I spent many a tedious hour burying threads. Why? I stopped and did the lock in place stitch. It only takes two stitches to lock the thread, one stitch back and one stitch forward. I snip and go on.

When I quit hand quilting many years ago I stopped burying threads. I do a few stitches back and forth then sew on. I do that at the beginning and the end. Never comes out

I was taught to bury my threads when I learned to FMQ so I do...I use the sench needles that GEMRM posted. It doesn’t take that long and I feel they are safe inside the quilt, especially on baby quilts that will get washed time and time again. I don’t tend to do it on table runners ... and I agree it’s personal preference.

If a quilt's going to be used and washed, I usually do back-and-forth stitching at the beginning and end. If I'm doing something for "show" (not very often), I bury threads.

I tie and bury threads that are in the body of the quilt such as individual squares or features. However when I can go from side to side I cover the ends in the binding and do not bother to tie them. So, I suppose I do about half and half.

With the newer machines having thread cutters I'll admit it's easier just to push a button to cut them...however it does leave a tiny knot. I bury mine.

Watson, I bury my threads when I hand quilt, but all the videos and classes I've taken for FMQ shows them lockstitching the ends. I like to do it that way instead.

I never bury my threads. I pull up the threads when I start, take a few stitches very close, and then I'm off. When I stop, I take the same few stitches, pull up my threads, and clip very close. I find that a curved blade scissors works best.

I should also add that I've won many blue ribbons at our county fair with this method...

Judges comment negatively on ending a line of quilting with tiny stitches in major shows. I bury the tails on show quilts and do the tiny stitches on everything else.

I suppose if I were using a plain backing or a bobbin thread that did not match my backing I might, but I find if I match my bobbin thread to my backing and the backing is fairly busy it isn't that obvious. Why do a boring tedious task if I don't need to?