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).

This was helpful to me too as I have not done any FMQ for over 25 years--lost my old Elna in a fire--and lost heart, I guess--so will be trying this when my new (old!) Viking comes!

I do this also and make a couple of stitches forward and back, then take off.

Thanks

I like to pull my bobbin thread up to the top of the quilt before starting. I pull enough of both upper and lower thread so that I can slip the threads into a quick thread "cheater" needle and burry them when I've finished. I have had advise to just take a few stitches in one place before starting and then snip the tails, but I'm becoming more and more of the opinion that those little "blobs" of thread are messy looking.

This is what I do.

That's what I do do, just don't go over the same spot repeatedly unless it's near the edge and will get covered with binding - otherwise you'll end up with a 'nubbin' of thread that will be quite obvious. If you don't pull up the bobbin thread and clip them both as soon as you sew far enough away, you might end up quilting over them, and that's hard to get out! Ask me how I know!! :)

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.[/quote]

Wish I had known to do this when quilting my GD's quilt for Christmas. I wound up with several "rat's nests" on the bottom. Of course' the top thread kept breaking which didn't help. It was the first quilt I had ever quilted and I wasn't happy with it. I'm going to have her send it back and redo it. It got the the stage where finished was better than perfect. :)

I recently purchased some spiral eye needles to make it easy to bury the threads. Here's a link:

http://www.spiraleyeneedles.com/Needles.html

You don't need to put the thread through an eye -- so the needles might not be secure enough for a lot of stitching -- but they work really well for this application. You can easily do both threads at the same time.

After watching Leah Day's video on this, I bought some "self-threading" needles at Joann's - they are not expensive - and I just love them and this method of hiding tails!

I can't express how much I keep learning on this board!!! This is a perfect example. So far I only hand quilt & do SID on my machine. Yet this will make my SID quilts look much better! Thanks every one!

Well I spent the las t two days developing my FMQ skills on a couple small projects that are just for me. One is a small wall hanging and I have it finished. The other is a lap quilt and I have it half done. It turned out to be quite a challenge because it is made out of plush fabric, and it is actually very difficult to move the fabric around. However, I am half way there. I want to thank everyone one on this board for all the wonderful tips and advice. I couldn't have done it without you. When I get this one done. I think I will have the courage to do an "important" quilt. :-D

i think Leah Day shows a way to use a cheater needle to tuck the thread in the quilt , that is what i do

Lots of people sew very small stitches to begin with, and then cut the tails off. They enlarge their stitches after the initial start. I have a tendency to finish the tails off by hand, just as the hand quilters do, by hiding them inside the wadding. I may be making extra work for myself but I prefer that finished result.

I hate to be dumb but what is FMQ?

Oh Duh I figured it out already. Never mind

Me to my machine does a knot st to start and to stop.... I just cut and go BUT firsr I draw up the bobbin thread to the top then do a few sts in the same place and clip and go...

I pull the bobbin to the do a couple of stitchs and I'm off and running.

Me too. This is what I was taught for LA quilting and what I do on my Janome. If you get too carried away with things, however, you will make an unsightly lump. I know people who use a self threading needle to hide the ends as they go along. Your quilt, your decision, but best if you do attach the thread ends one way or another.