bearisgray

I know that most woven cottons shrink - because I have measured hundreds of pieces of fabric before and after soaking/washing.

However, I do not know ahead of time which way they will shrink - most wovens shrink more in one direction than the other - or how much.

I have been told that quilting will prevent batting from shrinking. That, of course, would depend on the type of batting - but if the package says to expect 3-5% shrinkage, I would tend to believe the manufacturer. I have not personally checked this out if it is true or not.

I have also "heard" that Dual Duty (cotton covered polyester version) is "poor quality" thread. I have 20 year old quilts that are used constantly - not one popped seam or "shredded" seam line.

What have you "heard" that you took as "absolute truth" - and checked out for yourself the validity of the statement.

A couple of things I am planning to check out - at what temperature will polyester thread melt? So far, when piecing, I have not noticed any melting when I press the seams.

IceLeopard

Poly thread won't melt if you press on the cotton setting, but it will melt if your iron accidently gets bumped up to the hotter linen setting. I found this out when my finished flimsy fell apart after pressing.

Iceblossom

I happily used Dual Duty for decades while being told it was bad by the quilt police and that the polyester core would manage to saw its way through my cotton fabric. All I can say is I can show you heavy use quilts that were washed weekly/monthly (allergies) and the seams and the quilting have both held up. True, they are in the dog bed now but it is because I didn't quilt heavily that the fabric in the center of the blocks gradually wore away.

I've only gotten into threads fairly recently (10 years or so), it started when my friend got her long arm. We couldn't wind a decent bobbin to save our lives and started buying prewound bobbins. I found I loved the ease of the prewounds, I understand some machines are fussy but her machine did so much better than with the ones we wound. Then for the first time I started using different weight threads top and bottom, and loved the results. Also loved getting more thread on the bobbin and not running out all the time.

My current test is I'm using So-Fine as my piecing bobbin thread. So far/so good in use tests. Is working well for me, is sewing well, no problems with pressing and I use a hot iron. Don't know what's going to happen in 30 years, but I'm mostly concerned about the first two after creation.
https://www.superiorthreads.com/thread/so-fine/c/60-205

Jingle

Coats and Clark is what I mainly buy and have. I haven't had any problems with it. I will continue using it. I use Dual Duty and Quilting threads from them.

Barb2018

I was taught to use only cotton in my quilts and sew using only cotton. Quilting had to be done with cotton also, and only 50 wt. And stitch length had to be 2.5.
I saw some Leah Day videos and thought she had committed blasphemy...I was shocked to find out that other fabrics and threads could be used. I think I held my breath the whole time I pieced and quilted a quilt using Polyester thread. The world did not stop, caverns didn't open under my house and swallow me whole. And the quilting police didn't come and chain me to the bathroom sink. Now I piece with whatever thread I grab (although I admit to being an Aurifil fan), and I quilt with Aurifil, Isacord or other Poly threads I have in my stash. I caught myself wondering if using Poly threads would lessen the shrinkage of a quit when it was first washed.....nope, not for me.
I also have a ball trying to figure out which batting I want for a particular quit......so many choices.