Hi all, I am new to quilting and have been hand quilting thus far. I would like to use my sewing maching on my next quilt. I am unclear as to how you handle the start and end of the stitching when assembling the blocks. Do you backstitch at each end, or leave the stitching open? Would appreciate any help. Christine

Hi! Good question! I've always thought if there was a chance the blocks could pull apart, go ahead and use a bit of backstitch. When you're assembling the blocks into rows, the rows will lock the stitches into place as you sew along those lengths. Hope this sounds clear to you :D

After sewing a line of stitches, when cutting the thread I don't cut it off at the material, but leave about half an inch of thread and that stops the seam from opening up... Joy

I had been told when first starting not to back stitch, because of old frog, ribbit ribbit, but found when putting my blocks together sometimes seams would come apart and then you have a problem. So have really paid attention to what others said. One lady on Alex Anderson said to make first two or three stitches smaller and stops that, another said to back stitch two or three. But if you are chain stitching, to back stitch at beginning and end of block can be daunting. I like the idea of leaving thread longer, that might work and I am going to try that, thank you. But to me whatever works is best. I found that if you do have to rip it out two or three stitches that are back stitched do not cause a problem. My problem is remembering to back stitch beginning and end of block. I found whatever you start out with and it becomes a habit is hard to break, if I had started out back stitching, I may not have a forgetful problem ha ha. Hope this helps you..

Rita

Great suggestions! The chain piecing problem never dawned on me, I guess I assumed we were connecting blocks and rows. I have heard that anywhere lines of stitching cross they would lock. I think the extra thread "tails" Joy suggested would solve the chain piecing problem rather than all that tacking or changing stitch lengths. Sure would be easier to snip the tails!

Thanks to everyone. I will try your suggestions and figure out what works best for me. Happey quilting to you all.

When chain sewing, I do not backstitch. By decreasing the stitch size you will not have stitches coming apart. I usually use a 1.5-2 stitch length. When taking the pieces to be pressed open, I also steam set the stitches before opening. The only time I backstitch is when putting rows of blocks together.

anchor using a piece of small fabric, frist start your stitching on a small piece of fabric this is called archoring stitch till you,re about to come close to the end of your archoring fabic but up your block and contuine stitching ,but up again and this is called chain stitching .when you finsh sewing your last block put your archor fabric and your ready to start again nellie :D

This is what I do, too, but I set my stitch length at about 2. I do like to backstitch on the seams that touch the edges of the quilt top, because they get more handling in the quilting process.

I started out back stitching because of the type of sewing that I did before learning to quilt. I did find that if you do not stay perfectly on the seam line, the little variations can make your block wonky. I too found that if I leave my threads 1/2 inch long my seams do not come apart and I also use a 2.0 seam length or even smaller when paper piecing.