My White Jean's Machine (is it vintage now, at 30yo?) will take on anything. The picky machine is the HQ Sweet 16. It does *not* like invisible thread.

My machine is not very fussy, but my favorite is Coats & Clerk thread. Not the cheap two for a dollar spools but the regular that costs more. I find Aurifil makes a lot of lint for me.

Sharon,
Yes, I use the Maxi-Loc serger thread on my APQS. Very rarely does it break or cause me any problems. I know different machines vary on how they operate. I gave the Superior thread to a friend who at that time had a Handy Quilter, and it worked fine on her machine. It is harder to find the Maxi-Loc thread anymore. I had to order it online the last time I needed a certain color.
Jeanine (Waal)

Thank you so much to all who sent very helpful suggestions! I have implemented several of them and continue to have problems with the Superior Threads King Tut. I switched over to my stand-by Metrosene and have had no more trouble at all. What I don't get is that I did half of this quilt with the King Tut with no problem before it started acting up. And now the Metrosene works well, but I can't make the King Tut work. This doesn't even make sense, but whatever. I'll finish up the quilt with the Metrosene and see if perhaps the King Tut will work with my Janome. It's too beautiful to not be used!

You mentioned something that might be a clue to the problems. Could it be that there is drag on the quilt that hangs off the machine bed? How is your table set up to hold the extra quilt that is not under the needle.

My two straight stitch only machines use Coats and Clark very well. I use regular and quilting threads and it works very well.

I have an extension table on the sewing machine, plus support off to the side. I also roll up the quilt and toss part of it over my shoulder to support it at times. This has been my usual way of working in the past. However, I need to take your suggestion into consideration because the first time I used King Tut was on a baby quilt, with the Bernina, and there were no problems, so perhaps the weight of this larger quilt has something to do with it.

I have a Babylock and a Juki, both will sew any brand without problems....except, I did have a problem with Connecting Threads cotton breaking on FMQ on the Babylock, so I don't use it for that. Using a lot more polyester thread these days, lots of sources, less expensive and works just fine.

Thanks, Jeanine!

Next time you are in a dealer's shop, look at the thread being used in the machines that are set up to sew. I have had to ask many what is that thread it that on the machine. It usually isn't a brand they don't sell. All machines are factory set to sew using poly thread. And the thread the repairmen uses to test sew is usually a big cone of poly.