Lesson learned
 

I had no idea it took so much thread to do fmq. For practice, I bought a John Deere child's panel and matching flannel backing. I straight stitched around each picture and did a meander to fill in each panel, then did a free flowing design in the borders. I just had to go buy my THIRD spool of thread. I'm using the Gutterman polyester 100m-110 yds. That's almost $6 just for thread. I didn't buy a large spool to begin with because it's lime green and I didn't think I would use it for anything else.
Well, I learned my lesson and am getting pretty good at fmq so it's worth it. I was just surprised.

Glad to hear your getting good at FMQ ;-) I hate running out of stuff so I tend to buy the large sizes then I have wayyy more than I need.

Suzy

Time to start looking for thread sales.

I'm still learning and I too have been amazed at how much thread it takes. It is encouraging to know that you really do get better with practice. I'm certainly not good but it is getting better:)

I have tons of threads and usually have more than enough. I almost always do FMQ on all my quilts. I did once get very low on white - white of all colors. You can bet I'm stocked up now.

i always figure i need at least 1000 yards of thread to quilt a quilt- i try to purchase cones with 2500 yards (or somewhere around there) i could probably use up a 100 yard spool of thread on a pot holder.
it is amazing how much thread it takes sometimes. connecting threads has good sales and their 500 yard spools are in a huge selection of colors- for $2. something a spool.

Now I buy large spools, even if I think I won't use the color a lot. Nice thing is, then I have the color when I do need it again.

I'm making a purple quilt for my daughter (her color definitely not mine). I bought a 1000 yard spool of variegated purple thread and started quilting the border--I know, I know you should really start in the middle but it was spray basted really well, anyway I got most of the way around the border and ran out of thread. Had to remember where I got the thread, ordered 2 more spools to make sure I had enough and guess what? The middle of the quilt had a lot of white in it and this particular variegated thread looked awful! So now I'm going to use invisible thread for the middle but I'm stuck with 2 spools of purple variegated thread that I'll probably never use :rolleyes:

ThreadArt.com is a great place to buy varigated thread. I just received 26 spools of asst color varigated (1000 m) for $30. I also bought glue back stones for $5 for 144. The same thing at Hobby Lobby was $5 for 36. I am not affiliated with them, just a happy customer.

One year I got to go to Houston and Sharon Shomburg, (I'm sure I just misspelled that) had a quilt that she had free motioned and if I remember correctly it had 30,000 yard of thread. Can you imagine??