Sandygirl, good question. I have been hand quilting since the mid 80's and have used numerous types of hand quilting thread. Mettler and Gutermann were my threads of choice when I first started quilting. I use these threads mainly because they were the only ones the local stores carried. In the last 10 years I have switched to using King Tut and YLI thread. I like those threads because I can get the colors I want to use, plus the fact that they offer variegated threads. I also like the fact that I don't have any problems with the thread shredding at the eye of my needle.