ruby2shoes

I'm about to start quilting a pattern (walking foot) that requires a gazillion, gazillion arcs, each one being started and finished at a point in the quilt body......not "off the edge". So I need a method for securing all my start stop ends that isn't going to drive me to despair! I have done a search on previous posts and it seems that many of you secure your ends by simply doing a few stitches at length "0" at the beginning and the end and then just snipping the threads. This appeals to me as being a lot quicker than pulling my thread through, knotting and then burying the ends for each arc. Would this method survive on a quilt that is going to be used as a throw quilt and therefore pummeled about a bit?

newbee3

yes it will

Prism99

I agree that it will be secure. Instead of 0, though, I use a tiny stitch (such as .03). It is just as secure without thread buildup. Just 3 or at most 4 tiny stitches are enough.

ruby2shoes

Thankyou both...appreciated.

cashs_mom

I also use that method. I do most of my quilting on my Bernina and it actually has a stitch to secure the ends. It works great.

Jingle

I go back and forth a few times, start and finish. It holds up on the quilts I keep for myself.

RJLinkletter

I'm just going to jump in here - should all machines do a stitch length of 0? On my brother the smallest I can get it to I think is 0.2. I've made a few small pieces recently where I just forward/reversed a few times for the quilting

Prism99

Your Brother probably has a slight misadjustment. A stitch length of 0 simply means the feed dogs don’t move at all. The feed dogs on your machine are still moving a little.

joanneg

My Bernina has a stitich to secure the end (the scissor icon, right?) but does it also have a stitch to secure at the beginning? I would love to know. Thank you in advance.

Mkotch

For quilts that will get hard use and be washed a lot, I start a few stitches ahead of the beginning of the line, pull both threads up to the top, back stitch those few stitches, then start stitching. I backstitch at the end of the line, too.