibly quite similar to the past cotton/poly, but I guess age old habit makes me want the cotton covered.
From what Superior Bob has said, polyester thread is fine to use, so I've been using poly thread part of the time. I've tried to melt it and it doesn't seem to melt, so that's good. I'm one of those who trusts poly better than 100% cotton, although break tests show me that the threads of today break about the same, so I don't have to worry about cotton being less strong. The notion of fabric shredding from strong polyester has never happened to me and I have some 20-year old, machine washed quilts.
I tried the Coat's Cotton/Poly from Wawak's but it's NOT the same stuff home sewers use. American & Efird (Signature) makes some cotton/poly quilting thread, but it's a tad too thick for piecing. I'm looking for about a Tex 30, I'm thinking.
I'm not one to buy expensive thread. My experience is that expensive thread doesn't give me enough incremental value. I want the inexpensive (not cheap) thread of old.
Does anyone know of a good source of cotton/poly by any manufacturer. Also, if you happen to be throwing away Coat's cotton poly, please give it to me
! I'm using what's left of my 15 year old stash and I'm about out!
Thanks.