A lot depends on the brand of monofilament you use. I have used YLI nylon monofilament, which is as fine as baby hair, and it is not at all "pokey". None of the polyester monofilaments I have tried is that fine, but lots of people think polyester is better. If a thread is like fishing line, it is not going to be a good one to machine quilt with.
Edit: I should add that I prefer to use a fine cotton or polyester thread for machine quilting nowadays. I still like nylon monofilament for machine applique, but for quilting it's just nicer to work with good quality, fine cotton or polyester. Bottom Line has a silver thread that seems to blend into most fabrics (sorry, don't remember the name at the moment but I can look it up later if you want; have a cone of it in the other room).
Last edited by Prism99; 10-01-2014 at 12:58 PM.