Q: Is it best to use matching or contrasting thread?

A: Like so many other things about quilting, it depends….

For sewing patches together, I usually use white or black thread. Black only if all of the fabric in the quilt is dark. For everything else, I use white. You could spend your life changing thread for each block, or using two different colors – one for the top and the other for the bobbin. Unless you press your seams open (which I don’t recommend too often), the thread won’t show, so I make it easy, and just use the same color all the time.

For quilting, if you would like your stitches to show, use contrasting thread. If you want the pattern to show, but not necessarily the individual stitches, then use matching thread. In the little wall hanging shown here, you can see how different the quilting stitches look in the solid fabric and in the fabric with a pattern. If I had wanted the stitches to show more in the fabric with the pattern, I probably would have used a contrasting thread – possibly black.

Find more examples and close-up pictures of the quilts on our site:

http://www.how-to-quilt.com/articles/6005-matching-thread.shtml

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren
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