Hello, My name is Josh Pickett. My wife Malia and I are interested in buying a thread company and would like some advice from someone with knowledge in the subject of thread and quilting. There are two different lines of Italian thread, Urfil and Cucirini; neither of us are into quilting but would like to aquire more knowledge before making this purchase. Are these good, sturdy threads, and extra advice about other reputable lines that are well like? Thank you so much for any information you are able to share with us, we look forward to hearing from you!
Never heard of either of those! My favorites are YLI long staple, Superior Threads "King Tut", and Aurifil for machine quilting. (Cotton only!) I will use any good mercerised cotton for piecing. Gutermann and Mettler are good. For fancy stuff, Sulky and Madeira metallics and rayon. Valdani hand-painted variegated thread. Different sewing machines can be picky about different threads, so what my machine likes may not suit everyone. I also do machine embroidery. I really love the huge cones of cotton, because I do a LOT of stitching and hate little piddly spools. There are sure to be plenty of threads I haven't tried! Roberta in D
schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@l1g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...
I think perhaps your Urfil is actually Aurifil? If so, it's a wonderful thread -- I use a lot of it and love it. I also use King Tut, but I've sort of stopped using YLI cotton quilting thread; it's too thick for my current preferences, though that could change at any time. Oh, and I love YLI silk thread (100 wt)!
I seem to be the lone one here who likes and uses Robison-Anton cotton thread. I received a nice assortment package of it when I bought my previous sewing machine and have been buying it ever since then. My sewing machine dealer doesn't carry it- he refers to ALL cotton thread as "rotten cotton" since it tends to leave so much lint compared to his other threads like rayon and polyester. I tell him that keeps his service dept. in business- cleaning cotton lint from us quilters machines!
An aside- I went there to buy some size 18 needles and he asked me to start teaching quilting- again- in their store. I agreed..... ;-)
Leslie, ask him to look at the Presencia or Aurifil threads. Very little lint, less than a lot of the poly threads out there. Good luck with your teaching.... what will you be teaching?
Pati, > I seem to be the lone one here who likes and uses Robison-Anton cotton
Pati, that's exactly what he asked me- and he caught me totally off guard..... duh, I dunno! LOL They have an open quilting session kinda thing on Sat. from 9-noon. The folks just drop in and pay $5 each and do whatever's on the 'menu' for that morning! It's rather casual and somewhat 'social'. It doesn't appear they want to get into 6 or 12 session classes, so I'm trying to think of things like thread painting, the little pocket pal wallets, a small handbag, hand applique basics, PFP basics and things that I can start and finish in three hours. They have about 10 sewists- not necessarily quilters- show up each Sat. They don't sell any fabric there- just the Janome sewing machines, threads, needles, stabilizers and sm accessories.
It's different than what I've taught before as I usually got a really good response to a 13 week series starting with an intro, fabric and tool choices, cleaning the sm and then on to a block a week each using different techniques, sandwiching, quilting and binding. That was the best of all my classes as far as people signing up, showing up for every class and finishing their quilts. I never had a whole lot of luck with technique classes in the past- the students wanted to learn 'everything' rather than take home a small appliqued block- or something similar- and then what do they do with it. But that's been over ten years ago.... maybe things are different now??? I guess I'll play it by ear and see what the people respond to???
I think there are at least two different camps on how people like to learn. Personally, I do not want to learn a technique by making a block, with no purpose for it, as you mentioned. But, if I can make it a useful item, that's much better for me. I am taking a color class at the moment. Last week, we made pot holders out of random 1 1/2" unfinished squares & I have something useful. We are going to be making that log cabin chicken pin cushion somewhere down the road. There is a pattern for a paper pieced name tag in a book titled "Two for One Foundation Piecing". In one class, we made place mats with just a top, batting & back & practiced different quilt grid designs on them & then learned how to do a mitered binding when we were finished quilting. Since the placemats weren't pieced, they went together very quickly. I like completed projects over orphan blocks.
No, you're not the only one who likes Robison-Anton cotton thread. I like the thread & like the fact that it's put up on 3000 yard cones. Both sewing machine dealers that I deal with carry the R-A cotton thread. One of them carries it in many colors, the other just the basics.
Like the others, I've never heard of either of those threads. I do have an Aurifil, which I haven't tried yet. I like Mettler, YLI (both cotton AND the silk!), McKenna Ryan, Sulky, Star, King Tut, Madeira, and DMC perle 5.
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.