there must be a better way!!!
 

Aaaagh!

I have spent hours tonight burying threads, and I am still not done! I am doing a small quilt with a quilt pattern on the wholecloth "back", not the pieced "front". It is a complicated design, with overlapping motifs and multiple thread colors (underwater scene with corals and fish and whatnot). I generally prefer not to finish a thread by sewing in place for a few stitches and then cutting it off close to the quilt surface, because I find that I end up with small but noticeable bumps --- which become especially noticeable when you have fifty million of them, because the quilt surface starts to feel like a pillled sweater!

So instead I am tying itty bitty knots, feeding the needle into the sandwich, pulling the knot through, cutting the tail short, and slipping it under with needle.

Is there another way?

Alison-Going-Cross-Eyed

If you're not using a cheater needle already, check out this video by Leah Day:
http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.c...g-threads.html

Instead of sewing in place, I sew 3 to 5 teeny tiny stitches to start and stop. These stitches are maybe 2 to 3 mm long and don't create the "bump" that happens when the stitches are right on top of each other. These tiny stitches are very secure.

Thats the way I do it.. Bury the threads.. and bury them and bury them and so on....

I begin my machine quilting line by taking one stitch, then pulling the bobbin thread to the front before taking 4-5 tiny stitches, then dialing to the regular stitch length.

I end the line of quilting by taking those same 4-5 tiny stitches, lifting the presser foot, moving the quilt out from under the needle 8-10", first cutting the bottom threads under the quilt, THEN cutting the threads on the front/top of the quilt AFTER I've given the bobbin thread a little tug to pull the last bobbin thread stitch thru to the top - it's just a little 'bump' feeling - and then cutting the front threads.

This seems to eliminate thread clumps on the back of the quilt for me.

Jan in VA

Same as JaninVA although I'm not sure I get the bobbin thread up to the top done right.

Also do the same as JaninVA...I was taught not to do the stitching in one place (which is what machines that have a "lockstitch" do). The stitching very small stitches is much more secure, and doesn't make the bumps.

I tried burying threads and did not think it was worth it - especially when I had a lot of starts/stops. I do a method similar to what Jan described.

If you are committed to burying them though, there is a great cheater needle on the market that I recommend. It's not the Clover - that one works by *popping* the thread through a tight gap in the top of the needle, I've broken too many threads with those needles.

Try the "Spiral Eye" needle - they are great! I use them for almost everything now.

http://www.spiraleyeneedles.com/

Sometimes when you can make just one little part of a big chore easier (threading the needles - especially when you are using short threads already connected to the quilt), the whole chore becomes that much easier.

That;s something that a LQS told me recently .. not to use the lockstitch, but to change the stitch length to zero, then do a few stitches in place for less bump.

When you pull the bobbin thread thru to the top, hold the end of both threads taut as you do those first few stitches then continue on. Likewise at the end for the stop point. That way you can keep an eye on all the thread ends.

Then later I sit down and tie the ends off, and bury the threads ... with a good movie, it goes fast!

If the quilt is not for a show, I make several tiny stitches and then hit the thread cutter button and snip the ends to the stitch. If the quilt will be going in a show or will be inspected up close I leave a long tail and bury each one after the third cut. I don't wait to bury all of them at one time.