Hi, I use the "mouse" trick when starting out stitching....a "mouse" is just a scrap piece of fabric that you keep under the presser foot when you don't have your piecework there....when I finish my piecing I just feed a scrap in and leave it under the foot...so when I start up piecing, that scrap holds the thread so it doesn't not nest up.....some folks use scrap pieces cut into sizes that will end up as four patches or nine patches or something that can then be made into a "bonus quilt". I made a scrappy Jacob's ladder quilt out of 3 inch finished nine patches that way...it took a while....but in the end, I had a "bonus queen sized quilt"