Onebyone

I have used the Smithread cotton from Amazon. It is a tad weak. It kept breaking on my machine. Brothread is strong polyester and sews nice using it for decorative stitches.

WMUTeach

My favorite is Aurifil. When I go to a shop with any kind of discount, I purchase a spool of cream or white Aurifil. I like the smooth fine weight that is strong and that doesn't leave a pile of fuzz in my machine. That said one of my quilting buddies does long arming and she gives me spool ends that will not be enough for a quilt or samples that her machine "doesn't like". What a blessing! I can piece away with the long arm spools, oh it is a bother filling bobbins, but free thread is free thread! I can then keep my Aurifil for quilting. Recently I got real bold and purchased a variegated spool of Aurifil. Now I need to pick out a good quilt that can accommodate the soft gentle blend off colors. Goodness, there is one under construction right now!

Onebyone

When Tristan thread of BC was selling Aurifil at clearance prices way back when, I bought it by the 24 spool case. I don't remember the exact price but it was very inexpensive. Variegated was a little more. i even got a big lots of the Aurifil poly cone embroidery thread. Big king spools, three colors to a package. They don't make it anymore. Shipping cost wasn't so high then either. Aurifil became my gift for years to all my quilting friends. I still have a couple boxes of the cotton spools. I can tell a difference from the first Aurifil thread from today's Aurifil. The older is stronger and not curly coming off the spool. I was surprised when I used a new spool, the quality I was used to wasn't there. Not worth the price for me.

QuiltE

Agree with that! Also, make sure the post to the thread guides is good and solid.
Why would I say all this ... I bought one years ago, and yes, the base was weak aka plastic. The upright screwed together and into the base. But it didn't screw deep enough, so it soon came out. Yes, it was all a total-thread-stand-night-mare!

Have heard that some put the spool into a mason jar, and then thread it up to the guides on their machine. Does that work??

Haven't tried it myself, but think it might work on my one machine, as the first thread guides are up a good distance from the machine. My other machine, I don't think it could work as everything is closer/tighter to the machine. But who knows?

THANKS!

mac

I use the cones, too. Sometimes when I am in a place where I can't use the cone holder, I will fill a bunch of bobbins and use that for my top sewing thread. It may not be the best plan, but in helps in the short term. I've never had a problem with any project doing this. Right now, I am mostly doing small craft projects and so it I don't need a lot of thread at one time.

Austinite

I used C&C for years, never was a thread snob, someone gave me some beautiful varigated Wonderfil and I loved it, used that for a few years and then someone gifted me some Aurifil...and I used up all my other brands and never looked back, it works so well in all my machines! I gifted some to my mom for Mother's Day one year and that's all she uses now as well, never thought I would be a thread snob LOL

Onebyone

I put filled or half-filled bobbins on the thread stand. Works great. The bobbin doesn't do a flash fast spin or if it does it doesn't mess up the thread path.

peaceandjoy

I bought quite a few spools of thread from them as well. All they had left when I got it was kind of an odd peach/tan color, but it was fine for piecing. I still have several of them.

I haven't noticed a difference in the quality in what I've purchased recently. I buy cones from Green Fairy when they have a sale. $39 for a cone of Aurifil cannot be beat! They only carry basic colors, though.

Onebyone

I may have gotten a bad new spool of Aurifil but there was certainly a difference from the older spools. Aurifil is now $16 a spool at the LQS. I would definitely order it online if it was my thread of choice.

effika

I use a lot of Gutermann Mara 100, as I have a collection of it for garment sewing and it's my preferred thread for that (I can always find a color to match for top-stitching). I use it for piecing nearly exclusively, too. It's a little thin for quilting, but if I want the quilting to fade away it's great.

If I want to show off my quilting, I have been using Superior Thread's King Tut. I love the variegated look, especially with decorative stitches!

I have some Coats & Clark Dual Duty XP thread from over a decade ago. My Singer HD4432 hated it! My Janome MC7600p seems fine with it, though. I got out of the habit of using it, though, so I mainly pull it out for patching garments.