First off, for some reason Amazon has this set listed twice, one that ships from Amazon and the other ships directly from ThreadArt. Each listing has their own reviews. I had mine ship directly from ThreadArt which took about a week. I bought this set as my starter threads, thinking I would upgrade to better quality threads once I get the hang of the embroidery. I have made several projects with this set and could not be happier. As you can see from the pictures, the threads are lustrous and all the colors are vibrant. The threads themselves are very slippery and want to unravel from the spool which often caused the thread to get caught between the spool and the spool holder on my machine. This problem was solved by using a separate vertical spool holder. I did have few breaks or shreds with these threads (I would say every other project, depending on complexity). So when I was low on black and white I decided to buy Madeira and Isacord replacements and compare the brands. The ThreadArt threads are actually the shiniest of the three brands, Isacord being the dullest. The major difference I noticed are the spools and how threads sit on them. Both Madeira and Isacord spools are much better quality and the threads do not slip off of them as easily as the ThreadArt ones do. Both Madeira and Isacord spools have a thread lock so that threads don't unravel while stored, I ended up putting a net mesh over the ThreadArt ones to prevent the unraveling. But as far as the quality of sewing, I did not see any difference. In fact the black Madeira thread shredded on me during the test, causing sparse stitches. I really do love the luster of ThreadArt and will buy these again despite the inconveniences. One thing to note, although these are ThreadArt threads, they are labeled with Brother numbers, so to replace exact same color from ThreadArt individually, you need to convert the number to ThreadArt (they have a conversion chart on their website).

This is the only embroidery thread I have used since I am new to embroidery. I ordered it when I ordered my machine.. I read several reviews about it so I used the thread spoo/l net that came with my machine. I have not had any problems with the thread
breaking or tangling. My only complaint is that there are several of almost the exact same color.. Which when purchasing this you don't really know what colors you are getting.. So here is a list:

7 different shades of Gold
1 bright yellow
1 white
3 different shades of hot pink
1 light pink
1 lavender
2 shades of purple
2 shades of teal
1 red
1 burgundy
3 shades of green
2 shades of silver
4 shades of brown
1 black
1 dark navy blue
1 light blue
2 shades of light green
2 shades of khaki
1 salem
2 shades of royal blue (almost same)

Being a neophyte to machine embroidery I was nervous about buying thread with such mixed reviews. I was concerned that my limited skills needed as few barriers to success as possible. That said, each time I did the math, the cost of competing thread was triple. So I did some research, read the other reviews & discovered:

1. Shiny polyester thread is silky and slick. That's why it's so pretty on your shirt & also why it's slippery on the spool. You need a thread net to keep it on the spool. My new Singer Futura Quartet came with 2 thread nets and directions that you need to use them for embroidery thread. I spread the nets open and slid them on each spool (up from the bottom) before I put the thread on the machine. This works great. The thread comes off like a charm & doesn't unwind all over the place.

2. You MUST remove the spool cap before using the spool on your machine. Once I forgot to do this & the thread broke repeatedly. I take the cap off and stick it on my bobbin winder to hold it till I'm done with sewing.

3. Every embroidery expert talks about the fact that small spools of thread will tend tangle (or stay curled) if you don't give them time to unwind. If you give the thread a longer path to unwind before they through your machine the thread will work better. I've bought a Dritz cone thread holder as recommended; however, I've not used it as the thread nets solved ALL my problems from day one.

4. Threadnet has a conversion chart available on their website. Thus, no worries about which thread color to pick...

If your interested, there's a you tube video showing how to make your own thread nets by recycling your support hose. I've not tried that, instead, I use the same net for each spool as I put it on the machine. For storage, I slap a piece of scotch tape over the loose end of the thread so it doesn't unravel during storage. Again, you can't beat the price. No one has questioned the quality of the thread. I just followed Singers recommendation and used a thread net.

Thanks to the great folks at Amazon I'm no longer angry. The Thread set I received was exactly like the negative reviews I read. You can not use that thread on those spools on any machine. I tried three. I did rewind the spools onto bobbins. Just throw the spool on the floor to let it unwind by itself. Hold the thread and wind the bobbin by hand. There is a twist when the manufacturer originally wound them when it gets too tight it snaps and makes quite a mess. They very well may have made some attempt to relieve the situation by putting a cap on one end of the spool. You would never know it. I didn't notice the twist till I dropped a spool and decided I would let it feed off the floor instead of on the machine spindle. After winding about 20 feet the little critter jumps right into your lap.
On the plus side this is extraordinarily beautiful, strong thread. If you are going to do hand embroidery go for it. If you are going to use a machine ask yourself if the price warrants the hassle.
update:
The bobbins I wound are fine till I needed a color and didn't have any empty bobbins. My daughter suggested I purchase a thread holder. I will when I find one I want. Until then I've placed the spool in a tall narrow glass and periodically check on it. Seems to unwind quite efficiently that way. I've used it on several projects and am very impressed with the quality and color. The price is worth the effort for me. I will order it again if it is available. It is a top quality product at a very reasonable price.

These threads made a decent starter set. They're relatively inexpensive and you get a fair number of colors so you can buy larger spools of the ones you need more often.

I did have a few issues with the spools themselves but found easy workarounds (or maybe it's just standard practice, I'm very new at this).

-Needles breaking because the thread comes off and twists around the spool holder: To fix this I pointed the spool so the top faced the feeding direction horizontally. My machine also allowed me to put the spool at a (very slight) angle upwards. This seemed to help prevent a lot of the needle breaks.

-The sticker on the top was annoying. It either kept coming off or I had to crease it so far in I couldn't read the number anymore. I finally ended up just using a sharpie to write the number on and removed the sticker altogether.

-Several of the spools didn't lock entirely. One side locks but the other side will just pop right back open again. Most the time the part that locks will keep the tread in place for the most part, but it isn't as sturdy.

Overall though, these are small annoyances. To my inexperienced eye, the threads seem to be of acceptable quality and (like I said before) this has been a good starter set. I'd recommend it to a friend and will likely buy at least one other set in the future.

One slight request would be to include the specific color numbers included the description of each set. This would make it easier to decide which set to buy next.