Thank you everyone for sharing your techniques... really gives me some things to try.. and some things to worry about on a quilt I donated a few weeks ago :D But I guess live and learn

If it is stitch in the ditch I backstitch and the forward stitch a little. don't think it is unsightly if done carefully and you don't go back too far. For free motion quilting, like echo stitching I bring the thread to the backside and hand knot it. Maybe because I don't know another method. It works.

This is the way I do mine also. However, if I can start at the edge then I don't have to bury the threads because they will be caught in the binding.

I'm a knot and bury kind of girl, too. I do it at night while watching TV.

I bury the knots, too, mostly because my attempts at doing it the other way didn't look good. But - as a cautionary tale - the last time I did this, my design called for a LOT of knots. Unfortunately, I stupidly pulled each knot tight using the fingernail of my thumb and the side of my index finger. When the quilt was done, I noticed that part of the thumbnail was suspiciously white and sure enough, the nail had lifted up from the nail bed after all those pulls. I had to cut it back halfway down my thumb, which looked pretty weird, and carefully monitor it as it grew back in. Every time it didn't adhere, I had to clip it back to where it did. Months later, I finally had a normal nail. You might say I won't do it quite the same way again.

Hoping this helps someone,
Charlotte