I have seen charms and buttons sewed onto the quilt instead of tying. I also saw where they take thin ribbon and use that to tie with a pretty bow, my friend loves to do it this way for baby quilts. I have seen where they use an embroidery design to quilt it. I once used a decorative design on my simple sewing machine and that worked out great. I made small bows and then used my zigzag to tie the quilt together. For baby quilts you have to be very careful in what you use as they might choke on it.