Thursday, January 7, 2010

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.

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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.


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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.


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Step Four:

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


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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.

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Here's the finished front:


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


5 comments:

Julie @ Jaybird Quilts said...

thanks for sharing.. i have never tied a quilt & wouldn't have known where to start!

a good yarn said...

Firstly, I really like the picture for your blog header. Neat! I've never tied a quilt but I can understand why your grandma didn't try to quilt postage stamp quilts. Those seams! I never used Minkee so I don't know what it's like to sew but your quilt looks terrific. The little red crosses inside the stars are really cute. Happy Stitching, Ann :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Christine,
I've always read your blog on APQ and enjoyed seeing your beautiful projects. I'm glad that I'll still be able to follow you here!
Gail

canuckquilter said...

Thanks for the link to the surgeon's knot video. I tied a couple of small quilts last year, but the ties are all coming undone. I'll try this knot and hopefully they'll stay put this time.
-Joanne

Beth said...

Great tutorial. love that quilt. Beth