Happy New Year, Ruth!

I wish I were in Perth. It's pretty nice here too, but I'm not on the lake so it isn't as good as where you are. :D

I use cotton for LA, either connecting threads or king tut. May eventually try others but have had such luck with those that I haven't had the incentive to be adventurous.

I use black, white cream or gray for most of my work.

Same here.

I use neutral colors for piecing and the only time I need anything else is to applique

I was told to stay away from Black thread. Black thread is usually made from the miscolored batches of thread and has had the opportunity to be redyed several times before they gave up on matching it. Every time it has been dyed it tends to loose its tensile strength and therefore it will break more often. Coats and Clarke are the worlds worse about participating in this practice.

I tested it for kicks and giggles with the set of gauges I use to set tensions up on sewing machines and every time the Black broke before the other colors. And I was using several different spools and brands to see if there was a difference. But the Coats and Clarke would break at half the amount of tension as their White.

Billy

I use cream and gray mostly, keep navy (use w/ black fabric), black and taupe on hand, too. Most of my colors I collect for quilting, not piecing.

I use gray more than anything else. I learned that when your fabrics have lots of contrast, gray is the best choice. Still, I sometimes use white, black, off white, and dark brown depending on the project. Definitely, I use more gray than any other color. It seems to fade into whatever color combo I have going on at the time.

I use a neutral color, such as a light beige or grey.

Light gray for lighter colored quilts, dark gray for darker colored quilts. Sometimes black/white/cream if the blocks are mostly that color.

I generally use a light or medium grey or beige for piecing.