it broke on me so not a fan, not sure if you mean aurifil or aerofil I am refering to aurifil

Bree ... I like many others was thinking Aerofil was just a mispell of Aurifil .... and no one sorted us out!
Thanks for telling us about, yet another kind of thread!

As has been said, aurifil 40 weight 2 ply thread that can be used for hand quilting is not coated with a wax like other hand quilting threads. I love aurifil thread for piecing, but much prefer waxed quilting thread for hand quilting. It doesn't tangle and knot easily and is much easier to thread. My favorite thread, and I think I have tried them all, Is YLI hand quilting thread. Needles also make a difference. Hiroshima Tulip betweens are the very best hand quilting needles. The eye of these needles is not stamped like other betweens so there aren't sharp edges or burrs to cut and shred your thread. Choosing the best tools and materials makes the task much more enjoyable and satisfying.

edit. Just realized you are using Aerofil thread and I didn't know there was such a brand. My search doesn't show that it comes in hand quilting thread, just quilting thread, but I may have missed it. I don't know the quality of this thread. It sounds suspect for hand quilting.

I have an older Bernina 1260 but Aurifil is all I use. Now my Singer Quantum hated it.............go figure. You have to use what works, just trial and error I guess.

I always check the needle first or you could have a burr on the needle plate. When I had a similar problem with another brand it ended up being the thread cone itself. There was a notch on the plastic and the thread would rub over it when the thread spooled off. Eventually the thread would wear down and break.

A local Janome dealer sells small spools of Aerofil by Madeira for $1 each. I've had great results with it. For the longest time, I thought people on here were spelling it "Aurifil" and were raving about the Aurifil. I had believed I was scoring a great bargain on one small spool of high quality thread. Turns out, I am. But it's not Aurifil. It's AEROFIL by Madeira.

My guess is it's your tension too high or your needle eye too small . What size needle are your using?

I would tend to think either you are using a too small needle for your fabric/thread, or that the needle is faulty and the groove is not big enough to accommodate the thread so it is tearing it up. The tension is usually not the problem on a bernina. It is usually the needle, thread, or drag on the item being sewn. Also if you have a bernina, you can slow down the motor so the friction is lowered especially on dense sewing items.

The only time I had trouble with Aurifil breaking was just the other day while I was actually quilting. When I do the actual quilting I use a 14 topstitch needle so I replaced the needle to another new 14 TS & it has been fine since. Hope you find out the problem with it. That is so frustrating. Good luck!

When you take thread off the spool, you need to knot the end next to the spool, and needle the other end or the thread twists badly. I'd check that before giving up on the thread.

I think that's really true. My mother would never touch her tension and had a fit once when her machine wasn't working and I came over and messed with the tension. I think most of us were taught that way. I've learned that a lot of problems go away with a bit of tension adjustment, both top and bobbin.