How to Tie Quilt Squares Together
Rather than quilting by hand or with a sewing machine, some craft persons decide to tie the quilt together. With the purpose of quilting being to hold the three layers of the quilt together, tying the quilt can often be quicker, easier and fulfills the same purpose as traditional quilting. With a few basic supplies, you should be able to tie a quilt on your own in a matter of an hour, with less time involved if you invite a friend to help.
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Things You'll Need
- Basted quilt sandwich (top, batting and backing)
- Yarn
- Scissors
- Curved basting needle or tapestry needle
Instructions
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1
Spread your sandwiched quilt out on the floor or a large table and smooth it flat. If you work on the floor, you will be spending some time on your knees, so use a pillow under your knees or work on a carpeted area that has been vacuumed first.
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2
Cut 15 or more five-to-six-inch lengths of yarn and set them on your quilt for easy access to get you started, cutting more as needed. Place one piece of yarn on your needle either whole or you can unwind the ply to use only one strand of yarn at a time, depending on your preference.
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3
Start in the center of the quilt top and insert the tip of your needle into the quilt moving from the top to underneath while you hold one end of the yarn in your hand. Bring the needle tip back up an eighth-to-a-quarter-inch away from your starting point and pull the needle through along with the other end of the yarn.
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4
Slip the needle off of the yarn, leaving tails sticking up on the surface of the quilt. Many quilters will insert the needle in the corner of one square and come back up in the corner of the adjacent square, thus tying the squares together.
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5
Tie the tails of yarn together once and then again to form a knot. Clip the tails to the desired length you want, typically one inch, but you can leave them long or short, so long as you don't cut your knot by mistake.
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Continue to work from the center outward toward the edges of your quilt spacing your ties in a grid-like fashion every four to six inches.
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Tips & Warnings
Although you'll still need to attach binding to your quilt, because you are tying it, you can put the binding on either before or after you tie it.
