You can also tie with the knots to the back, if you don't want anything cluttering the front of the quilt. Just put a long pin in from the front where you want the knot to be, then turn over and tie from the back.

I love tying quilts with fat batts. Good luck in machine quilting with the thick batting. The fat batt makes it so warm and cozy to snuggle with. I have enough love of all things quilted!!!

All the quilts I remember my grandmother making were tied. They all were thick, and so warm. I remember thinking as a kids how pretty all those little ties on top were. I don't remember my mom tying one, and I haven't either, but I would like to try one.

For me it depends on the quilt whether I tie, hand stitch or machine stitch it.

Some quilts just beg to be tied IMO. I like to be a little different and use ribbon for tying. On ones for little girls I use the narrow satin or grosgrain ribbon and may even make the tails long enough to tie a little bow then tie the loops together for security. For the corduroy one I did I used a wider variagated nylon (?) ribbon that matched the colors of the quilt and had about 1" tails.

I tend to think a hand pieced quilt should be either hand quilted or tied. Somehow machine quilting just seems wrong if it has been hand pieced.

In general if it is machine pieced I think tied or machine quilted is usually most appropriate.

Just how I view things as a rule of thumb...each individual quilt is considered as it happens...LOL!

Pickish, would you know if there is a picture on line of the quilt Kaffe Fasset did with French Knots? That sounds so interesting, and I would love to see it. Thanks

I say it is a personal preference! I used to tie everthing until I learned to hand quilt

There are a few pics, but they're kind of hard to get to - they're in book previews. The book is "Quilts in the Sun" and he did 2 versions - "Jane's Diamonds Pastel Quilt" and "Jane's Diamonds Lapis Quilt".

Hopefully this link will work - you'll have to click through the book, the pastel one is on 89, and it's on this quilt that you can see the french knots. The lapis one is on page 93. The page numbers are at the bottom right.

http://www.aadl.org/catalog/record/1305572

I'd be more likely to reverse and say handquilted, or at least machine quilted than the other way around.
Tied quilts are as old as handquilted. And, they are both rightly called quilts.

I do alot of repro fabric (early 1800s - early 1900s) quilts and sometimes the quilt just calls out to be tied. So I do.
I have a postage stamp quilt I made and tied 20+ years ago, frequently washed; the fabric is wearing out; the ties are still fine. I used 2 strand embroidery thread on it.
I'll use perle cotton now. I would not use yarn.

The book is available from Amazon for just under $17

I like both--tying is fun and I use it on fun-type quilts like primitives. I use perle cotton, sometimes through a button. Old time ladies sometimes liked to tie with wool yarn because it felts in washing, making the knot more secure. Some make-do quilters used string they saved, like the string closing on feed sacks, to use as ties.