Quilt in a Day Forums

That's why I have a cheap dining room table...LOL! There are even a few chunks missing from the edges from rotary cutter mishaps! Not to mention the damage DH has inflicted with computer parts over the years!

My grandma had rolls of cotton twine in different solid colors, yellow, peach, green. They were not bright colors (they were dull) and had no sheen to them. They came on thick cardboard rolls about 6 inches tall. She used them for tying her crazy quilts when I was with her in the 50''''s and 60''''s. I looked for them at Walmart, at a local quilting supplies store, at Michael''''s, and at Hobby Lobby. None of them had any cotton twine other than crochet floss or bamboo twine (very expensive). After looking on the internet, it appears what she had was "bakers twine". It looks like the cheapest prices on it might be on the "Just Artifacts" website #around $3 a roll#. Walmart has it on their website, too. She tied her quilts with two thicknesses of the twine and "granny" knots! She left about 1 inch of twine past the knots.

By the way, I heard "granny" knots are stronger than "square" knots because square knots can fail if only 1 of the "tails" is pulled. May not be a problem in tied quilts though.

In the early days, Eleanor had us tie our quilts. She made surgeon's knots. It's like a square knot, so imagine that you cross one side over the other and when you take it under, go under it twice. Then, do it again, just as you would to complete the square knot.
This is especially nice when tying Christmas packages. You don't need an extra finger while you make the bow, because only doing it the first time will hold it in place.
I hope this makes sense. It's difficult to explain. lol.
She always used all 6 threads of embroidery floss, and a curved needle is really helpful, but I didn't always have one.

This thread is so helpful! I have never tied a quilt before. My grandma always used yarn and I know I don't want to do that. My question is, when using embroidery floss, don't the strands separate and fray? Do you tie a little knot at the end of each strand? That sounds impossibly fussy.

TIA for any advice!