I have tried both types of stitching and they both have their drawbacks: whip stitch does show a little but not so much that I don't like it, and ladder stitch is a bit slower going - at least for me it is. I tend to like hand quilting thread because I know it's very strong but I don't bother to match because you can't when you use two different colored fabrics (always). So now after reading this is the Silamide a silk thread? Is silk pretty strong? I don't know that much about threads.