How to Hide Knots on a Quilt

Hide your knots to give your quilt top a neater look.

The best quilting looks absolutely seamless with no beginning and no end. When you look at the work of the best quilters, you should have a hard time deciding where the stitching began and where it ended. Part of the method for creating continuous stitching lines is to hide all the knots that may give away beginning and ending spots. Bury your knots in your work to achieve a smooth look to your quilt top.

Instructions

1. Piece your quilt top of high-quality quilting cotton fabric. This specialty fabric has the correct weave for quilting, with the threads the correct distance apart from each other. Cheaper fabrics such as sheets have a tighter weave, making it more difficult to manipulate the threads.

2. Make the smallest knot possible that still does the job. You don't need to hold anything together with your quilting knot. It simply needs to be large enough to hold up against the gentlest of tugs for two or three stitches. Make the knot by wrapping thread once around the end of your index finger, then rolling the thread loop off the end of your finger. Slide the resulting loop down to the end of the thread strand to complete a small knot.

3. Take a tiny stitch one stitch length before the spot you want your quilt line to begin. Sew only through the top fabric; avoid the batting and backing for this one stitch. Hold the fabric right behind the knot down with your off hand and quickly tug the thread to pop the knot through the fabric.

4. Scratch the fabric around the knot with your fingernail if it doesn't pop through right away. Often pulling on the thread with one hand while scratching around the knot with the other will successfully bury the knot.