Tips for Burying Threads

Whenever possible, my goal is to start and end my quilting stitches off the edge of my quilt.  But sometimes bobbin thread runs out, thread color needs to change, or portions of your design do not need to be quilted.   The result?  You need to bury threads.

The process can look quite daunting but with the right tools, it is easy!

Let's get started!

As you are quilting, pull the bobbin thread to the front of your quilt - a seam ripper or a pin is all you need to grab that little loop of bobbin thread that pops up as you tug on the top thread.  Leaving bobbin thread on the back of your quilt is just asking for trouble with a big mess of thread!

Tie the two threads together twice to secure the thread.   Trim (if needed) so these threads are roughly 3'' long.

The self threading needle is essential for burying threads. The needle pictured below is from Clover and has a double eye.

There is a very, very thin slit in very top that you can snap your thread into.

 Push your needle part way into the same hole the bobbin thread come to the quilt front.  Push the needle tip about 1/2'' away, making sure you are running the needle through the batting and not  through the quilt back.  Pop your thread pair into the eye of the needle.  Pull through and remove needle.

I like to do each of these steps in batches - popping a whole series of thread pairs through before moving onto the next step.

Pulling slightly on the threads, carefully trim with curved tip scissors.  The curve tips help to protect your quilt top.

Great lighting and a quality lamp is critical.  I love, love my Daylight lamp.

I do my thread burying in bulk, sort of like chain piecing!  I will usually do 5 thread pairs at a time -  tying the 5 sets of knots and then bury the threads for all 5 before finally coming back and trimming off the excess thread.  The only exception is when I need to restart the line of quilting if the bobbin ran out (or a thread breaks.)  For those situations, I will bury and trim those threads before restarting my stitching.  In these cases, you may have to pull out some stitches in order to get thread tails long enough to actually tie.

The self threading needle really makes this process possible so invest in some before you give this a try.

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Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal - October Finish Link-up

Ready to link up your October finishes?

Don't panic - this link-up is open until October 31 at 11:55 pm ET.

My goal for October was to turn my tiny piecing blocks into a quilt top.  I'm well into the quilting stage and can't wait to share a photo of the full quilt finish.  Until then, miles of stitching to go before I am done!

Now its your turn to link-up.

There will be three winners this month - Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate, Quilters Planner is offering a 2020 planner, and Mary Hertel of Made by Marney is offering a copy of her pattern 3 Dogs and 1 Sassy Cat.

Congratulations Sharon, Jan & Lisa - our lucky winners for October.  (updated 11/22)

Visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month. (October Goal Setting Link-up.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can follow where you are linking.   Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - October Finish Link-up

Sign up to receive email notifications when the One Monthly Goal linkup is open.  Think of it as a helpful reminder!  Joining the link-up from Instagram -see the tutorial.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Tiny Piecing Progress

This summer, I had the absolute pleasure to take a class from Chawne Kimber where I absolutely fell in love with tiny piecing.

My technique is to sew together strips of fabric roughly 6'' wide and then subcut them down into my chosen width.

Earlier this month I shared two of the blocks I made from 1'' wide strips.  Making a square spiral was a lot of fun and I love the way it looks from the front and especially from the back!

My quilt top is assembled and I am now in the process of densely quilting with straight-ish lines.  On the left of this photo, they quilting lines are 1/4'' apart.  On the right of this photo, they are 1/2'' apart.

Given that the fabric stripes are 1/8'' apart, I'm thinking the quilting needs to get that dense as well.  Those colorful spirals also hold soooooooooo much fabric that the quilting needs to be dense enough to support it.

But first, I've got a million threads to bury before I go back for another round of stitching.

Have a wonderful day! Patty