Best Thread Weight For Free Motion Quilting

Aurifil thread in the above photo affiliate is ideal for hand quilting or even hand embroidery.

Best thread weight for free motion quilting.

However it s important to look at thread quality. A lot will depend on where you are in your free motion quilting journey and what s available to you locally. A bonus is that you get a lot more thread on the bobbin and you run out of thread less frequently. Whether they free motion quilt it or prefer to do walking.

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. Which would work too. 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. This is a great choice if you are quilting a new motif that you might be a little nervous about.

It would work equally as well for topstitching denim. 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.

I use superior threads bottom line in my bobbin for free motion quilting. I have used 28 and 12 weight but much less frequently. Here s are the two most important tip i can give you. I love aurifil thread.

Their 50 wt is my go to piecing and quilting thread 2600 is the most perfect gray for absolutely everything and i ll use 40 wt when i want my stitches to stand out a bit.