I have been practicing my FMQ technique and I am now finally ready to take the plunge. Question is what do I do with the tails of the thread where I start and stop? How do i hide these? I'm going to do my first one on a small fun wall hanging that just for me, so I don't ruin anything important. :-D

I knot the ends and bury my knots like you would for hand quilting :D:D:D

Don't call the quilt police on me please? But my machine has an automatic double stitch at the start and then I have a locking stitch. So I just clip them and go..... I would die if I had to knot and hide....

But I have an older Elna....and it was made for quilters....

nope, you first bring the bobbin thread to the top by putting your needle down, then up. take hold of both threads and take a few stitches. then start FMQ and go back when you can make a stop and clip those thread ends close to the quilt top. if you leave the bobbin thread underneath and start FMQ you will end up with a mess.

You have 3 choices: start/stop at the edge where it will be hidden by the binding, machine stitch-in-place (or make 3 tiny stitches) to secure, or hand-bury your stops and starts. Leah Day shows how to make the hand-burying step easier:
http://www.daystyledesigns.com/cheaterneedles.htm

Oh, and no matter which method you choose, you always want to bring the bobbin thread to the top at the beginning and secure it along with your top thread. This will prevent knots and thread nests underneath.

What happens if you just cut them off close to the quilt? I did this once and it seems fine but it has never been washed. Will it all come apart?

Thanks for this tip, I have never heard of a cheater needle, but I will buy one now! :D

you need to secure both the beginning and end of the quilting. Otherwise the stitches will come out. I know this from experience. It will especially happen if you have a more slick thread. Doing a back stitch with contrasting thread will leave a darker area. I do at east one back sitch at start and stop. I will also leave long ends of thread of both bottom and top and thread back into the batting and then clip.

that's the method I use, too.

It might be okay. A lot depends on the size of the quilting stitches, the fiber content of the batting and fabric, stress during washing & drying, etc. I would wash it with the last amount of stress possible, which means using a front-loading washer or using a top-loader with manual agitation (meaning you do not allow the machine to do the agitation for you; you stop the machine and hand agitate by pressing on the quilt. The spin cycles are okay in a top-loader; it's the back-and-forth agitator action that is hard on the quilt).