Quilting thread broke after quilt was done.
 

HELP!!!
I finally finished my son's D9P and quilted it on my sewing machine- just straight stitched diagonally. Then put on the binding and hand stitched it done using a ladder stitch. Washed it using color catchers. Dried it and the thread that I had used to quilt it and hand stitch the binding down broke. It broke in the middle of the diagonals and on the binding.

What did I do wrong? It was machine quilting thread at a larger stitch length and larger needle. I can't fix this quilt but would like to know what to do for the next one.

I did stitch around the outside of the quilt to prevent the entire binding from coming off.

Thanks in advance.

I had the same thing happen, and decided it was because I used a spool of serger thread to do the quilting. I'll be watching this thread for other responses.

What brand of thread was it? If you can provide the brand, type, weight and ply of the thread, that would be very helpful. Some brands are better than others, plus weight and ply give an indication of thread strength.

How far apart were your quilting lines? The farther apart your quilting lines are, the more stress is put on the thread (from washing, drying, and using). I like to use 50wt 2-ply Aurifil for quilting on my domestic machine, but this is for fairly close quilting or for decorative stitches (such as the serpentine); it would probably not be strong enough if I did straight line quilting with lines 6 or 8" apart.

The fact that the thread broke on the hand-stitched binding indicates to me the thread was not strong enough. I have always used 50wt 3-ply thread (single strand) on bindings and never had it break.

Was this new thread? Old thread (and it possibly could be old coming off the shelf) can develop dry rot and break easily. If you still have the thread, take a strand between two hands and jerk them apart to see if you can break it that way. If you can, it's too weak.

I can't remember ever remember buying thread that said "machine quilting" on it. Curious about the brand.

Edit: Some people get away with using serger thread for piecing and quilting, but I suspect they piece with fairly small stitches and put their quilting lines in fairly close together. The weakness of serger thread is okay for serging because there are always a minimum of 3 threads working together for a serger stitch. It's not great for sewing on a domestic machine because of the weakness of the thread and also because it is made with such short strands of cotton (which makes for lots of fuzz and lint).

Prism's comments are right on. Also, how did you dry the quilt? If a wet quilt hangs on a line the weight of the quilt can easily break the stitches.

Here is the information on the thread:
Signature-QT
TEX 40 3000 yards
Stitching lines : 5 inches apart
Yes I could break it when I jerked on it.
Old Thread? I just bought it for this project.

I'm so sad- I'm bringing the quilt to the store I bought the thread from- They helped pick it out for me and she knew what it would be used for. I had the quilt top there as we were matching colors.

I dried the quilt in the drier.

Thread
 

I have never heard of the thread that you purchased. We recommend Aurifil at the shop (Beautiful Quilt Fabric.com). It's a Egyptian Cotton Thread with really long and un-furry fibers. A lot of new (read expensive) machines have a problem with lint and the Aurifil almost always fixes the problem. It's expensive, but worth it. When doing quilting, we use either the Aurifil, my preference, or Isacord, my sister's preference. Isacord is a polyester thread, usually used for Embroidary, but works great when using it for free motion quilting and it is cheaper than the Aurifil.

I have some Signature Tex 40 thread here that I used on my midarm for quilting. I was able to break the thread with the hands test. However, the quilt I used it on is fine. It has been washed only once (at the laundromat, in their largest front loader), but none of the quilting lines broke. The quilting lines were much closer together than yours, however -- maybe at most 1" apart (freehand looping).

In any case, I do think it's a good idea to take the quilt back to the store.

For my midarm quilting I have switched to Glide thread, which is polyester. I just did the break test on that thread, and it also broke when jerked between my hands. This makes me think that your Signature thread is probably okay.

How large is this quilt? I'm thinking that the most likely cause of the breakage is the washing machine (assuming it is a top-loader). If the quilt is large, the central agitator can cause the quilt to twist on itself quite a bit. This was probably more stress than the thread could take, and would explain why both the quilting lines and the binding stitches broke.

Is this the thread? http://www.redrockthreads.com/signat...onquilting.asp

I am sorry this has happened to you.

Please post what happens after you take the quilt back to the quilt store you bought the supplies from.

The diagonal stitching may have broken due to the stretch of the bias during the wash, but the binding would have been on the grain more or less and should have held up.

Here's a site that talks about this brand: http://www.redrockthreads.com/signature-thread/