feline fanatic

It is true. I took a class with Karen several years ago and she does not bury threads, not even on her show quilts. She usually tries to end in the ditch or in some dense Mctavishing fill. No judge has ever called her out on it, at least not as of 2011. I don't believe Green Fairy does either and a quilt she did won a first in its category at Paducah. So I feel if you can effectively hide your starts and stops it isn't necessary, not even on a show quilt. I rarely knot and bury unless I am hand quilting. But I have not entered a major national show. I have entered local shows.

Bree123

I think I do something similar to soccertxi.

I always keep one regular, big eye needle threaded with embroidery floss (or 28wt quilting thread). Yes, it takes me a while to get that thing threaded, but I only need to thread it once & then I can reuse it over & over & over again.

I put both ends of the floss through the eye of the needle, making a loop. On the back of my quilt, I will insert the needle by the end of my stitching line, about halfway through the quilt. Then, I feed the tail of my quilting line through the loop of the floss. I hold the quilting thread taught & pull the needle through the front of the fabric. As the loop starts to pull through the quilt, I gently hold the thread to ensure it stays relatively straight. And... Voila! My tail is on the top of the quilt!

You can use the same method to bury your threads by just taking the needle with the floss loop & going between the quilt top & the batting instead of all the way through.

I had the same issues with cheater needles shredding my thread. Part of it was my thread (I was using Guterman) & part of it was the needle itself. So I just don't use those needles to bury my knots anymore. Every once in a while the floss will come unthreaded from the needle, but that's rare. Still, if you have a helper to get those needles threaded, you might want to ask them to thread a half dozen so you have extras when you need them. Just make sure to use a generous length of floss. Too much is better than too little.

MadQuilter

Microstitches for me as well. I have a hard time getting things finished as is. If I had to bury the threads I would never finish anything.

Melanie Rudy

I use micro stitches and I am also fortunate that my machine has a thread cutter, so it pulls the upper thread to the back of the quilt and trims it nicely. Sometimes I trim it shorter after that. I don't worry too much about hiding it anymore than that. Maybe an excuse for you to get a new sewing machine

dizedd

Melanie, I've bought 3 "new" [2 were used] sewing machines since I started sewing in October of last year. I think my "new" Janome MC1000 will just have to stay awesome enough for now

I didn't realize that the auto thead cutter pulls the top thread to the back! That's great to keep in my mind. I just push a button and things happen, I don't have enough experience with non computerized machines to know exactly what is going on and why. I think my questions are the local sewing machine dealers favorite, because they are just ridiculous sometimes.

Thanks so much to everyone for the detailed advice. Soccertxi your pics were fabulous! It's great to know that even some show quilters hate burying threads as much as I do.

Maureen NJ

Thanks for the pictures and tutorial. Great idea!

joe'smom

It took me some time to get used to the cheater needle, but now I don't have trouble with it.

soccertxi, thanks for the tutorial! I will try that on my next short thread.

Taughtby Grandma

I use the needle with a bigger eye, that way both threads are easier to get through the eye. I only just started this on the last few quilts I've made. (Hadn't tried it before) Now I have twp small magnets on the top of my longarm that I have my small scissors, the needle and a separate one with Mr. Ripper so they are all handy and don't get in my way when I'm sewing.

annette1952

Micro stitches for me also. I never had a problem with them & it is so much easier & quicker

MargeD

Since the chance that I might put one of my quilts in a show, would be "a high probability of a slim chance", I will shorten my stitches at the beginning of FMQ and again at the end. I also bring my bobbin thread up to the top when I begin stitching of any type, a habit which makes for fewer nests of bobbin thread and makes it easier to clip off the threads, so I know where they are. Congratulations on becoming a new quilter. When I began quilting 25+ years ago, I learned mainly through books and the one quilt show available at the time with Georgia Bonesteel, so although I was able to take quilting classes later on, I'm basically a self-taught quilter. I will say that the number of tutorials on Youtube and other sites has helped me access other types of quilting, and makes me a better quilter today, but they were not available when I began my quilting journey.