JanieW

Absolutely. I also think that polyester thread from several years ago and the quality polyester thread made now are two different animals. I love 100 wt wonderfil and Superior microquilter ( using the correct size needle) for piecing and quilting. It’s great for SITD as it melts into the seam and I can’t tell where I didn’t stay in the ditch. I have used it for an edge to edge design when I wanted the piecing to be the star. It doesn’t cut my fabric.

I think we all tend to stick to what has worked for us but like onebyone said when we educate ourselves and learn about the myths it can open up a whole bunch of new things to try that might be even better than what we have been doing.

Kindascrappy

Thank you all for your responses to my question. I’m greatly comforted to know that these modern polyesters can be safely used. Quiltedsunshine, thank you so much for your warning. I will test my threads are compatible with the temperature setting I’ve chosen on my iron.

One by One thanks for the hyperlink to Superior Threads. I surfed right over there and gleaned a lot of great info. Such good advice.

I’m not a big poster online, but I have followed this board for some time now and have learned so much from all of you. I’m very grateful to have such a tremendous resource. Thanks again

Kindascrappy

bearisgray

The three quilts that I have used for over 15 years were sewn with cotton covered polyester Dual Duty thread - did not even know some of the brands listed existed at that time -

These quilts have been machine washed and dried - the bias cut bindings are very frayed - however - there has been absolutely no - none - "cutting of the fabric" from the threads on any of the stitching lines.

Two of the quilts were "stitched in the ditch" with additional straight line quilting and one was hand quilted. Again, no "cutting" or damage to the fabric at or near the stitching. ( I think using 20+ stitches to the inch when ditch stitching would/could be damaging - but I probably used 8-10 stitches per inch when quilting "in the ditch")

My experience with the "old" cotton covered polyester Coats & Clark Dual Duty thread has been very positive. There may be better ones available, but i see no reason to not use that thread if you happen to have a lot of it on hand.

I do recommend checking "any" thread for strength - once in a while one gets a "dud" that should not be used - or it may have been improperly stored and gotten weak and will break easily.

aashley333

Does unused thread age? I inherited some regular ol' coats and clark that seemed so old that I was leary of sewing with it, so I did not.

juliasb

I have been using poly threads for a couple years now. I love Superior threads and have been using Glide now without a problem. I find I have good movement with it and it holds well.

Karamarie

I also used polyester thread and thru the years have found no reason not to. I think once a quilt has been quilted, that stabilizes everything, especially if it has a lot of quilting.

SusieQOH

I love thread topics because there is so much info/missinfo too that I never knew. Thanks, everyone!!

mmunchkins

Definitely it will age and deteriorate. you can test the strength by taking off a bit and trying to break it. If it breaks easily, then it is too old and weak to use.

Iceblossom

I wanted to mention about these modern threads like Glide and So Fine and concerns over heat -- I have none. I have old threads that sure enough did melt -- you even had to watch how hot they got in the drier!

I was happy with Dual Duty as I mentioned, until my friend got a long arm and that was when I first got into different threads for quilting. Her machine couldn't wind a decent bobbin and her Type M bobbin isn't standard around these parts so we started ordering from Superior.

Since then, I've been using it for quilting on my domestic too, and have finished about a year+ of using it as my bobbin thread for piecing, with aurifil cotton on top. Been very happy so far, I press every step of the way with a hot (all the way up to linen sometimes) iron and it doesn't bother the thread in anyway. You can press the iron directly to the thread on the spool (I avoided the actual plastic spool...). Recently I won an auction for a large number of So Fine spools, I'm going to try piecing with it top and bottom both. I already prefer a fairly small needle (10) and use little stitches, think I'll be very happy with it as a top thread.

Kindascrappy

Iceblossom, your melt experiment is interesting. I’m going to try that with some older thread I have. Yesterday I saw this on the Superior Threads site:

”Polyester fibers recover quickly after extension (the term elongation describes the stretch and recovery) and absorb very little moisture. Polyester is heat resistant (dryer and iron safe), with a melting temperature of about 480º F (in comparison, nylon starts to yellow at 350º F and melts at about 415º F). Polyester fibers are colorfast, resistant to chemicals, and can be washed or dry-cleaned with most common cleaning solvents.”

I've been using 80wt. Deco Bob, a Wonderfil product. I couldn’t find a melting temperature listed, I zoomed over to Panosonic and discovered my rechargeable iron only heats to 350^. But when in doubt, you experiment is the obvious solution.

This 80wt thread is the bomb! I can’t even feel it in the seam at all, and my blocks are flat. There’s just one problem, I’m having trouble seeing it.