The 5 Best Cotton Threads for Quilting in 2025: A Quilter’s Guide

There is a reason you see Aurifil’s iconic orange spool in the hands of almost every professional quilter. This 50-weight, 2-ply thread, made from long-staple Egyptian Mako cotton, is the best of the best. It is exceptionally thin, unbelievably strong, and produces almost no lint in your machine.

My Experience: I switched to Aurifil for piecing years ago and have never looked back. Because it’s so thin, it creates incredibly flat, accurate seams that don’t add bulk, which is critical for matching points. When I use it for machine quilting, it sinks into the fabric beautifully, creating a subtle texture that allows the quilt pattern to shine. I can go an entire bobbin without a single break, and the amount of lint I have to clean from my machine has been cut by probably 80%. It’s a premium thread with a premium price, but the performance and flawless results are worth every penny.

Gutermann is a trusted name in sewing, and their 100% natural cotton thread is a fantastic, reliable option that’s widely available and affordable. This 50wt thread is mercerized for strength and a smooth finish, making it a versatile choice for both machine piecing and quilting.

My Experience: This is a solid, dependable thread that I often recommend to my students who are just starting out. It performs consistently well in a wide variety of sewing machines. It’s a little thicker and produces a bit more lint than Aurifil, but it’s still a high-quality thread that is strong and easy to work with. The spools are a unique shape that fits well on most machine spindles. For the price, it’s one of the best all-around cotton threads on the market and a huge step up from generic, unbranded threads.

For quilters who use a lot of thread and love having a wide palette of colors on hand, Connecting Threads offers an unbeatable value. They sell high-quality, 50wt, 3-ply, 100% long-staple cotton thread in large 1200-yard spools, often in curated color sets that are perfect for building a collection affordably.

My Experience: I was introduced to this thread by a fellow longarm quilter, and I was immediately impressed. The quality is far better than the price would suggest. It’s a smooth, strong, and relatively low-lint thread that comes very close to the performance of more expensive brands. The 3-ply construction makes it exceptionally strong, which is fantastic for high-speed machine quilting. I now own several of their boxed color sets, and it’s wonderful to always have the perfect matching or contrasting thread on hand without breaking the bank.

Sometimes you want your quilting stitches to be the star of the show. For beautiful, bold hand quilting, embroidery, or decorative “big stitch” machine quilting, a thick thread is essential. Aurifil’s 12wt thread is the thickest they make, and it creates stunning, highly visible stitches that add incredible texture and a charming, handmade look to any project.

My Experience: I absolutely adore using this thread for hand quilting. It’s smooth, rarely tangles, and is strong enough that I can use long strands without fear of it shredding. The colors are vibrant and the finished stitches are just gorgeous. I also use it in my machine for decorative topstitching on bags and home decor projects (with a topstitch needle and lowered tension). It’s a specialty thread, but it’s the absolute best at what it does. The small wooden spools are just a charming bonus.

Coats & Clark is a name that has been in sewing baskets for generations. Their 100% mercerized cotton thread is a dependable, no-frills choice that gets the job done. It’s readily available everywhere, from big-box stores to supermarkets, making it incredibly accessible for new quilters or quick repairs.

My Experience: This is the thread many of us learned to sew with. While it may not have the super-low lint properties of a premium brand, it’s a solid, strong thread that works well for piecing and general sewing. I keep a few basic colors of this in my mending basket. It’s a great thread for beginners to practice with, as it’s very forgiving and affordable. Be sure you’re picking up the green “100% Cotton” spool, not the “All Purpose” Dual Duty spool, which has a polyester core.