Railroadersbrat

I am in the process of finishing my quilt top, I just busted my stash and did a ton of 9-patches (5.5in x 5.5in), I don't have a lot of room for fabric and I'm hoping to start in on my sister's DWR the beginning of next year and I need some input from you awesome ladies!

The picture below only shows a small portion of the quilt, the finished size is going to be around 93 x 104 (roughly, I don't have my notes near me) and my fiance and I have been going back and forth on how it should be quilted and finished. I'm going to be using a low-loft batting, I want it to be warm but without a bunch of bulk because we have two medium-sized dogs (really, they're big babies) that sleep with us on a queen sized bed and their heat output is horrendous sometimes.

My original intention was to stitch in the ditch using a white thread, there's not a whole lot of white in the quilt, I thought it would be kind of a nice way to introduce some contrast. However, that has been knocked down because my original sewing machine is in the shop waiting on a part, so I am sewing this on a mini-machine and the space under the arm is entirely too small to send a quilt through. This will be done before I'm able to get my machine out of the shop and this quilt was born out of severe necessity, my last comforter blew up in the washing machine in spectacular fashion.

I remember my grandmother's quilts and one of her 9-patch quilts was tied off at the intersections and that's what I've decided to do, but, it raised a couple of questions, so I thought I would post them here and see what everyone thought. I tried asking my older sister if she remembered grandma's quilt, she said she did but couldn't remember all the details, so here it goes....

Should I use embroidery thread (white), or would yarn (white) do the trick better?

I ask this because I am slightly worried about bearding from the batting once this quilt begins to get used and laundered. The needles I would need to use to tie the intersections off would leave bigger holes in it, so I'm trying to alleviate that problem the best that I can. I know that batting technology has improved over the years to stop this issue, but I still have that thought in the back of my head.

Last set of questions (I think), should each intersection be tied off, or should I alternate intersections, both by columns and by rows - I hope that makes sense?

Grandma used both the embroidery thread and yarn and she tied off all the intersections on one quilt, then alternated on another, so I know it's more or less a personal preference more than anything, but I'm kind of in the middle of both.

Any thoughts??


[ATTACH=CONFIG]619008[/ATTACH]

bearisgray

I would recommend Warm and Natural batting.

I think more ties are better because the more ties, the less stress there is on each one.

My daughter's dogs shredded a quilt I made for her. I am also suggesting throwing a sheet over the quilt to protect it from the dogs' paws and claws. They did not chew on it or anything like that - it just got worn quickly from their getting off and on it. The dogs were setter/lab size.

Some people use perle cotton or crochet thread for their ties.

Iceblossom

I tied my quilts for the first 10-20 years. Basic craft yarn makes big holes in the fabric as it goes through double even if you tie it single (hopefully that makes sense) and can be hard to push through as well as needing a huge eye in the needle, but there are some yarns I would use. At this point in my quilting, I'd go with some sort of embroidery thread and I would go at every 9-patch block intersection. I've seen a lot of tied quilts that are one stitch in the middle square. Buttons can be a fun way to tie a block, if you don't have a button collection they have cheap craft button collections, but they make the quilt top only, you do not want to lay down on a bunch of buttons.

Keep in mind, that if you do a simple tie at the corners, when you get your machine back you can use the ties as basting and quilt it all down again and remove the ties.

Railroadersbrat

Oh my goodness, I never considered crochet thread and I've got a lot of it, when I'm not quilting, I'm filet crocheting or tatting!

I have Staffordshire Terrier/Catahoula mix pups and they usually sleep under the comforter and sheet, but also never thought about throwing a sheet over it, what a great idea!

Railroadersbrat

Never thought of that, I can do that at my leisure or in the spring when I'm ready to switch out for something lighter!

sewingpup

I also have used pearl cotton embroidery thread to tie quilts with....works ok and at church we use double sports/baby weight yarn...it is thinner then regular yarn and easy to work with.

mjkgquilt

I used DMC embroidery floss to tie 2 Log Cabin quilts I made. Over 20 years later the ties have kept everything in place.

grammasharon

I am not familiar with DMC embroidery floss and wonder when using it if it is the floss that comes in shanks and consists of 6 strands. And do you use all six strands. My kids like tied quilts and would be interested in trying this method. Thanks. Grammasharon

humbird

I have used both DMC embroidery floss and crochet thread. Either works well. I'm not a fan of yarn, because it seems to "ball up" at the ties after washing. I do tie fairly close together. Maybe about 2 inches. I would tie in each of the print squares. Love the bright colors. It's a happy quilt!

Grammasharon, yes, DMC is the floss you describe.

juliasb

When tying quilts I have always used DMC thread. I do crazy quilts from time to time and I always tie them. Over the years the thread has held very well. I don't have any pets but human movements and pulling will also be very hard on a quilt.