applique questiom
 

I am making a quilt for my granddaughter which has a lot of appliques. I want to use a light weight thread to apply these appliques. I do had Accufil thread but I think I want a thinner thread. I think nylon thread is lighter. This quilt will be wash frequently. I use the cotton Accufil thread for piecing. What advice can you give me.

I would use silk.

I use silk thread most of the time for appliqué- which I do a lot of. Right now I think Superior Threads is having a sale on their silk threads. Most of my silks are YLI and Sulky. I do have a few from Superior Threads too.
100 wt silk is very strong and very fine thread. I also have some 60 wt silks. Silk pretty much disappears on appliqué and is wonderful smooth thread to work with.

Superior Threads has 60 weight and 100 weight polyester thread, which should work fine. Silk is great but spendy. Rayon is probably not strong enough for repeated washings. Aurifil cotton thread is good but I dislike its tendency to coil.

i agree with silk, it is very light and very strong

I have used nylon monofilament thread (.003mm) for applique a lot. It is the most invisible thread I have found for turned-edge machine applique with a small hem stitch. There are some tricks to using it without problems, such as lowering the top tension on the machine, that you would want to know before using it. You also need to use a good brand of this thread, as off-brands can have problems. I like YLI nylon monofilament.

For a quilt that will be used a lot and washed frequently, however, I would use a 100wt polyester thread. Nylon thread is simply not as nice to touch as polyester thread. I would use 100wt polyester rather then silk thread because silk, being a natural fiber, can deteriorate under adverse circumstances (such as lots of washing, harsh detergents, exposure to light, etc.). Of the 3 types of thread -- nylon monofilament, polyester, and silk -- polyester will last the longest, yet still feels very nice. Nylon thread can possibly become brittle over time (although this may no longer be a problem due to newer manufacturing techniques; hard to be sure at this time), probably due to exposure to light, and polyester thread does not have this problem at all, so again I think polyester thread is safer.

Rayon needs to be avoided, as it will not hold up to abrasion (as in a washing machine or dryer) at all.

I use Bottom Line or Masterpiece for all my appliqué stitching, and they disappear beautifully into my appliqué. Buy the donut - one bobbin lasts FOREVER and there's a color that can be used for every fabric!
https://www.superiorthreads.com/shop...er-bobs-donut/

Here's a sample of what I'm working on now, using Masterpiece. Love this thread.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]573421[/ATTACH]

I would check out invisifil or decobob by wonderfil, lovely threads

I've been using the 100 weight Invisifil.
It is almost like working with a silk thread.

While it is coloured, because it is so fine, it becomes almost invisible as you work with it.
Lovely for applique.

It works nicely when sewing on binding.
For that I use double strands, which are still virtually invisible.

For hand applique, my favorite is silk. For machine applique (or for hand applique) I have read lots of favorable reviews for microquilter 100 wt polyester thread, so I have just ordered some and can't wait to try it for machine applique.