nonnon

I have a question regarding quilting thread. I know that thread comes in various weights and the weight we use depends on the work we're doing - appliqué, machine quilting, hand quilting, etc.

But where on the bobbin do we read the weight of the thread? The bobbin displays in stores put all the machine quilting thread together, hand quilting thread together... but once back home, there's nothing on the bobbin to give us the weight. I have several bobbins of Gutermann 100% cotton quilting thread and by feel only, it's very difficult to tell the weight.

Any help would be appreciated!

feline fanatic

In my experience, pre wound bobbins that don't specify are usually a 60 wt. Typically, prewound bobbins are geared to machine embroidery, specifically commercial machine embroiderers. So because virtually no stress is put on the bobbin thread in that particular application and the commercial machine embroiderers want to be able to get a lot of stitchouts between bobbin changes the thread is usually a lighter weight and often only a two ply. I checked Guterman's website and it isn't even specified there. I wouldn't stress too much over the weight of your thread in the bobbin. With sufficient quilting it should hold up well enough. If you are truly concerned over it, don't use them, use a bobbin where you know what weight and ply thread you have.

Edited to add, the only Gutermann prewounds I could find were polyester so you may have something different.
Here is a link https://www.guetermann.com/shop/en/v...&type=consumer

patricej

pre-wound cotton bobbins are out there but most pre-wounds are polyester.
as feline fanatic said, those are going to be 60wt unless the package/ad says otherwise.

the pre-wound cotton bobbins i get are 50wt, as is most cotton thread unless the package/ad says otherwise.

i haven't seen any offered in weights other than those.

tessagin

I have never been able to find the weight, so I don't buy prewound.

Onebyone

Superior pre wounds are all I use. https://www.superiorthreads.com/bobbins/ I use Glide pre wounds with Glide thread when using Glide for machine quilting. All other machine quilting threads or thread for piecing I use Superior pre wounds. Lots of great info about prewounds on the website.
Not true anymore. Prewound cotton or poly bobbins are made for piecing and machine quilting. Most LA buy them by the gross.

quiltsRfun

Are you referring to pre wound bobbins or spools?

feline fanatic

Yes I know, I am a LA quilter and do buy magnaglides by the gross in the colors they offer in that kind of quantity.

I guess I should have worded my reply to use the word "initially" instead of typically, also I was pretty much referring to the specific Guterman prewounds referenced by the OP. I found only one type of prewound on their website. The link I provided was specifically geared to embroiderers. Pretty much all prewound bobbins were introduced for embroiderers. Even Glide thread, while now marketed mostly to quilters was developed and initially marketed to embroiderers. It was Karen McTavish who broke them into the quilting market.

Dolphyngyrl

most cottons are 50wt, the poly is usually 60wt for embroidery, unless it is decobob which is 80wt

Peckish

Wellllll..... Superior's bobbins are geared for the quilter. Bottom Line is 60 wt, Masterpiece is 50 wt.

I like Bottom Line because there's more thread on the bobbin, which means fewer stops to load a new bobbin. That, plus a finer thread means more accurate piecing.

MadQuilter

I make it easy for myself and use 50 weight in the bobbin. So no matter what I piece, I know what I am using. Both 50 and 60 weight are good for piecing and good for quilting. Not sure this post was much help to you.