Reasons to LOVE WonderFil’s Fabulux, Konfetti and Tutti Threads

I’m back with a week’s worth of blog posts about WonderFil’s fabulous threads! I looked at some of the rayon threads (Splendor, Mirage and Accent) in April. This week I’m focusing on using polyester and cotton threads for quilting on a domestic sewing machine. WonderFil Specialty Threads has two cotton threads, Konfetti and Tutti and beautiful new polyester thread Fabulux.

I began my free motion quilting journey in the early 1990s when I took my first free-motion quilting class. I recently pulled out my very first quilt and even though I’m proud of the quilting, you cannot see any stitches unless your nose is to the quilt.

Over the years I’ve come to realize that the thread plays a really big part in the finished quilted project. If I want to hide my quilting and let the piecing show, I’ll limit my thread choices. If I want my quilting to show, I choose from a wider selection of threads.

Today’s post is a brief overview of WonderFil’s thread and some reasons for LOVING and using Konfetti and Tutti and Fabulux. I’m going to spend more time in the next few days with a bit of a personal quilt show and share my decision-making process.

When I was first introduced to the WonderFil line of threads I was thrilled to find a cotton thread that didn’t have a lot of lint. I had been quilting with a brand that was very linty and so my interest piqued to try Konfetti. As the saying goes, the rest is history!

Konfetti is a 50wt 100% cotton thread. It’s a 3-ply thread made up of 3 strands twisted together. The key feature of the thread is that it’s ‘double gassed’.

WonderFil chooses the longest cotton strands available, which is up to 1½” in length. That doesn’t seem like a lot of length but in cotton, this is a very long strand of cotton fiber. When the fibers are twisted into their strands, there are little ‘hairs’ sticking out. The shorter the fibers of the thread, the more fuzzy or hairy the thread and therefore, the more lint. WonderFil solves this issue by gassing the fibers instead of waxing or glazing the thread. Gassing is the process of burning off little hairs. The thread is passed over a gas flame (thus ‘gassing’) to burn off 80% of the little hairs. The thread is then passed through a 2nd gassing and 80% of the hairs remaining are burned off. This results in very little lint! As a result of this process, the thread is very soft and supple and forms perfect stitches.

Konfetti is available in 60 lovely solid colors.

Tutti is exactly the same thread as Konfetti, but is available in 41 lovely variegated colors. That’s 101 beautiful cotton colors to work with. You’ll notice that product information states these cotton threads are mercerized. Mercerizing is a process that allows more dye to be absorbed into the fibers of the thread. This gives bright and clear colors.

All variegated WonderFil threads are random dyed. While some threads on the market are dyed in evenly spaced segments, WonderFil threads are intentionally dyed in a variety of lengths. Have a close look at WonderFil threads and you’ll see that some have a nice clean change from thread color to thread color and some will blend as the colors change for added color and texture.

You’ll quickly notice that most of the threads in the Tutti line are shades of the same color. This creates some beautiful shading and stitching effects.

The third thread we’ll look at this week is Fabulux. I say ‘FABULUX IS FABULOUS!

Fabulux is a 40wt thread. Slightly thicker than Konfetti and Tutti. It’s a 3-ply trilobal polyester thread. Trilobal means that each strand has 3 sides. Imagine a triangle. Each of the 3 plys are twisted and as light reflects off the sides, the thread truly shines! The thread has a loose twist which helps to enhance the shine. The thread is soft to the touch and creates some beautiful stitches.

FabuLux™ is available in 766yds [700m] spools as well as 3000yds [2743m] cones. There are 35 variegated colors and 5 solid colors.

Join me tomorrow, I’ll have 3 tips for you for quilting with Fabulux!