When I stopped at the P. O. last night, I rec'd my issue of McCall's Quilting magazine and there was an article in it about tying a quilt by machine. You just lay your piece of yarn (or whatever you choose to use) on the quilt where you want to tie it and use a zig zag stitch over the piece of yarn, then you tie the piece of yarn and you eliminate the step of threading the needle and pushing and pulling the needle through the quilt. Sounded good to me.