Thank you for all of your responses! I never thought about changing the size of my stitches. I don't think I have it in me to knot and bury the ends...too lazy and I don't have too much spare time anyway.

Yes, if your machine does't have a lockstitch, take three stitches with your stitch length set to zero at the beginning and end each time. Also bring your bobbin thread up from the bottom each time you start.

I don't backstitch either, I put my finger just in front of my presser foot and start stitching holding the fabric down with my finger so that it barely advances, this causes very tiny stitches at the beginning and I also do the same when I am ending the row. By doing this I don't need to remember to change my stitch length and after a few stitches I just take my finger off.

If you are going to show your quilt, bury your stitches or you will lose points. Since I don't enter my quilts, I do a lockstitch, backstitch or very tiny stitches to start and trim threads.

If it was going to a show or was making it for someone else I would sink into the fabric. For myself and family I have a button to make few stitches on one machine on the other I go go backwards and then forwards a few stitches.
I did one quilt which I made the thread follow the stitch line this was because it was white with a white background and the thread could be seen through the fabric and I was trying to hide.

I'm a knot and bury kind of quilter.

I've not done much machine quilting yet, but I first bring up the bobbin thread and then take a few lockstitches with stitch length set to smallest setting. Then both thread tails are on top, easy to clip, and I don't have to go back and clip the back and try to pull out the thread tail where it got caught in the quilting.

I knot and bury my threads. I usually do it as I go along. If I wait and do the whole quilt the threads get tangled on the back so I do small sections of the quilt in stitching and then pull the top thread to the back, knot and bury the threads. I have a favorite big eyed needle that I use. This method also breaks up my sitting at the machine for too long and eases shoulder, arm and hand strain that I can get when I machine quilt. I also like the way it looks when I'm finished.

Thanks for the reminder! I had forgotten that I have a lot of threads to knot and bury on a king sized quilt where I did SID ... I must do it before I do the FMQ on that quilt. I always knot and bury as I've never found another satisfactory (to me) method of securing the thread ends. I've experimented but not been happy with the results so far.

Knot and bury - knot with machine or by hand prior to burying?