Your quilt is beautiful! I love paisley too. Thread does have a shelf life, as I found out through working with machine embroidery. My thread was breaking so frequently, I took the thread and project down to my dealer, thinking it might be an adjustment on the machine that was causing this. He barely tugged on the thread between his hands and it broke - was just old thread. I bought new thread of the same brand and color and it worked fine. Also, I always use a metallic needle or topstitch needle for my embroidery. The eyes are larger and the metallic needles are coated within the eye to more easily facilitate the thread traveling through, or so I have heard.