Originally Posted by
nativetexan
many, many years ago i did a king size. tied it with embroidery thread which didn't stay tied. took those out and tied again with yarn. So far, i have never tried to birth a quilt and then machine quilt it. I know, Eleanor Burns supposedly does that but me, i would get folds in the fabric.
I've machine quilted a few and it wasn't so bad. I found that crosshatching was better because of the bias "effect" -- kinda stretched out the pleats. My favorite way of quilting is by tying or using a decorative stitch that makes one motif at each stop (I'm having a senior moment and cant think of the word for this stitch
).
With the tying, I saw on one of the videos (perhaps EB"s) that if, when making the knots, wrap the yarn twice then pull tight, then repeat. Leave a half inch or longer tail. I used yarn to tie whole cloth quilts for my grandchildren beginning about 20 years ago and those old quilts are still going strong -- faded and worn but still in use. Now I use perle cotton with the same method.