Thread weights: TEX vs Wt thread systems

It’s handy to have a small quilt top or two in the studio when you want to test a new thread. I purchased a new-to-me polyester quilting thread from the sale section of a quilt shop. I was drawn to the happy thread color, a reputable brand (WonderFil Specialty Threads), and (of course) the price.

Quilt top basted and ready for quilting. 

I’m a fan of WonderFil threads, and thinking a 40 wt thread in a happy, hot pink color would be a good “showy” thread for my charity quilts, and the polyester fiber content would minimize lint in the sewing machine, I thought I’d give it a try. 

Free-motion quilting on my domestic sewing machine.

The thread, Innovatech, is a poly-wrapped polyester thread, 40 wt, TEX 27. Upon unwrapping the packaging, I was expecting a “thicker” thread—being it was 40wt. Checking the label, the other thread designation was TEX 27. I needed to do a little research…

Innovatech machine quilting thread, 40 wt poly, TEX 27.

Thread weight designation: Wt vs TEX

To make things a bit confusing for the average quilter or sewer, there are several designation systems to characterize the thickness/weight of a thread. In the USA, quilters and sewers are familiar with thread weight: 50 wt, 40 wt, etc. In this system, the thread weight is determined by the number of kilometers of thread needed to weigh 1 kilogram. The length is the variable in the equation and the constant is 1 kg. The higher the number, the thinner the thread.

Another thread weight designation is the TEX system, which is the weight of 1000 meters of a thread, measured in grams. TEX comes from the Latin word, textilis, meaning woven. This system was adopted by the International Standards Organization [ISO] in 1956 .The length is a constant and the weight is the variable. So, the higher the TEX number, the thicker the thread. The TEX range for general sewing and quilting threads:

TEX 8 - 25 for fine and lightweight fabrics

TEX 25 - 30 for medium weight fabrics, quilting cottons

TEX 40 - 70 for medium and heavy weight fabrics (denim, canvas), garment construction

TEX 70+ for dense fabrics (leather), upholstery, outdoor, multi-layer fabrics 

These are general guidelines. The choice of thread also depends on the project, its use, the thread’s fiber content, aesthetic considerations, the machine being used (serger, embroidery, domestic sewing machine, industrial machine), etc.

Pre-made bindings

After finishing the free-motion quilting, the quilt was ready for binding. I pulled out my box of pre-made bindings—a collection I keep stocked and ready for a new cuddle or kitty quilt.

My box of pre-made quilt bindings.

The turquoise binding with the small daisies was chosen and there was enough to go around this quilt’s perimeter. Machine sewn to the back and rolled to the front, the binding is attached all by machine for a quick finish. A 50 wt. 3-ply variegated cotton thread [Tutti by WonderFil] was used for the zigzag stitch.

Machine binding.

My box of bindings gets replenished with any backing trimmings that are wide enough to cut into 2.5” strips. Smaller pieces join other random and leftover fabric bits in the scrap box.

Trimmings from this quilt were cut into 2.5” binding strips or put into a scrap box.

The Innovatech thread worked just fine and I learned about the TEX thread system. Here are the quilt stats for this charity quilt.

Quilt Stats

• 40 wt TEX 27 poly wrapped polyester thread (quilting and bobbin)
• bobbins: 2
• free-motion quilting: 1 hr.
• 50 wt 3-ply cotton thread for binding

Finished size: 36.5” x 45.5”

I have done free-motion quilting with other poly threads and had good success. This TEX 27 poly thread was no different.

I’m unsure if this thread is readily found at quilt shops or it’s been produced through a partnership between WonderFil and Innova for longarm quilting machines. Either way, I have a 3000 yd spool of bright pink for future quilts. This finished cuddle quilt went to my guild for its community service project… for some little kid to snuggle. 

Improv patchwork, abstraction, and the Fall equinox

Even though the 90-degree temperatures don’t feel like it, September 22, the Fall equinox, marked the beginning of Fall for inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere. The term, equinox—when the sun is directly above the equator—is derived from the Latin for “equal night,” ostensibly dividing the night and day into equal parts.

Improv patchwork.

Fall’s changing landscape

In Fall, the landscape begins to change—not all at once, but in fragments. As the light softens and the colors outside begin to shift, green leaves are becoming less green. Patches of yellows, golds and reds start to appear in landscapes. Shadows grow longer. Blooms fade and drop. Trees loose their foliage, exposing barren branches against a pale sky. Colors become muted, less vibrant, as the landscape turns to the greys, browns, and neutral color palette that coincides with colder temperatures.

Improv units on the design wall.

Exploring abstraction in an improv quilt class

This color and value transition is mirroring the work I’m doing in an improvisational quilting class where we’re exploring abstraction, color, and value. The process of abstraction is asking us to look beyond recognizable and identifiable objects in a photo. Instead, we’re observing shapes. The quilt compositions are depicting the relationships between shapes which are being defined by differences in color and value. 

About midway through the work, I became “un-enamoured” with the progress of my piece. After a small group meeting with three other students, my “posse mates” provided a more unbiased view and suggestions for re-approaching the assignment. Through our discussion, I realized and concluded that creating a good abstract composition is the goal—not using patchwork to realistically reproduce the photo.

Cutting apart and reassembling patchwork units.

Note to self: get the idea of “that’s supposed to be the water, the bridge, the land, the building…” out of my head and look more at creating symbiotic relationships between shapes, angles, foreground, and background. I’ve decided that my composition is going to be more successful if I’m not tied to replicating my photo exactly. This is abstraction! The photograph should be a starting point without becoming a blueprint.

With that, I went back to what was on the design wall with seam ripper and rotary cutter in hand.

Something similar outside

Plumbing remodel project.

There is a plumbing remodel happening at the house as well. Here is a picture from my studio window. It seems the universe was also sending the message to take out the previous pieces, recut, and rejoin… to make things work better.

Original pipe removed.

The season is repainting the landscape. The plumbers are updating the water lines. And my abstract improv composition is being reassembled… one fabric, one seam line, and one shape at a time.

Midway through September Textile Love

It’s midway through September Textile Love, sponsored by Seam Collective. This annual event is always an intriguing journey—contemplating what textiles mean to me, reviewing recent and past photos of my work, and thinking bout how the pieces might relate to the daily prompts. 

Prompts (clockwise from top left): Language, Story-telling, Craft or Art, Experiment.

The prompts

The 2026 prompts, as in the past seasons, have been diverse and thoughtful. The responses from other participants are interesting and insightful, and the photographs of participants’ work are always inspiring. 

Prompts (clockwise from top left): Language, Rethink, Friendship, Caring.

The prompts get me looking at the familiar pieces with fresh eyes. 

Prompts (clockwise from top left): Historical, Color, Historical, Rethink.

How to love textiles… count the ways

There are myriad ways to love textiles! The remaining prompts for September Textile Love offer reasons to look at them through a different lens and make new discoveries.

September Textile Love 2026 prompts.

Unraveled. Reimagined. Re-knit.

Everything deserves a second chance—especially good yarn. This pair of knitted mittens started with yarn that already had a story—as a fingerless mitt sample and a gauge swatch—and then found its way into these mittens.

Finished mittens and remaining yarn.

The fingerless mitt already had its moment… as a sample. It also was a single mitt and had no mate. The gauge swatch had already fulfilled its mission.  

Reclaiming the yarn

The yarn that was used in these samples is a cotton/superwash merino/silk/seacell blend in a lovely blueish-green color [color name: storm]. Much too beautiful to let languish in the stash as a sample or a swatch! Time to reclaim and repurpose.

The sample mitt was knit flat and seamed. Once the side seam was unpicked, frogging [unraveling] and rewinding began.

Flat sample ready for frogging.

Frogging and rewinding the yarn from the gauge swatch was easy.

Reclaiming the yarn from a gauge swatch.

Because of my yearlong mitten knitting charity project, I combined the reclaimed yarn with a few other leftover bits, to set the stage for a new opportunity. These unneeded samples had found a new purpose. 

Recovered yarn (dark green) and two other leftover yarns.

Colorwork: a little yarn, a big impact

The mittens started with a corrugated ribbed cuff in two colors. Although a little more time-consuming to knit (simultaneously working a different yarn in each hand), the corrugated ribbing shows off two contrasting colors, provides texture, and adds a colorful detail to the mittens.

Three-color mittens with a corrugated ribbed cuff, and stranded colorwork.

With a few rounds knit after the thumb gusset, I introduced the white yarn with stranded colorwork in a geometric pattern. This ditsy design makes the most out of a small amount of yarn, is gender-neutral, and the pattern—with a 4-stitch repeat—divided evenly into the 32 stitches I had on the needles. It was a fun challenge to see how far the reclaimed and leftover yarns could go. 

 A new story

The yarn had a story prior to knitting these new mittens, and now it’s carrying that story forward into a new one. While participating in September Textile Love this month, the Day 4 prompt was “Story-telling.” Several of the participants cited that part of the story of any textile piece is the story and meanings contained in the materials themselves—the breed of sheep from which the yarn is spun, the country that raises the animals or grows the fibers, the people that weave the cloth. Another chapter to that story is where the maker purchased the materials or how they came upon having them—while on a trip, on holiday, gifted from a friend, a thrift store find, etc. So many layers to its story! 

Remaining yarn after knitting the mittens.

The story continues

Perhaps one of my favorite things about stash buster projects is that nothing really has to be the end of the road. A project can be unraveled, re-cut, reimagined, and made into something entirely new.

There’s still a little yarn left over from making these mittens. So apparently, this story isn’t quite finished yet!