Do You, or Don't You Bury the Threads?
 

Please don't turn me into the quilting police, but I confess that I do not bury my threads when machine quilting. If I have to start a quilting line in the center of the quilt, or if the thread breaks while I'm sewing a line, I just start anew with 10-12 tiny stitches in place, or over the broken thread. I've never had the stitching unravel, or even be noticed in the final product. Is that bad?

I spent many years burying threads. I still prefer to bring them to the back to clip, but mostly now I just start maybe 6 stitches over and clip close... My machine is set so that it does start with a couple tiny stitches.

I think it is a preference and makes no never mind if not for competition. Maybe some of our excellent machine quilters can tell us the current standards/guidelines for a juried piece.

I sew a couple of stitches in place then clip the thread down to the stitching. I don't bury threads anymore when I talked to several ribbon winners at the national shows and this how they do the ends. If using contrasting thread on background it may be better to bury the thread if entering in a show for judging. The newer judges are not quilt police old standards anymore so know who the judges are before sewing to enter.

Lori Kennedy has a method where you make tiny stitches at the beginning and hers look sort of decorative. I just finished 2 quilts where I buried the threads and it was a pain!https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/redface.png
I'm going to try Lori's way.

when I'm quilting I do not bury threads--unless someone is paying me to leave the tails so they can bury! I just take a few stitches (more with "slick" thread like Glide) to hold it and clip close to fabric.

I do. I started out doing it and now I don’t mind. I don’t mind any part of the making a quilt process although I am better at some parts. I quilt for my own pleasure so never have a deadline.

I quilt on a longarm, and 99% of the time I do bury the threads (except of course where the beginning or ending of the line of stitches is off the edge of the top).

I don't bury threads. I will sometimes make a tiny knot and begin over it with tiny stitches and continue on.

I bury threads. I don't have enough control of my machine stitches to do it the other way, and I don't mind burying, as I'm used to it from hand quilting. It's kind of a pleasant ritual to me.