How to Tie a Quilt

I'm so thankful for all the tutorials out there that have helped my along my way. Here's my tutorial from my last blog about how to tie a quilt.

My great grandma tied most of her quilts. I suspect that after hand piecing everything (she made a lot of postage stamp quilts) that she didn't feel like hand quilting. I was nervous to machine quilt the Minkee fabric I bought for the backing. Its so slippery and I didn't want to skew the dots, so I decided to do something different than my usual and give tying a try.

Step one:

Layer the batting, quilt top (face up), and then the backing (face down). Sew a quarter inch around the edge of the quilt top, batting, and backing and leave an open section to flip the quilt right side up like you were sewing a pillow. Hand sew the open area closed.

Step Two:

Start in the middle of the quilt and thread a needle with yarn or embroidery thread. I use a light weight cotton yarn. Make a small ~1/4 inch stitch through all three layers and then move to the next spot (no greater than 6" away) leaving a tail of yarn.

It was tricky pulling the needles through all three layers so I put some duck tape on my thumb to assist. Yet another use for duck tape!!

Step Three:

Cut the yarn between then stitches.

Step Four:

Tie a surgeon's knot. I found this youtube video very helpful.

Step Five:

Cut off the excess yarn. Leave at least a 3/4" tail. You're done!

Here's the back with no disruption of the minkee dot.

Here's the finished front:

It is soooo soft and snuggly with the Minkee backing! An instant kitty favorite. Happy Quilting :)