Cotton-superior is top notch by far. I have tried almost every other brand on the market with the exception of presencia and floriani and didn't get any breaks from superior, with gutterman being my second fave. That being said I also used to have a babylock and that thing took any thread I threw at it so it may be your needle. I am not sure what thread you are using but I have pieced with coats, gutterman, mettler, and connecting threads with no problem. I have never had thread shred when piecing now FMQ is a different story. Hated YLI, sulky, aurifil, and even gutterman got a small amout of shredding while king tut stood the test with no shredding at all with gutterman being second. Poly is another thing. I have not tested a lot of poly on the market with piecing or FMQ. With FMQ I have used isacord, and signature successfully but don't have experience with other brands other than gutterman for piecing which is no problem. I did find poly didn't shred with FMQ the way all the cottons did but the look is very different. You may just have to find a good site and just order quite a few types of thread to try different brands to see what works for you. Its a little pricey to do this at first but when you find something that works for you it makes everything go smoother