The only place I reverse stitch is on the borders or whatever pieces will be on the outside edge of the quilt. That way if it is pulled while I am quilting or putting on the frame I do not have any areas that come undone. The rest is held together when the blocks are put together.

I lock both at the beginning and end. Yes, it is a pain if I have to rip out a seam. But I like the sturdiness of locking the seam.

I do most of the time only because I can not seem to break the habbit! I do not think it is necessary but did it for so may years I seem to be on auto!! LOL

I only backstitch when putting the top together and getting ready for quilting.

Thank you for all such great tips.

I have a clearer idea now on when to and when not to backstitch.

Right now I'm doing 5" I Spy quilt combining prints with white 5" charms. It will be a full size quilt. I got two sets of 50 5" charms ea. at the quilt shop. For the rest of the charms, I'm using my own stash to hunt for fabrics with I Spy prints. This is really fun.

No I do not reverse stitch and have never had any problems

Same here - got lazy on one quilt and didn't do this. Paid the price.

Total waste of time for me. I use a smaller stitch than default and chain stitch my blocks. When the quilt top is all together I staystitch the outside edge to reduce any chance of stretching or seams pulling loose.

I was told to set my stitch length at 2 by a well known quilter, so doing this you do not need to back stitch at either the beginning or the ending.

Pat in MN

I don't backstitch during piecing but I just put a binding on today and took a couple of bs's at the beginning, end, and corners of the binding. I don't find the blocks come apart so I'm ok with the way I do it.