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Quilt layers can be held together by several methods:
using sewing lines to create various patterns in the quilt top, either by
hand or machine; and tying knots in strategic places on the quilt top. There
are several various methods of tying a quilt: "sewing" a knot along the pattern
lines of your top; creating a geometric pattern with your knots; or making a grid
pattern with your knots. You can use various materials, such as thread, yarn,
or embroidery floss in the knots.
Tying your quilt is a very quick, creative method of
finishing it. The following hints have been compliled from many
contributors who are members of various quilting listserves. I hope
these hints will be helpful to you!
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- Use 3 strands of embroidery floss. Be sure to get embroidery
needles with eyes that will comfortably accomodate the floss, but are
sharp. The rounded tips of most cmbroidery needles punch holes in the
fabric if you can get it through at all. Also very important, have LOTS
of needle threaders. In the end, I did a knot every three inches or so
because that's how I liked it on the pattern and I left about 1/2 inch
tails on the knots. With the first quilt, they were probably 6 inches
apart. The pattern was a roman gate with four strong colors of earthy
greens and browns and one beige. I used four differnt colors of floss
to blend with each strip. It was a very subtle effect and I like to
think that going to the trouble of matching the floss was one of the
ways to make the quilt a very personal thing and to show the extra flair
of attention to detail. Especially since the quilt was such a simple
pattern. Also, if your're wondering about how the different flosses
look in the back, I had a dark green print on the back that at least two
of the flosses contrasted with. However, the visible thread on the back
was pretty small, the largest I found was probably less than 1/4 inch.
Then when you tie it in a nice knot, the fabric puckers slightly around
the stitch on the back and becomes even less noticable. As for straight
lines, I had some variance to the lines I created because I placed the
knots by measuring each block, not by griding out the whole thing. This
was certainly not noticable on the front probably because of the colors
blending so well. As for the back, if you had laid down a ruler there
might have been some variance, but again it wasn't noticable. I think
the slight pucker from the tie helped with that. Probably if you are
doing something with a lot of people with varying standards of
exactitude you should mark it ahead of time with masking tape (I love
the 1/4 inch stuff) or tailor's chalk. As for the actual knot, I used
double granny knots (I think that's what they're called).
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I've made a lot of tied baby quilts, but not a big one. However,
I think the same considerations apply. I've added my comments below,
after each question. I'm sure you'll get lots of advice!
Q: "I have
a couple of questions about the final stages of a to-be-tied quilt that
my husband & I are making. It's a double Irish chain in nautical blue,
a coordinating print on ivory, and muslin as the 'empty' blocks in
between the chains. We're planning to tie it, but would like to make
that as unobtrusive as possible. 1. I was thinking about using matching
blue DMC on the chains themselves, but then using ivory to tie within
the muslin blocks so that error in lining up the ties wouldn't be as
obvious. Is this okay, or will it look funny? (The back is a multi-
hued blue and gray waves sorta design--no ivory.)"
A: Go ahead and use two colors if you want. It will look
fine.
Q: "2. This is a "group" gift to a woman at work, so several
people will be helping (I hope!) with the tying. It's queen-sized, and
we have a big open spaces to spread it out in to baste the layers
together in, but how much/where should it be basted?"
A: I don't bother basting a tied quilt--I just pin it. I put the
pins exactly where I want the ties, and remove them as I tie. This
might be a problem if you don't get it all done at once, because some of
the pins might fall out if you fold it. You could use safety pins,
although I tried that once and stuck myself and ended up bleeding on the
quilt! I *do* baste all around the outside edge, about 1/4 inch from
the edge. I find this makes it much easier to trim the layers together
and to stitch on the binding.
Q: "3. How many people is a resonable number to have tying the
wuilt at the same time? Several people have told me, 'well, I haven't
ever sewn/done anything like this before...' and I've told them that's
okay, I haven't tied a quilt before either! Am I asking for a headache,
or is it really easy to pick up on?"
A: As always, it depends upon how "handy" the people are. I've
seen 8 people going at a quilt all at once. You get in each other's way
once in a while, but it's still ok. as many as can fit around the table
can help.
Q: "4. What type of batting should we use? ...."
A: I use a thin blanket and that is very easy to handle. It seems
to hold up fine through washing. Different battings have different
recommendations about how close you have to put the ties. I think
needlepunch is about 6 inches, but I've probably gone as much as 8
inches.
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