Question about auto thread cut machines
 

I'm wondering how much of a thread trail is left after the machine cuts the thread. If one is quilting in the center of the quilt and wants to bury the thread ends is there enough to do that? my new machine will have an automatic thread cutter and there are times when one would want some thread tail.
I'm also wondering how it cuts the thread in the center of the quilt, such as if one is free motion quilting, without knowing how it's done it seems like it would cut the fabric too.
Thanks

I can only speak for my Brother VQ3000, but the automatic cutter leaves thread tails that are about 3/4" long, definitely not enough to bury easily. When FMQ'ing, I pull up the bobbin thread and hand-cut them. Then all my tails are on top, easy to keep out of other quilting and easy to find when it's time to bury them.

No problem with automatic cutting--it does it inside the bobbin housing, so there's no danger to your fabric.

I don't think it would work the way you want in the center of a quilt. I use the auto thread cutter a lot when piecing, but it doesn't leave any tail of the bobbin thread at all. It would cut the top thread underneath the quilt, so that would work okay, but you'd have no bobbin thread at all to tie it off.

I don't think that any of the auto cutters leaves much of a tail.

I never use the thread cutter when quilting. I bring both threads to the top of my quilt and then bury them with a needle. otherwise I would have all these little whiskers all over my top which are too small to bury. :)

on my machine that cuts thread, it cuts it under in the bobbin case.

If you want to bury the thread then I would recommend that you bring the bobbin thread to the top and cut both threads with scissors. I sew locking stitches and cut with the automatic cutter. At the end, I make one path with scissors and trim off the little whisps.

I have a Brother 1500 and the auto cutter leaves about 1/4" lengths of top and bobbin thread. It's fantastic to use when paper piecing, saves a lot of thread. I use it for quilting too. I turn the stitch length to 0 for the last few stitches and then auto cut. It's easy to snip the tails so they won't show. I have won Viewer's Choice in several local shows so I don't care if the judges like it or not.

It depends on the machine but I know that mine has a setting where you can turn off this feature if you want

My Elna has a button that you hit for it to auto-cut. I find I don't use it much--I tend to string piece as much as possible and I also don't like the way there seems to be a little nest on the start up of the next piece after I auto-cut.