Best Thread Weight For Free Motion Quilting

Whether they free motion quilt it or prefer to do walking.

Best thread weight for free motion quilting.

Aurifil thread in the above photo affiliate is ideal for hand quilting or even hand embroidery. I love aurifil thread. If you want your thread to blend with your quilt top so your piecing or the overall texture is the star use a finer thread which is a higher number of thread weight like 80 or 100. Threads and needles for free motion quilting every quilter needs to know how to quilt their quilt.

Here s are the two most important tip i can give you. A bonus is that you get a lot more thread on the bobbin and you run out of thread less frequently. This is a great choice if you are quilting a new motif that you might be a little nervous about. A lot will depend on where you are in your free motion quilting journey and what s available to you locally.

I have used 28 and 12 weight but much less frequently. Since it s a 60 weight thread i seem to have less trouble with it showing through on top so you don t need to match the top bottom threads. Cotton threads the easiest thread to machine quilt with is a 50wt 60wt 100 cotton thread used in both the needle and the bobbin. Most of the heavy duty topstitching thread you see at sewing stores will likely be 18 wt.

However it s important to look at thread quality. Skinny thread will give you lots of forgiveness so your wobbles and bobbles won t show as much. It would work equally as well for topstitching denim. If you d like the quilting to melt into the background select a skinny lightweight thread 60 weight or higher.

If you want to your quilting to be the star to make people notice your free motion work choose a heavier weight thread which is a lower number for the weight like 30 40 or 50 in a color that contrasts with your quilt top.