What does it mean to tie a quilt?

Question

Thank you for your answers, anything will be helpfull. Just trying out a new hobbie.

Answer 1

Instead of have the quilt being "hand quilted" or "machine quilted", you tack it together. A thread comes up and back through on the back side and tied off. This is a quick way to finish a quilt, however, not my favorite.

Be careful....this can become an "addictive" hobby. Have fun!

Answer 2

It is a means of adhereing the top, middle, and bottom layers of a quilt together. You sew down into the quilt and bring up your needle, hand tie a knot, and clip the long thread end. This is repeated in intervals until the whole quilt is tied together. If you don't like this method, you can machine or hand sew the layers together.

Answer 3

It means misuse of terms. Quilts are quilted. A sandwich of top, lining and filling which is tacked or tied at intervals is technically a "comforter" rather than quilt. Close-interval tacking offers adequate stability with modern bonded polyester battings.

Tieing may be done with yarn or with crochet cotton or with narrow ribbon. Tacking may also be done with buttons on each side, both for stability and for novelty.

Answer 4

It means taking yarn and evenly tying the quiilt. Take all three layer, backing,batting and top and draw the yarn through one side and out the other coming back to the top and tyiing the two strings together. This gives the quilt a different look.

Answer 5

The others are right about tying. You may be interested to know that people used to tie them so that they could untie them after a long cold winter and get rid of the 'unwanted visitors' in the batting (often just bits of sheep's fleece).

Answer 6

Most everything people have said is right, but here are also some instructions that I wrote to my neice on some ways to "tie" a quilt (rather than to hand-quilt or machine-quilt it --both of which are much more difficult and time-consuming):

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TYING a quilt

TIE Materials:
1. yarn…the thicker the yarn tho’, the more difficult it will be to pull through the quilt sandwich
..…there are “baby yarns” which are thinner than regular yarns, but I’ve generally used regular yarn because that’s what I had lying around
….yarns will fray at the ends and look kind of fuzzy, and show up a lot against the quilt top
2. perle cotton (aka pearl cotton) is another possibility (see sample)
.…it’s thicker than thread, but thinner than yarn, and easier to pull through quilt sandwich
….doesn’t show up as much though because it’s thinner
3. another possibility might be embroidery floss (6 strands, or however many you want)
…I’ve never used it, but no reason it wouldn’t work
4. You can really use anything you can thread through a needle and pull through a quilt sandwich, (even thin ribbon), but nothing too abrasive because it will tear at the fabric sooner.

You can also "tack" the quilt at large intervals with things like buttons or beads, etc., or by "machine tacking" (see below), etc. Generally you won't want anything rough or protruding on the back side of the quilt, so for buttons you could sew them on by hand, then pull the thread ends up into the quilt... or you could sew the buttons on by machine in the usual way.

NEEDLE… which needle you use can depend on which tie material you’re using… the thinner the tie, the easier it will be to find a needle that will work well
…for yarns (esp. regular yarns), I found that a # 20 “embroidery” and/or “darning” needle works best because it has a tall eye, a sharp point, and slender-as-possible shank
…for other tie mateials, just use the slenderest pointed needle that will accommodate it

“NEEDLE THREADER” (for yarns especially) …it’s deadly hard to thread yarn through a needle!… regular needle threaders don’t work because they have to double the thread over as it passes through the eye, making it too fat
…the nifty little folded and pointed piece of paper I sent** is really the best tool to use for yarns…to use it, just spread the paper apart and lay the end of the yarn down inside the paper "trough" (so that the yarn’s tail end won’t stick out at all)… close the halves tightly together
… stick the pointed end of the paper through the eye of the needle, and it should slip right through bringing the yarn with it

**fold a piece of ordinary thin paper in half... cut a strip of it (still folded) that's just a tad shorter than the needle eye is tall... trim the strip to about an inch long...then trim one end of the folded strip at an angle (the longer and pointed part of the strip will now be the folded edge side)

“NEEDLE PULLER” (for yarns especially)… the thicker the yarn, the harder it is to pull through the quilt sandwich, so sometimes I need a helper (but just wiggling the needle while pulling hard can pop it through sometimes)
…some kind of rubbery material works the best since it grips the needle really well… I’ve sent you a piece of rubbery drawer liner that should work great, but in a pinch you can even use a wide rubber band or a pair of pliers

DISTANCE & PLACEMENT of ties:…As long as a polyester batting is “bonded” on at least one side to hold it together, ties can be placed as far apart as 4-5”, tho’ farther would prob.work (cotton batts, closer).
…The ties can be placed in a grid of some kind, or at the edges of “elements” for a pieced quilt, or in just any pattern you want which will hold the sandwiched parts together reasonably well.
…You can first mark where you want the ties in various ways… just use something that you can see later and that won’t fall off while the quilt is rolled and rerolled to be sewed on in the machine
….water-soluble pens, disappearing-ink pens, and chalk pencils are sold at fabric stores… or you can make a tiny mark (to be hidden by the tie) with a pencil or very fine permanent marker…or for a dark fabric a sliver of soap would mark…or use an adhesive dot or bit of masking tape, etc.
….sometimes, to figure out where to mark for an evenly spaced grid, I place heavy metal nuts in approximately right areas, then line them up with each other vertically and horizontally till they’re even… then mark the spots
…after marking, put a few pins or safety pins in center of the quilt if worried things will shift while tying
…lay quilt in or across a table and put something underneath which won’t mind getting scratched
…make the first tie near the middle of the quilt (work more or less outward from there)
…..stick needle straight down in the tie spot, scrape surface underneath, and push back up about 1/2” away…pull needle though, with helper if nec…cut fairly long tails on each tie, or begin with a lo-ong piece of yarn, and leave all ties connected till it’s time to tie them all at once
…..make a square knot with the tails for ea tie but don’t pull fabric too tight…clip tails to length you want
…..put dot of Fray Check (see box) or diluted white glue at the outer corner of each tie, saturating the fabric (will help reinforce the area that will tear first over time) …dry thoroughly …don’t wash for 1 wk


OR..."MACHINE TACKING" a quilt (instead of using ties)
(You could just sew regular lines to hold the quilt sandwich together, but you can easily go only backwards or forwards on a sewing mahcine --and turning a quilt around isn’t that easy since it’s so large… sewing lines is also not good because especially without a “walking foot,” you’re almost certain to end up with puckers somewhere… BTDT!

The easiest way to machine tack a quilt may be just to make “bar tacks” with the machine:
…position the quilt sandwich under a zigzag foot (has a wider opening than a “straight-stitch” foot, which has just a small round hole)… set the stitch length to 0, and the width to 5 or as wide as it will go)
….lower the presser bar and foot… hold down the machine’s foot pedal (the machine will automatically go back and forth numerous times in the same spot) till the bar tack is as full as you want it… stop…clip


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I've made dozens of baby quilts and lap quilts by tying them... if I'd hand or machine quilted them instead of tying, I could have made only a very few in the same amount of total time, and the recipients report that the tying lasts a long-long time (if done reasonably well). So I usually recommend tying to new quilters, then let them have a ball spending their time learning and playing around with all the patterns they can piece.


HTH, and have fun!

Diane B.