It's funny that this subject is brought up. I have just finished basting a baby quilt and am trying to make up my mind as to how I want to finish it. It keeps going between tying and quilting. I have never had a quilt come apart when tying. My mom did both, tying or quilting. Also she would do regular quilting or use a utility stitch.

We tie all of the quilts that we make for our prayer circle-as we sew, a prayer is lifted up to the One who listens.

I do both.

Ditto to this comment. I don't care for the look of tied quilts, but if you do then go for it.

One of the first quilts I ever made was for my oldest daughter and is what I think is called a "water-color" quilt. It was a rendition of Monet's Garden in one inch squares. Took me 3 years to make it because I couldn't "see" what I was doing after a few days of working on it. When it was finally done I used floss (well, my dh did it for me because I have arthitis and can't tie knots) and choose colors that blended in well, put them on corners of squares, knots in the back, and it was tied w/o affecting the front picture. NO WAY would I have wanted to try to figure out how to machine quilt it. And NO WAY would I have wanted a LAQ to put a lovely pattern on it. It was complete as is. It is about 40 X 60". Also, it won viewers choice first place in original wall art (which is what dd wanted) at the Sonora fair a few years back.

By the way, if you want to drive quilt shop people crazy get 1/4 yard of lots of bolts. Hit a great sale in Tucson when Joann's was moving to a new location. Showed up at the cutting line with 22 bolts, all of them 1/4 yd cuts except for one 1/2 yd! When she looked shocked I told her "You people make us into quilting addicts and you have to support our habbit!" It gave her a laugh and relaxed the poor people behind me.

I have noticed that many quilts are tied with what looks like cotton thread. I have tied a few, and prefer to use yarn.
Once it has been washed, the knots tighten up and are almost impossible to remove, i like using the new yarns that are at least partially or all polyester. One word of caution, I prefer to not tie children's, especially baby quilts. The ties can become a chocking hazard.

There are certain quilts that seem to call for tying and others hand or machine quilting. As others have said, it's just personal preference. Enjoy your work.

I think we need to use Eleanor Burns method of tying (another tie after the square know...3 ties) in order for them to withstand many launderings. I've seen too many quilts tied with only a square knot and they work loose. I just redid a 30 year old quilt that was tied by someone's grandmother, using yarn and only a square knot.

If you think tying is better, tie your quilt. Quilt Police does not work in your area I heard.

Have fun (!) quilting!
Anymart

When I first started quilting, I tied all of my quilts. They were just simply scrap squares joined to make a top, polyester batting and a sheet on the back. I frequently used yarn for ties and some yarn was better than other types. Over time, the batting shifted (probably ties were too far apart), some of the ties undid or even pulled out. By the time this happened, the quilt had been very well used and was starting to wear out. I then combined some SITD quilting with ties made of perle cotton and this lasted even longer. It's your quilt, quilt it in any way you please.