Originally Posted by
Quilt30
You are getting incorrect advice. It sounds like one quilter's opinion. Cotton thread was used for generations and is still holding up in the quilts. Thread is thread. Use what you want to. Good comments tho about rayon and silk. I have a real issue with statements such as you must, you have to, or you gotta, you never, when it relates to quilting. Do these "experts" say why?
Cotton is not shiny. That's it. It will blend with the quilt or be a dull finish. It will not produce the brilliant eye-catching results that are seen in most of the award-winning machine-quilted whole cloth quilts. Sometimes that's okay -- or even desired. For my youngest nephew, I am learning to hand quilt so I can do a whole cloth crib quilt that is white fabric with light beige cotton thread. It's nice, but just looks very, very traditional (which is what my SIL prefers). I love modern quilts & have been a bit dismayed to find that all but one of the award-winning wholecloths that I've researched (which was done in silk) were quilted with synthetic thread (rayon, poly or on occasion, nylon).
The only way I'm probably ever going to be comfortable with this decision is to see the difference side by side -- since I haven't found any examples of a heavily quilted whole cloth done all in cotton in a modern design. Maybe people are missing out & this is just something that needs to be done more. I guess we'll see.
Thanks again to all who've posted!!!