Quilt As You Go (QYAG) Thread Trick for a Neater Quilt Back

I've seen many quilt as you go videos where each block is sandwiched and quilted, but it's always bothered me to see anchored back and forth stitching, over-extended stitching past the end of the blocks, or thread nests on the back of the block.

Quilt As You Go Videos

The Sewing Channel has a 1 Hour Quilt As You Go log cabinesque QYAG design where each "log" in the quilt is made of 4" blocks and I got to thinking, when she sews a row, before turning the quilt to sew the next row, she doesn't explain what she's doing with her bobbin thread.  Does her machine have a push-button thread cutter?  Does she have to lift up the quilt to cut the bobbin thread?  The problem with machine thread-cutters is that they leave a little tail that needs to be trimmed.  Even worse, when you start sewing again, unless you hold the tails, you end up with a thread nest on the back.

Here is another quilt as you go log cabin block video tutorial from Tulip Square.


The Thread Trick

Then it occurred to me.  Just like in free motion quilting before you start sewing, you pull up the bobbin thread to the top to prevent a messy quilt back.  At that point, you can either take a few tiny stitches in place to anchor it and then cut the threads, or wait until the end to bury the threads between the layers of the quilt.  So, why not do the same and pull the bobbin thread to the top when making QAYG blocks?  It would make for a much neater back.  BOOM!   Ugly thread problem solved.

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