Playing with Isacord

I dropped in my LQS on Friday, kind of hoping to find Isacord thread or some reasonable substitute.  Imagine my surprise when they actually had Isacord in stock!  (And in a wide selection of colors!).  I picked up a couple of spools of plain ole' white and yesterday morning pulled them out, made a quickie quilt sandwich and set to playing.

Now...let me start by saying in the past I have FMQd with Gutermann 100% Cotton (tons of breakage, had to rip it all out of the quilt and start all over again with something different; great for straight line...but no good for FMQ); Gutermann Viscose (great on small project, haven't tried on anything larger, no breakage on the small project); and then did a quilt with Mettler Metrosene (I did have a small amount of breakage, but nothing extreme).  I would probably like to try the viscose on something larger, just to see how it does, and would use Mettler Metrosene again.  I have not tried FMQing with Aurifil, and may not (except in a pinch) after trying Isacord.  The thread was very smooth, had zero breakage, and my machine didn't complain!

A closer look (first thing I did was write my name, because it's just fun to be able to quilt my name...or something like that):

This was my first attempt at anything beyond a standard stipple...I'm so excited! I also attempted some arcs at the top of the piece (which you can see in the first pic) because I plan on doing that on a quilt that I have basted and in standby.  The arcs need some work (they are a bit wonky), but I have some plans to fix some of the wonkiness.

And then I turned it over to the back:

and now I know how important travel stitching is and "completing" shapes.  It may look great on the top, but without "finishing" certain movements, when you flip it over to the back...it's not quite so pretty.  But that's something I can work on and practice.

Most importantly...no rats nests, skipped stitches, or ugly spots where the Isacord thread is concerned.  Now, I have to be 100% clear here, this was a very small piece of testing.  The thread may have been great for a short run, and longer runs may challenge it...we shall see.  So I plan on doing some more practice, and then try it out on a quilt.  Once I've done that I may change my mind.  Again, we shall see.  Until then...time to play!