When I purchased this machine I was beginning to do a lot of machine quilting. One of the features my 'new' machine needed to have is a 'lock stitch'. It is invaluable when machine quilting to do all those little bitty stitches with just a press of a button!

When piecing, I never backstitch when I start & stop. I figure all seams will be stitched across at some point.

Good question!

I go two stitches forward, two stitches back and then sew my pieces together. I have also heard it is not necessary to do any stitching to secure your pieces. I don't want to have it all pieced together and ready for the longarm quilter and find a seam starting to come undone.
Sid

I do like Jennifer does. @:)

Sharon

When piecing I never back stitch or anything. I do use a fairly short stitch length at all times (12-15 stitches per inch). The only exceptions are the final borders--I do backstitch those. Every other seam in the quilt will have been crossed by another seam, so backstitching only adds extra bulk without adding strength. I've had a machine quilting business and the only time I've ever had problems with seams failing is when the stitch length was too long.

The accepted method for starting and ending machine quilting is this:
1) Pull the bobbin thread to the surface of the quilt and hold both top and bottom threads firmly.

2) Make a 1/4" long row of stitching in very tiny stitches, then go ahead and begin stitching at your regular stitch length.

3) After a couple of inches, snip the thread tails close to the surface of the quilt.

I don't backstitch when I piece. Those 1/4" are going to be bound in some other kind of seam -- either the next block or the binding. So I don't worry about them.

If I'm quilting I take a couple stitches in place before heading out.

I don't backstitch when I piecing either. And I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know you were suppose to do that when you put your quilts together. It's funny but my quilting friend never mentioned it, nor did any of the several books I've read. Yikes.

This is way I love this forum! It makes such good sense to backstitch so things don't fall apart, but with all the others things I'm learning I guess the most obvious just slip through the cracks!

Susan

I do like damascusnnie does.

Perhaps it is a tension issue for me or perhaps, as was mentioned, the stitch length is too long. My machine just has #s---1 to 5--- for the length. I keep the dial between 2 and 3 when piecing--don't know how many stitches that is per inch, but I'm going to measure it tonight to find out. When I join rows of blocks together, I have to backstitch at the start/end of rows. If I don't, the seam starts to come apart.

Damascusannie, it's nice to see you posting again.

~Geraldine

Susan- Backstitching is the established way to start and end seams when making garments. Garments are subjected to a lot more movement with the body and also a lot more stress in laundering.

Hi Geraldine--it's nice to be back!

I never backstitch when piecing - like most of the others have commented here I feel comfortable knowing that another seam will cross it at some point in the piecing and that's good enough. I have quilts that are 20 years old, get washed regularly and have never had a seam come apart so i guess it works.

When quilting I use the locking stitch on my machine when ending a line of stitching. Or sometimes I just end it and clip the threads. It really depends on how much quilting I'm doing because I figure if there's lots of stitches going on they won't pull lose anyway. And I don't want the extra bulk of a locked stitch.

Kate

I do as Damascusannie also. I know that all the seams will be crossed when the blocks are put together and I set my stitch length at 2.0.
Linda OH

I always use a sm. st.length and if I do anything I use the lock st. My new machine has a great feature where I can program the lock st. with an automatic pivit option which I have only recently started to use. I find it more useful then I thought I would. I always bring the back thread to the top when quilting. Saves the mess on the back. Jayne

I do pretty much as Damascusannie does while piecing. I don't backstitch at all except on borders.

Having won a block lotto, I have seen blocks from many of you, and if I may make a suggestion (not trying to offend anyone!), some of you use a much longer stitch length than really works for piecing. Those piecing seams should have a very short stitch length. That will keep the pieces in place until the seams are crossed with another row of stitching. I use about 15/inch.

Another advantage to shorter stitch lengths is that the seams are much less likely to gap during pressing and you won't get those annoying threads showing in the seam lines. If I have my tension set properly and use a short stitch length, I can use white thread to piece black and darks and not have any trouble with the seam stitches showing. I use white or off-white thread for about 90% of my piecing, so this is really important to me.