Margo -

thanks. The history you outlined reinforces my thought process that prescencia hasn't had a presence in the USA as long as superior. Sure prescencia is an old company overseas, but not in USA. Many quilters still haven't heard of prescencia, I know I didn't until recently. The difference in time is slight, only a 4 year difference - but so many women in my local guild has not heard or tried prescencia. Have no idea why this is.

Pat

pigtailpat wrote:
Pat, just to clarify...here is info from the Prescencia catalog:
HISTORY
Presencia Hilaturas, S.A. was founded in 1949 by Brothers Perez-Presencia. For over 50 years, the Presencia and Finca brands have been
available in Europe, South America, and the Yucatan Peninsula. Distribution in the United States began in 2002 by Presencia U.S.A. and
is now handled by Presencia America, a Colonial Needle Company. Presencia®, Finca®, and Fincrochet® are registered trademarks of
Presencia Hilaturas, Valencia, Spain.

And from the Superior Web site:
History
Origins
Superior Threads began in 1998 as an at-home business by husband and wife duo, Bob and Heather Purcell. Superior Threads was started out of the Purcell’s garage, and now spans over a 25,000 sq/ft facility in the red rocks of St. George, Utah.

So...Presencia is a Spanish company that has been around since for 63 years.
Superior is an American company that has only been around for 14 years.

I know that Superior's customer service is amazing, and I really appreciate their efforts to educate their consumers about thread in general. Dr. Bob's lectures are full of valuable information about thread....not just about the Superior brand. I love Superior's products, and use a lot of them, but I also use other brands.

Well done, Pat!

Pat, Your quilt is lovely. I can't wait to see 3, 4 & 5!

Colonial Needle is now the owner of Prescencia Thread, and they are aware of the fact that their distribution is not as widespread as other threads that have been around longer (such as superior). Unlike superior, Colonial Needle will give **free** actual thread charts so that when you order over the internet from one of their suppliers, you can be really sure of the color you are picking. I've been slowly in the process of getting thread charts from superior, since they charge you money for the charts - mostly for masterpiece as that particular line is hard to find in stores. I think King Tut is easier to find locally (not ready yet for my stitching to show in any event)... I believe that with thread charts it is so much more predictable in getting precise color matching for a project. Thread is too expensive today to make a mistake and you're not happy.

Colonial needle's site: http://www.presenciaamerica.com/

best prices on prescencia:

(1) Terri Sontra at purple moose - she has the best prices on the 600 mm spools - but she doesn't carry the larger cones of it

http://www.purplemoosedesigns.com/store.php?cat=27

(2) harriet hargrave - she carries the cones - http://www.harriethargrave.com/Thread-c12/

Hope this helps anyone on prescencia. Don't get me wrong, I love, love masterpiece thread and I have a huge oversize cone of the bisque because I love it so. I have worked extensively with masterpiece for a year, and only recently became aware of prescencia, so I wanted to try that for my next projects. I will likely work with a mix of these two.

Pat

hi Pat, love your quilt! My second quilt wasn't this good looking either. You're doing great!

I've just bought some Presencia thread and am using it in a project for the first time. It is very fine, but seems strong and lint-free. I'm able to use my Janome clear quarter-inch foot and get a fairly consistent good seam allowance because the thread is thin.

I think that the Aurifil, Masterpiece and the Presencia are all great piecing threads.

I got my Presencia thread on the Internet, from a place in a little town (Pahrump, Nevada) near where I grew up. Isnt' it a small world?
kathy

What a great quilt! Prescensia is a thread I've never tried, but will check it out.

Great job ! I like Prescensia thread...clean and smooth in my Bernina 820 and she's a bit fussy !

What a great looking quilt. I have to tell you my second quilt looked nothing as good as that! I hope you niece loves it.

Very nice! I'm sure your niece will love it!!

OK figured out how and here it is. This one is my second quilt ever. Pieced with masterpiece thread. Quilted with hargrave's monofilament thread and her technique in top, prescencia in bobbin - decorative stitching done with mettler silk finish - and almost all (the decorative stitching was done on a 90's singer) done on a 1948 singer 15-91 sewing machine.

I made tons of errors, being on the second one done - but my niece will enjoy it.

I love masterpiece thread, and so far the prescencia is doing great also.

Pat

Hi Pat, this forum does let you post photos. Just scroll down the page when you are posting a reply and click on 'upload attachment', then 'choose file' which allows you to choose something from your computer, then 'add the file' and then finally 'place in line'. Please post photos I would love to see what you have been doing. I was just looking at some Prescencia threads in an online store and wondering what they were like. It looks like they are good to use.

I have used masterpiece 50 weight - it is incredible. I used it for a year in a singer machine - and no lint.

For my current projects (A CW quilt and a charity quilt - I never have more than 2 projects open at a time), I am using prescencia 60 weight. I have heard that with prescencia, because it is just slightly thinner than the 50 weight - it lays more "into" the seam for more precision in piecing. I'm not far enough yet to tell whether this is so.

I can tell you I extensively used prescenia in my last project - which was a monofilament quilt that was quilted via Harriet Hargrave's technique. I used prescencia 60 weight in the bobbin. Prescencia and the monofilament together worked really well. If this forum lets me posts photos - I will post a photo of the finished quilt [only second one done ever].

Pat

I like Masterpiece--the two ply version--I haven't tried the three ply version yet-- and Aurifil because they are fine cotton threads. If you use polyester threads, be careful about the heat of the iron during pressing seams as you don't want to melt the thread!