kateyb

ditto

Maia B

Baloney! Clothes being washed and worn, exposed to light, mechanical stress, and extremes of temperature and humidity last years. Quality thread protected from light, dust, and temperature extremes and exposed to no stress or wear, is not going to go bad on the spool in a year, even 5 years, even longer. This is the type of thing that discredits a teacher or shop. IMO, this violates the trust of students. I've been experiencing this too, classes that are as much a commercial as a class. But to give such blatantly wrong advice just to generate sales? Blech! Bob Purcell, president of Superior Threads, teaches a thread seminar. He doesn't criticise other brands, and he says we should put quality thread collections in our wills.

DebraK

good advice.

Holice

did you ask the teacher why she says to toss the thread? If I were you I would ask the next time I saw her or the shop owner.
In my 30+ yrs of quilting I have never heard this.

fabric whisperer

i have threads from years and years ago ~ they have been stored properly, and are still soft and strong. You can feel when thread dries out, then it is weakened and will snap and give you all sorts of fits. But you can sometimes rejuvenate an old spool by sticking it in the freezer overnight.

I have threads that say $.15 on the ends!!! my grandmother lived thru the depression, she never threw anything out! So I have thread that she bought at Woolworth's in probably the 40's and 50's, and because of the way she stored it, I am still working on using it up :)

Kas

Well, I don't think I would use thread from the '40s in one of my quilts. I would just display it and enjoy its prettiness! But I also don't buy new thread for every project unless I am working with colored thread and don't have a color that looks good with the colors in the quilt.

mhansen6

The instructor must have worked at the LQS. There is no reason for this.

BellaBoo

If she didn't give a reason and couldn't back it up with facts then she was just putting in her two cents. I don't know of anyone that would not use thread they bought last year or five years ago. Most of my thread will be over five years old when I get around to using it all.

carhop

I think they just want you to buy their thread. I had something like that in a shop where I took my surger only they wispered loud that my thread quality was what was wrong with my machine so i asked a the tech about it and he said any thread in todays market is just fine and that in some of these quilt shops the thread is very old.

wolfkitty

If she offered to help you get rid of the old stuff, I would really worry! Ha! Just a bad joke. As someone said, it doesn't wear out in old clothing or quilts, why should it wear out waiting to be used? I have thread years old that I still use.