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Project Materials

Solid novelty print material of the size desired for quilt

Material for back of quilt.
This should be of equal size to your quilt top material. It doesn't really matter what you back the quilt with. Flannel makes for a very cozy quilt, since the flannel side (backing) will be the side which the person using the quilt will come into the most contact with. Make sure you prewash both your backing material and your quilt top material before you begin your project.

Batting for your quilt.
You can use just about any kind of batting of any loft (height) you would like. For a thinner quilt use a lower loft batting. For a thicker and more puffy quilt use a higher loft batting. The batting can be polyester or cotton or a blend of the two. You will need ever so slightly more batting than the size of the quilt top. If you purchase a large piece or roll of the batting, you will be able to follow these instructions in order to cut the batting to the correct size for your quilt.

Yarn for tieing the quilt.
The best kind of yard for tieing a quilt with is a baby weight yarn. The thinner the yard, the easier it will be for you to thread it through your needle for inserting into the quilt layers. Color choice is up to you. One skein of yarn will be plenty for several projects. Strong cotton or synthetic yarn is best; the synthetic yarns tend to stay tied better than natural fibers some people tend to think.

Needle(s) for tieing the quilt.
You have your choice of two different kinds of needles to use. One kind is curved quilter's needles. The needles come in a range of sizes and look like half-circles. These needles can be difficult to use if you have tough fabric and batting for them to punch through, such as flannel and a double layer of batting.

The other type of needle would be a darning or tapestry needle with an eye large enough to accommodate your yarn.

Large safety pins for basting the quilt.
Buy a good sized package of large safety pins for basting.

Project Instructions

Step 1
Lay your backing material right side up on the floor or table (if it is large enough to accommodate all the material at once). Place your quilt top material on top of the backing material right side DOWN. Make sure that the two pieces are the same size. If not, trim the backing material to the correct size.

Take your straight pins and pin the quilt top to the backing material in preparation of sewing them together with your machine. Leave a space of about 18 inces in length along one side of the quilt unpinned. You will not sew this area shut until later. Once the quilt is pinned, take it to your sewing machine and sew a 1/4" seam around the entire quilt, leaving the 18 inch space open.

Step 2
Lay out your sheet of batting on the floor or table. Place your sewn quilt (without turning it right side out) on top of the batting. Use your scissors to cut a piece of batting which is about 1/8" larger than the quilt. Leave batting piece in place under quilt and remove excess batting from area.

Find the 18 inch opening on the quilt's edge. With your palm down reach your hand into the opening until your hand is approximately in the center of the quilt. Grab a handful of the quilt and the batting under it. Don't let go. With your other hand turn the quilt right side out, while pulling the handful of quilt and batting through the opening. After the quilt itself has been turned right side out, you can let go of your handful of quilt.

Now you need to reach into the opening and smooth the batting out. The batting must reach every edge of the quilt and into each corner. Once you're convinced the batting is in place, use your safety pins to baste the layers together. Begin with the corner, making sure the pin catches both the top and bottom of the quilt and the batting in between. After the corners baste along the outside edges of the quilt. Your goal is to secure the batting inside the quilt at the very edges of the quilt so that it will be in the proper position when you begin to tie it. You may then smooth out the center of the quilt and put a few pins from the center outwards.

Step 3
Once your pins are in place, you need to straight pin closed and slipstitch the 18 inch opening closed. Turn under a 1/4" seam allowance on both sides and use very close slipstitches (1/4" or less apart) to close off that opening.

Step 4
To properly secure a tied quilt, it is necessary to place a tie every 4 inches across the entire quilt surface and along the edges and the corners. You may want to use a washable fabric marking pen or straight pins to mark the spots ahead of time where you will need to tie the quilt.

The easiest way to thread your needle with the yarn is with a piece of thread. Take the thread and place one end through the needle. Wrap the other end around the yarn about 3 inches from its end and put the other end of the thread through the needle. Grasp the thread and use it to pull the yarn through the eye of the needle. Leave the yarn attached to the skein, but pull yourself a very long length to work with. The knots will be on the front of the quilt.

Begin at one corner and work your way around the outside of the quilt first. Make a small stitch at the corner through all the layers. Pull the majority of the yarn length through the stitch. Move to the next position along the edge 4" over from the first stitch. Make another stitch and pull most of the remaining yarn through the stitch. Leave about 3" to 4" tail at the first stitch. You may need to keep on starting with the first hole and pulling more yarn through, so that you will have enough slack to keep on stitching your way around the outside.

When you are done going around the outside edges, cut the loops in between each stitch, making sure that you will have enough slack to tie a knot. To make the knots look fuller take a separate piece of yarn about 5 inches long and lay it crossways (perpendicular) to the way the stitch goes. Take the ends of the yarn from the stitch and tie a single knot over the extra piece of yarn. Now take both pieces of yarn and tie them together to form another single knot. Pull HARD. Continue in this manner around the entire outside edge of the quilt.

Now re-thread your needle with yarn and do the same thing you did with the outside of the quilt, but this time begin in the center of your quilt. Put in stitches until the yarn begins to be too much for you, then stop and cut and tie the pieces. You can then re-thread the needle again and begin in a new spot until you have finished the entire quilt.

Congratulations! You have just finished a tied quilt!

These project instructions are © 1998 - 2005 Rachel K. Ivey and Serial Quilter Studios. Permission is granted to print and copy these instructions for your personal use only. No rights are granted to publish, whether by electronic, print, or other media, or circulate these instructions without express written permission from Rachel K. Ivey and Serial Quilter Studios.