how to bury knots when machine quilting

Due to several requests, I decided to write up a little tutorial on how to bury your knots when machine quilting. I've only been doing this for two weeks, but I do love how tidy it looks and how beautifully finished the starts and stops are. Here's one way to do it.

To start, thread your machine and pull your bobbin thread up. Pull both threads to the side.

Insert your fabric sandwich.

Insert the needle into your quilt sandwich. Your presser foot should be up at this time.

Now, you want to pull the bobbin thread up and through to the top of your fabric. To do this, put the needle down and bring it back up. Turn the wheel on the side of your machine back and forth by hand a bit while gently tugging on the top thread until you see a loop appear.

Use a stitch ripper to catch the loop and pull the end through to the top.

 Both threads should be on top of your quilt sandwich at this point.

Put the needle down into the quilt sandwich in the same exact spot that you pulled the bobbin thread through. Hold both threads to the side, put your presser foot down and start quilting.

 Once you are a few inches away from the starting point, you should have enough room to bury your knot.

 Tie a small knot using both of the thread tails.

Thread your tails onto a needle (a self threading needle works very well) and insert the needle into the same hole where the knot is, or just behind it.

Run the needle inside the layers of your quilt sandwich. It is a good idea to double check the back side to make sure your threads aren't visible there. Push the needle to the front of your quilt about an inch away from your starting point.

Pull your thread ends through and give them a gentle tug. Make sure the knot pops below the surface of the fabric. Use a scissors to trim the tails.

 Your starting point should look neat and tidy on both the front and the back! Isn't that slick?

That's all fine and well...but what do you do when you run out of bobbin in the middle of a quilt and you don't have much of a thread tail to work with? The photo below shows this. There is only about 1" of thread left.

In this instance, I like to flip my quilt over and work from the back side of the quilt. There is only about 1" of thread there, too.

So, I use my stitch ripper and gently take out a few stitches-just enough to give me some decent thread tails to work with.

Tie a knot. (You will notice that I had to tie the knot just above the thread on the right...you don't want to tie it off in the middle of the two threads or the knot will sit right on top of the fabric and it will be hard to bury.)

Thread the needle....

and once again, insert it through the same hole that your knot is coming from.

Run the threads through the layers and to the side a bit. Give the threads a tug until the knot disappears under the surface of the fabric. Trim the ends. The knot should be completely hidden. To start quilting again, flip the quilt over and begin in the very same stitch where you ended. Hurray for seamless starts and stops!

I hope that all makes sense! If you give it a try, I'd love to hear about it. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them in the comments.