Connecting Threads Essentials is really good - beautiful colors, colorfast, slight sheen, strong - the price is amazing, for what you're getting.

Star thread is made by C&C for machine quilting and it works just fine. You can buy it from eBay sellers pretty cheap.

I bought a bunch of Long Creek Mills thread a couple of years ago and thought it was a great bargain for the nice quality. http://www.longcreekmills.com/product/quilting.html (The 5,000m cones are HUGE) I have also used quite a bit of their variegated embroidery thread for quilting - very pretty.

I have used Aruifil only since it came out. For hand quilting I use only YLI.

I order my thread from these places:

Quilting thread I get from Threadart.com, they also sell some on Ebay. The standard cotton thread is 50 weight and heavy duty cotton is 40 weight. We also use this for sewing thread.

Embroidery thread I order from marathonwest.com

Both of these suppliers are very reasonable and the thread is very good. I've never had problems with knots or breakage like I've had with others. If you can get on there email list sometimes they have half price sales.

Oh yeah, I forgot about ThreadArt - I love their embroidery thread and I use it for quilting and topstitching now that my embroidery machine turned out to be a turkey. :)

I've been using Maxi-Lock Serger thread and I'm very happy with it. I use it for regular sewing, piecing and quilting. I've not had a bit of trouble with it. I do use a thread stand behind my machine for it tho. And it comes in a variety of colors and is inexpensive, plus my machines like it too.

Also consider making a small investment for a cone thread holder. You will get a lot more bang for the buck if you buy your thread in cones.

My favorite piecing thread is Mettler silk Finish cotton. It is a bit pricey but I have found I usually only need 2 colors. I use a very pale grey for all my light colored piecing and a dark grey for my dark piecing. It was a tip from a lady at my LQS and so far I haven't noticed my stitches showing. For quilting I like Superior Threads King Tut 40 wt.

Melinda, I like it, too. Joann sells it in "generic" wrapping for $2/cone, and sometimes it's on sale for half price - it's already crazy cheap! Probably the linty-est thread I use, but being poly, it's strong - and it's a great size for piecing.

True, it is linty, but for the savings, I can clean my machine more frequently!

I just tried the Connecting Threads brand on a whim from all the recommendations I read here and I am shocked how much I LOVE it. I'm serious....I was shocked.I've been using a few of the Superior Brand threads and thought they were pretty decent. Now I'm finding I like the CT stuff even more than So Fine. Try it. It's cheap enough that even if you hate it, you won't be out all that much.