that might depend more on the machine you buy as some are finicky. My Elna takes whatever I throw at it, including MonoPoly (invisible) with minor tension adjustments. I mostly use C & C's as fairly fine and non-linty. Sometimes Mettler or Gutterman as both easily available at local quilt shop (LQS) and will finish off cones from the long arm machine on the domestic (mostly SoFine, BottomLine, Permacore)