Choosing Threads for Machine Quilting

Recently I received the following email from a student named "Judy". Her question pertains to how I choose thread colours for my machine quilting. This is a question I'm often asked when I am out teaching and lecturing, so I thought I would summarize my thoughts here on my blog.

"Your stitching is stunning, and I really admire the effect it adds to your pieces.  I have been on the Superior Thread website looking at some of their trilobal thread, with a plan to buy some.  I wonder if you have any suggestions of some colors that you find adapt well to a variety of projects.  Also I wonder if you have any tips on how you choose the colour thread you use for your free motion stitching.  For example, on your blue/green ‘Reflections’ quilt, it appears you have used a variegated thread that has yellows and oranges in – which would not have crossed my mind.  I also find that sometimes my thread choice doesn’t add the interest that I am seeking, and perhaps I’m not going for a good contrast in my thread choice.  I’d really appreciate any suggestions and advice you might have."

First of all, thank you Judy.  I have a theory about free motion machine quilting. If you put down only one line of stitching, you will see all the imperfections in that line, but if you put down several rows of stitching, all the lines will detract from each other and hide a multitude of imperfections. Having said that, I am also not too bothered by imperfections. I think it makes the work more interesting and looks like it was made by a human hand (which is what we want after all) than by a precision machine.

When I was a new machine quilter I tended to use thread colours that blended with my work to hide imperfections. When I became more skilled and confident, I started using threads that really show up on my work. Perhaps you have now reached a level where you feel more confident to use these threads too. Of course it depends on what I am doing. Threads that blend make your quilting about texture, but threads that contrast or otherwise show up on your fabric, make your quilting more about the thread.

Over the years I have collected a great deal of thread! When I made bed quilts I used cotton threads for quilting, however these days I would not be adverse to using the newer trilobal polyester threads (more on that below). When I began to make art quilts, I fell in love with rayon thread for its beautiful sheen, vibrant colour and the suppleness of the stitch it made. I always found the stitch with rayon thread far more attractive than the one made with cotton thread. Over the years I started gravitating to trilobal polyester threads because they have the same beautiful sheen, vibrant colour, and suppleness of stitch, however, they are easier to work with than rayon.

I use a lot of Superior Threads, but also some solid colours of polyester threads by Fil Tec Glide and Madeira. However, what really draws me to Superior is their education program. I think they make it likely that you will be successful using their thread by telling you right on the spool what needle and tension to use. On top of that, no matter what thread I am using in my needle, I always use Superior Bottom Line in my bobbin. It is a lighter weight polyester so it doesn't put a huge amount of thread on the back of your quilt, and the bobbins can hold more thread and thus need to be filled less often.

But back to your question about how I choose thread colours for my quilts. I have an enormous thread stash that I've collected over the last 20 years. At the present time, I seldom purchase thread because I have a good selection of all colours of the rainbow, as well as a variety of values (darks, mediums and lights) within each colour. I view thread and fabric almost like a paint palette. Eventually you will require all colours. However, I do have a larger collection of greens than any other colour, due to my body of work on hosta leaves.

Here are the two chests that I store the bulk of my thread in, organized by colour. One drawer for greens, one for blues and teals/turquoise, one for reds/pinks/purples, one for yellow and orange, and one for neutrals (browns, greys and blacks). It's a lot of thread. I know I've read scary stories about thread going bad, but I haven't had it happen to me yet.

In addition, there is a small drawer in a unit to the right of my sewing machine where I store the threads I've pulled for current projects. Since I haven't had time to make any projects lately, what you find here are a lot of colours I used in my end-of-season hosta quilts, 

I also found a bag of pinks, from lightest to darkest, that I pulled to quilt my peony quilt.

All this thread may look daunting to someone who isn't a "collector" like I am. I would start by purchasing what you think you will need for your next several projects. You may find you use the same colours a lot in your work (I know that I do) and can use those threads again and again.

The beauty of Superior's Bottom Line thread is that it comes in a full spectrum of colours so you can match your bobbin thread to the back of your quilt. These are only a few in my collection.

 For colours that I use often, I've purchased the large cones.

I've gone through images of many of my quilts and separated my machine quilting into three categories in terms of thread choices: 1) contrasting threads (often variegated); 2) variegated blending threads; and 3) solid colour threads that match each section of the quilt. I've also loaded fairly large images so if you click on them you should be able to see the stitching better. 

CATEGORY 1: CONTRASTING THREADS (MOSTLY VARIEGATED)

This first piece contains many bright colours of fabric and beads, as well as a selection of black and white fabrics. I couldn't choose just one colour of thread to quilt with so I used a rainbow variegated colour of thick thread that I hand-dyed. The design is kind of funky, and the rainbow thread just adds to that feeling. Of course you could also quilt something like this with a mid value grey to pull everything together but I prefer colour. 

This is the quilt that Judy specifically asked about, mentioning that I had used a thread that is orange as well as blue and green. The quilt has an analagous colour scheme (colours that are beside each other on the colour wheel) that runs from a golden yellow (very close to orange) through yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green and blue.

For this quilt I chose Superior Rainbows thread colour #836 because it contains many of the same colours in the quilt. What Judy describes as "orange", I see more as a "golden yellow", and it blends well with the yellow sections of the quilt.

On this quilt, a large improv radial design called "Solstice", I repeated the sun theme of Solstice by quilting sun-like shapes using a spiral and flowing rays. The centre of the quilt utilizes a lot of bright warm-coloured fabrics to suggest a burst of light in a dark sky. I wanted to pull that design right out into the dark areas of sky, and give it more movement. 

To achieve this objective, I chose Superior Rainbows 843, which is a combination of warm colours.

I used this very same thread to quilt a leaf design into the background of my lily quilt. The lily just seemed to have a lot of blank space around it that needed some interest. The thread contained all of the colours within the lily.

On this little challenge piece, I pulled the chartreuse green right across the black border by using a chartreuse thread there. Makes the border a bit less stark I think. This chartreuse thread may have a bit of variegation running through it but it is very slight.

CATEGORY 2: BLENDING THREADS (MOSTLY VARIEGATED)

In this sample for my Hosta Leaves 101 class, I chose a thread that blends well with the yellow-green, purple, and blue in the background fabric.

For this I used Superior Rainbows #835.

I  often use lower contrast variegated threads for pulling a variety of values of a colour together. In this case, at the time I could not find a thread in the colour I wanted, so I carefully hand-dyed rayon thread in two values of variegated greens, a lighter one and a darker one and used each where it was most appropriate on the quilt (the darker one in the darker areas and the lighter one in the lighter areas).

Here I used a variegated purple (Superior Rainbows 839) with only slight variation in the background of my poppy quilt to give it more interest and texture. 

CATEGORY 3: SOLID COLOUR THREADS THAT MATCH EACH SECTION OF THE QUILT

There is a large group of quilts where I chose a variety of values of threads and changed colours often during quilting. In this photo I can see at least four values of green thread.

I do this most often when I'm going after a more realistic look and don't want a contrasting thread to draw too much attention to any one area. I want everything to flow naturally and just have texture. Below is another example where I've used three or four values of green thread: a very light one on the edges and for the veins of the unfurling leaf, a more medium in the main areas, a darker medium in the area below the curl, and the darkest one in the shadowy centre of the curl.

I also changed threads quite a big when I quilted this sample of my "Sunkissed Poppy" pattern. There are at least three shades of red, from almost a peach all the way up to a deep scarlet, a plum colour used in the areas closest the centre, deep purple in the centre, and yellow used in some of the yellow areas. Over on the right I used a medium scarlet across the large yellow area to try to pull that area together to look like the one petal that it is, but in hindsight I wish I had used the lighter peachy scarlet for that section. I think the thread shows a bit too much here.

For information, Superior no longer makes Rainbows (the variegated threads mentioned above), but they have a similar product called Fantastico.

Their thread formerly called "Highlights", which are the solid colours of their trilobal polyester thread, are now called Magnifico.

One place where I do use the same thread again and again is for my tree collage quilts. I find that Rainbows colours 855 and 856 give me everything I need. One is darker than the other, and the lighter one (on right) is actually a bit lighter than it appears in this photo. 

They work perfectly for tree trunks, and help pull all the collaged elements together.

Finally, I think I would have to add that one needs to take some risks to find out what you like and what works. I probably don't treat any of my works as so precious that I won't just jump in and try something that may or may not work.

 Here's hoping that you find this information useful. Please don't hesitate to ask if you'd like clarification on anything that is unclear.