Detail photo of tied quilt
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How to Tie a Quilt

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When a quilt top is done and you’re ready to assemble the layers into a finished quilt, there are several ways to attach the layers together. There’s hand quilting. There’s machine quilting. And then there’s the simplest option, tying the quilt.

Hand tying a quilt consists of stitching a tough, heavy yarn or thread through the quilt’s three layers and tying a knot to to secure the layers together permanently. Knots are placed at regular intervals all over the quilt. The knots hold the layers in place so they don’t shift as the quilt is used or washed.

Here’s a small quilt that was tied with yarn:

Photo by gina pina, Flickr.

And a tied quilt that has won the approval of a quilting room kitty:

photo of cat on tied quilt
Photo by jessica wilson, Flickr.
Tying is a good way to secure a quilt that doesn’t need fancy stitching, or quilts with very thick and puffy batting (also called wadding.) Thick batting can be hard to compress under the throat of a standard sewing machine for machine quilting.

Tying Quilts with Strip Binding vs. Pillowcase Binding

If the quilt you plan to tie will be bound with standard strip binding around the outer edges, tie the knots before you bind the quilt. If you will bind the quilt pillowcase style (sewing the quilt around the outer edges, then turning it inside out like a pillowcase, with no binding strips around the quilt edge), stitch the edges and turn the quilt right side out before you tie it.

How Far Apart Should the Knots Be?

The distance between the knots in a tied quilt is determined by the type of batting or wadding you use. Your knots should be no further apart than the recommended distance for the batting in this quilt. If the quilt doesn’t have batting, the knots should simply be close enough to prevent the layers from shifting. Ideally, the knots should cover the quilt in an even grid. Look at the quilt’s design to choose exactly where to place them.

Quilt Tying Supply List

You will probably already have most of the supplies you will need in your sewing room.

  • Washable yarn or a heavy, colorfast thread such as perle cotton, embroidery floss, crochet cotton, or ribbon.
  • Tapestry needle (preferably curved) with a large eye to fit thick yarns or threads. Here’s what the curved needles look like:
  • Wash-out or disappearing pencil or marker.
  • Scissors.
  • (Optional) Rubber thumb tip or thimble to help pull the needle through the layers.
  • (Optional) Buttons or charms to embellish the knots.
  • Squared, layered, and basted quilt “sandwich” consisting of top, batting, and backing fabric

Step by Step Instructions

  1. Decide whether you want to tie the knots on the front or back of the quilt. Either one will work.
  2. Lay the basted quilt on a flat surface and smooth it to remove wrinkles.
  3. Mark the spots where you want to place the knots with a wash-out or disappearing pencil or marker.
  4. Thread the tapestry needle with the thread or yarn.
  5. Working from the center of the quilt out, insert the needle through all three layers and pull it back up as close as possible to the insertion point. Try to make the distance between the two points no more than ¼ inch (less than 1 cm). A thimble or rubber thumb can make this easier.
  6. Cut the thread so there are two tails, each about 2” (5 cm) long. .
  7. Tie a surgeon’s knot in the thread and pull it tight to the quilt. This video by Melissa Haworth shows you how to tie a surgeon’s knot:
  8. Trim the tails of the knot to ½” (a little more than 1 cm).
  9. Continue knotting until you have covered the whole quilt.
Here’s a wool quilt that was tied many, many years ago and is still in use.
Photo of antique tied quilt

How to Tie a Quilt using Buttons or Charms

Buttons make an easy way to embellish a tied quilt. They come in lots of fun and interesting shapes and colors. If you use buttons without shanks, you can even tie the quilt by machine, using the button stitch on a sewing machine. Buttons with shanks need to be hand tied. To hand tie a quilt with buttons:

  1. Use the tapestry needle to insert the thread and pull it through the quilt layers.
  2. Thread the two ends of the thread through the button holes.
  3. Tie a surgeon’s knot on top of the button and trim the ends.

    Photo by kelly, Flickr.

Caution: buttons should not be used for quilts that will be used by children ages 3 or under, since there is a chance a child could swallow and choke on a button.

Tying a quilt is simple and gets a quilt finished in no time. Try it the next time you need to get a quilt finished fast, or your quilt has thick, needle-resistant batting that would be hard to quilt with regular quilting stitches.

Post photo by SewPixie on Flickr.com.

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20 Comments

  1. I have tied quilts that my mother made that are over thirty years old ( young for a quilt) and the ties are intact. When I tie a quilt, I always make the ties on the wrong side of the quilt, with an X on the top, as she did. It’s not particularly for style, but because we had cats that liked to chew on the yarn and used to pull it out on quilts tied on the top. That’s something to think about if you have cats. I use embroidery floss for tying since it’s less irritating to skin.

  2. I am 57. I have had tied quilts since I was a preteen. My grandmother made them for me. They were washed a lot. The ties did not come loose. I did not have any problems with them except the fabric became thin and was wearing out. I still use them.

  3. I would like to see the back of a quilt where the yarn/embroidery thread started and pulled the three layers.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  4. Wow, I’ve tied several quilts before, each time I have to look up the basics to do this. This was pretty cool w the surgeons knot. Some of mine have held up some not so much. Sometimes yarn sometimes embroidery thread. I have 8 in blocks I’ve quilted. Sometimes I feel I need to reinforce centers because I have crumb quilt blocks in the center of my blocks . Tired maybe I’ll start tomorrow!!

  5. This is way harder than it needs to be. Cut a long piece of yarn (about 2’) Thread the needle and double it over so you have Half the length. Put needle thru fabric and pull it up as close as you can. Do this again. Go to the next Mark and do it again. Continue until quilt is done. Cut yarn desired length. Yarn will lay flatter than if they were knotted and they will not come out even tho there is no knot.

      1. If you’re referring to tying your quilt and having the knots come undone, I think it’s worth trying. There are tied quilts that have been in use for decades and still hold together.

  6. Question: I recently discovered twelve inch squares of white cotton embroidered with a black snow flake design (one large design in each square). At some point, I stitched the squares together with a black calico fabric strip between each one. I am now considering how to proceed with quilting. My first thought was to tie it, but I don’t want to place a tie within the design. Most battings, I think would require ties that are closer than 12 inches. There are 12 squares. I could skip the batting and just have a simple backing. Thoughts?

    1. You could certainly tie the layers together without batting, although you will still need to secure them together to keep the two layers from shifting in use or when you wash the quilt. If the design is in the center of each block, you could tie the blocks at the four corners or stitch in the ditch around the outsides of the blocks, but a 12-inch block seems big enough that I would want to secure it in the center somehow. It’s hard to advise you without seeing one of the blocks. My instinct would be to try to find a way to tie the blocks in their centers, but if you don’t want to do that, you might consider outline stitching parts of the design in a thread color that will fade into the background, or echo quilting the design in an unobtrusive way. Anyone else have a suggestion?

      1. Maybe you could tie the center of each square to the back, so only a small stitch remains on the front and if you use embroidery thread (at least for that stitch) , use the same color and incorporate it into the design of your snowflake ( going over an exiting stitch). Thanks for this question because it gives me an idea for a quilt that I’m about to tie.

  7. I’ve only made one tied quilt and that was in ‘97. The blocks were only 3 inches finished . They were autumn leaves and stars. It was gently washed and cared for. Even so, there are holes where it was tied and the holes kept getting larger to the point it could not be used until repairs were made.. Today , week of
    February 24,2019, I have been in repair mode by hand stitching every single hole closed. Once that is complete, I will quilt it on my machine, as the quilt is only 60” x 70”. As for me, I will never make a tied quilt again. They just don’t stand the test of time like my actual machine quilted pieces

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