nanna-up-north

I do a lot of my quilting on my own sewing machine. I love the way hand quilting looks and I do a few of those but I'm slow so I can't do all my tops by hand. I know many of you send off your tops to be quilted by a long arm person but I really can't afford that..... especially the custom look I like. So, I do my own custom quilting on the machine. But, I really hate having to spend an afternoon clipping all those thread ends on the backside of the quilt. I start my stitching by bringing up the bobbin thread so it's only the bobbin thread at the end that's the problem. And, I always miss a few, it seems.

If I have a lot of starts and stops, like on the quilt I'm doing right now, I need to snip the bobbin thread without taking the entire quilt off the machine. That means I have to reach underneath and snip that thread. Using pointy scissors is a problem...... snip-snip and there's a hole in the underneath!! ARRGH!!

So I had this bright idea..... I'd use the blunt ended scissors I bought for my GGD before she came for a visit this summer. She's 4 and I didn't want her using any of the pointy scissors I have. And, it is a GREAT solution for my snipping underneath problem...... no little holes..... I just run the thread across the blade and it's ready to pull back up for the next line.

Who knew such a simple, cheap tool would work so well for my quilting...... Happy Quilter, here.

NikkiLu

What a great idea! Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us/show us!!!!!

BellaBoo

Blunt school scissors has saved me from snipped fabric many times! They are cheap now with all the stores having back to school sales. I keep a pair on the ironing board too. I think the Fiskar school scissors are sturdier and have better blades then the other brands of school scissors.

slowquilter

I've been using these little scissors for many years. I had accidently sliced through a completed quilt top while attaching a border to the handstitched quilt. Needless to say I was heartsick. I no longer keep these small pointed scissors near my work. My preschool scissors cost very little and no more accidents while cutting bobbin threads.

Lovequilting22

That's a great idea. I'm going to get a couple of pairs tomorrow!

mighty

Great idea, thank you!!!!

JustAbitCrazy

You can also bring up the bobbin thread at the end of your stitching, the same way you do at the beginning, and deal with it from the top. That's what longarmers do.

chislett

Great tip!

ghostrider

Not just longarmers, I do that too. Makes it much easier to bury the knots and hide the tails when done with the quilting. I don't do the start/stop tiny stitching deal, dont like how it looks. Round nose sewing scissors are all I ever use near quilts, never saw a reason to get pointy ones.

nanna-up-north

Thanks for this tip. It's so good to have more than one brain working on a problem..... and I don't like the way the tiny stitching looks at the beginning and end, either.