I have finished another quilt. I'm almost too embarrassed to post about this one, though, because it has been sitting around unfinished for so long. This quilt top has been finished for what I am guessing has been nine years. My first year in graduate school my friend, Heather, and I, along with the other women in her family made 'crazy quilts.' We each brought a yard of fabric that we liked (my contribution was the light blue fabric with lady bugs and flowers) and we combined them all to make crazy quilts. And even though I had the backing I never got around to finishing mine. Until now. I used left-over batting from our headboard project and simply sewed the front, back & batting together (the first time I did with the batting on the outside - I was very thankful for my seam ripper when I figured that one out). Then I finished it by tying it with blue embroidery thread. I originally tried yarn but it was too difficult to pull through - I have no idea how folks tie quilts with yarn, I'm open to suggestions, though! I think I may need to go back and tie off in a few more places but I'd like to find some red embroidery thread first.
Normally I am not a fan of polyester binding and tying quilts but in order to get this one finished something had to be done. I'm glad I've finished this one, not just because it was sitting around for so long but also because Allison loves it. Go figure!
One other little note, when working on this quilt my friend, Natalie, happened to be over. She took one look at the quilt and then looked at me and asked 'So, do you think your style has changed?' Yes, Natalie, yes it has!
3 comments:
My mom made a few quilts this way. She used old flannel sheets for the batting. If i remember correctly she had a big, really big needle that she just pulled the yarn through to tie it off. I'll double check with my sister on that.
Here is the Purl Bee post about the quilt that I love and using yarn to tie the quilt.
http://purlbee.squarespace.com/sunny-tied-quilt/
And here's the section where she describes the tying of the quilt. Maybe the secret is the Ribbon Embroidery Needle:
"Thread one of the Ribbon Embroidery Needles with the yarn. Use the smallest, sharpest needle you can thread. There is no need to tie a knot or cut the yarn. Sew a 1/4-inch stitch through the first marked point on the edge. then pull the yarn through and take another stitch at the next marked point. Sew across an entire row of marked points in this manner, leaving slack in between each stitch as shown above. At the end of the row cut the yarn, leaving a long tail at each end. Sew every row of marked points in the manner."
Oh and another trick may be to use more like fingering weight yarn, very thin. Although hers doesn't look that thin....
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