The next part of quilting is the most "back breaking" and "thumb bruising" part. Tacking and tying.
It's not hard just takes a lot of time. Looks great in the end though.
So here is my quilting frame. My husband and father made this for me when I was pregnant with my oldest and was making him a quilt. It took up the whole front room in our two bedroom condo. I was on bed rest tying this quilt. (shame on me I know) My husband and mom were helping me though. I'd tie one or two squares and lay down. Needless to say that quilt took FOREVER to tie.
The frame is made of 4 4in x 4in posts with these metal supports on them (I have no idea what they are called but if you need a close up let me know) The bottoms are supported by 1in x 1in pieces of wood (4 for each post) Then I use 2in x 4in pieces of wood to tack the quilt to.
I use my quilt top to measure the frame. I have two sets of planks for quilting. One for smaller quilts and the other for the huge quilts I make. So I tack in the corners of the top so I can position all of the posts and planks in just the right spots so everything fits.
Once I am happy with the size of the frame I secure all four corners with clamps.
Then I take the top off of the frame and start setting up the quilt for tying. First things first we put the backing on. I try and make this pretty taught (tight and firm without over stretching the fabric). I don't push the quilting tacks in all of the way during this process because they will be coming out again in just a minute. Make sure that the backing is right side facing DOWN. If you have it facing up you will be tying it wrong and the wrong side will be the back of the quilt. You don't want to have to untie everything and redo it.
No gathers or bubbles.
Then I just lay the batting on the quilt backing.
The final step of tacking the quilt is to put the top on. Here is where I make sure everything looks pretty. I tack in every seam. This keeps the seams from pulling and separating when everything else is getting pulled tight. I start in one corner and work around. Make sure when you are pulling everything tight you are pulling all three layers and checking the underneath side often to see if it is staying taught or if it's coming loose somewhere. As I mentioned before the tacks that are holding the back on would come out. Here is where this happens. As I work my way around if there is a tack in the backing I remove it and use it to tack the quilt top. I have kept the backing tacked separate but nothing makes me more upset than taking a quilt off the rack after it is all tied and having a tack fall on the inside of the quilt because I tacked things separately. It's not always easy to get it back out.
Now on to tying. Not hard to do at all. I have a quilting needle that I use. I have used other types of needles and the quilting needles work best for me. They do have sharp tips though so be careful. It hurts like a sun-of-a-gun when you stab yourself. I do it often.
Ok so how I tie my quilts...
I like to go diagonally. I go the same direction as the colors do. As you can see below I am starting in a pink butterfly square. You will start going from the top through to the bottom.
Pull all of the yarn that is on your needle through except for a few inches. Leave this loose so you can make your first tie.
Then you will come up from underneath the quilt in the adjoining square diagonally. (see what I mean by the point? OUCH)
Then you will pull the yarn through so that it is flush with the back of the quilt. Check the bottom of the quilt frequently as the yarn tends to knot up and create problems.
Now with this first not you will tie a square not. Just over and under and over and under.
To make it easy on myself and make things go faster I don't cut the yarn just yet. I just move to the next square that needs to be tied. This is how it looks once you have brought the yarn down through the quilt and back up.
It's pretty easy to make the knots this way too. Here's how I do it. If I have the yarn at the bottom like this... I bring the needle down through the yarn that goes across from the previous square. Be sure that the needle goes over the yarn loop like you see here and not behind it otherwise you will just wind the yarn up instead of beginning the knot.
Then just pull everything tight. Not too tight though. You don't want to gather the quilt.
Then you will nee to finish the knot. This step is opposite of the one you just did. Loop of yarn is on top and needle comes from the bottom. It doesn't matter if you start with the loop on the top or the bottom. It only matters that with each knot you have one step of the knot that comes from the top and one that comes from the bottom. You are making a square knot here too.
Finished knot.
Just keep going until you run out of yarn or squares. **helpful hint. Don't try to cut enough yarn to do the whole quilt at once. Using multiple strands is OK. Actually preferred. The longer strands of yarn separate as they are pulled through the quilt a bunch of times and this causes them to knot more frequently on the underneath side of the quilt. Plus it takes forever to pull that much yarn though the quilt.**
When you are done with a strand or the whole quilt, whichever you'd like, go ahead and cut the yarn in between the squares. I try to cut the center as much as possible.
Sometimes I can get help from my husband to tie quilts. He's amazing and has long arms so I don't have to roll up the quilts as often.
Ok so that's it. Just tie the quilt and remove it from the rack. Its easier to pull the tacks out by lifting all three layers of fabric and popping them out of the frame. Don't be too over zealous doing this cause those darn tacks sure can fly and no one wants to accidentally find one walking around barefoot.
A couple more tips. I put tape on the end of my yarn to help thread it through the needle and then just cut the tape off the end before I start tying. For larger quilts you can roll the quilt while it is tacked to the frame. Just take the clamps off of one of the sides where the plank is on top of the others and roll it slowly and make sure to keep it tight. Replace the clamps (most likely you will be clamping on part of the quilt now. As long as the clamps are clean this shouldn't cause an issue.) If you need to see how this is done please comment and I should be able to add photos from another quilt I will be doing shortly.
The last step for the quilt will be
here. Have fun!
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