I never knew that these brands existed until I joined this forum.

Seeing as how I seem to have acquired a lifetime supply of older cotton covered polyester Dual Duty thread by Coates & Clark, I will continue to use it. The stitching in the quilts I made over 20 years ago and are still in hard use is holding up just fine. The findings are frayed on the edges - but no "cutting" of the fabric anywhere from the thread.

My older (1960-1985) machines tolerate it well.

This thread seems to have a bad reputation. Why?

I have used some other threads - Mettler metrosene and Molnlycke - started using them when sewing lingerie was a big thing.

I used basic Dual Duty and mostly white at that for decades. When they started making multiple types with multiple colored spools was about the same time I was switching to so fine.

Back in the day, the quilt police didn't like Dual Duty because it is a cotton wrapped poly thread and they were concerned the poly would cut the cotton fabric threads over time. I can tell from long experience that it never cut through my seams, nor did it impact the quilted fabric. A lot of modern quilting knowledge came from quilters of the 20s-30s and was based on valid concerns of the day but maybe aren't so valid any more. Especially in terms of poly threads, they are not what they were in the 70s and can take my hot iron just fine, feel nice, aren't brittle...

The better brands of thread now are all quality. I have some of every brand of thread. I'm not kidding. I always bought a spool or cone of thread I never used to try out. I found the 100% Egyptian cotton thread at Hobby Lobby as good as any cotton thread I have used. It's not on the thread rack there but in an individual package. YLI has a new thread, Elite. I bought a few cones at the introductory price (great bargain) and got the thread color card free. Superior owns YLI now I believe. Wonderfil has different weights of threads that are great for EPP. So many to choose from so find one that fits your budget, and your machine likes and stock up.

The newer C&C thread is better made now. It used to be very linty and rough, but the vintage machines could hand it. The newer machines were getting ruined using it. It cut into the thin tension discs, and too much lint build up. Walmart still sells the older stacked spools of it.

I use 50 wt. Aurifil for piecing and 40 wt. Signature 100% cotton on my Crown Jewel III longarm. Signature thread was recommended by my sewing machine shop when I bought my Tiara, and so I just stayed with it when I switched to the longarm. It rarely, if ever, breaks.

I kept finding knots in the Aurifil thread I bought so I now buy cones of Mettler 50wt. My problem is that I have no way to use the cone on the smaller machine I use at guild so end up using spools. I have a bunch of Gutterman spools that I am using. I know there are portable cone holders and will eventually invest in one.

I'm not surprised - it's a 50 wt cotton, which is nowhere near as strong as a 40 wt poly like Glide. The speed and tension of a longarm is a bit much for Aurifil. Plus it's somewhat linty compared to poly.

I've never had a Superior thread, other than monopoly, that my Janome domestic likes. It particularly hates SoFine.

Wow!
 

To: Iceblossom:
I just looked at the sale, what a drastic price reduction. Do you know what the difference is between the first and second picture? They look like the same colors. Thanks for the heads-up. If you like it for your machine, I don't think I can pass it up. :boy:

I found that thread as Joann was closing and I needed cotton thread for a particular project. I liked that it was an assortment of neutral colors as opposed to brights but didn't really care what exact shades I got. They do have a couple different assortments. Being used to the poly thread, there is a bit of lint with cotton thread -- but I wouldn't say this was linty. I've used some thread where my bobbin area looked like a mouse nest from all the lint.

I've used several colors for piecing (both bobbin and top) mostly on my Eversewn Sparrow 15 -- my lightweight class machine. I've also used it on my vintage no frills machine. I have not tried it on my fast semi-industrial Juki, nor have I done any hand sewing. I have not had any issues with breakage or kinks.

I will say I was having a lot of thread break issues for a couple of days with the So Fine recently on the Juki. Once I switched out the needle (which had been fresh) those issues were done. I remind myself that needles are cheap compared to my happiness and even a new one can have a very slight defect.