I am quilting a quilt with alternate rail fence blocks and squares. The mother asked for sid around the blocks. She would like the rail fence blocks quilted sid. I will pull up the bobbin thread to start, but how is the neatest way to end at the end of each small strip?

I always pull up my bobbin thread, tie the threads in a knot and bury the knots just as though I was hand quilting the quilt. Having a "self-threading" needle makes this job much easier and faster! I have a long arm and this is how I choose to do it because I don't like the look of going back and forth over my starts and stops.

I just stitch closer together real tight stitches for the last four or five and they lock so tight the don't come undone. But that is on a long arm. I think you can do the same on a short arm. I start the stitches the same way, real close and tight for about 5 stitches, and it looks uniform even when repeated all over the quilt.

I do this the same way on my regular sewing machines. Works fine.
Marilyn

I try to stop as little as possible to avoid having a bunch of ends to tie off and bury after. I will even go over the same line twice if needed to keep going in a continuous line.