Blind Tying/Machine Tacking

My sister-in-law had a question about putting a quilt together by "blind tying" as opposed to "machine tacking". I'm not sure if anyone else likes to put quilts together by machine tacking but I like it a lot better than tying, blind or otherwise. It's just faster. This first picture is of the quilt we use on the bed, it's just a simple quilt using big pieces of fabric I had. I blind tied it a few years ago but I'm using it to illustrate the machine tacking that I use most of the time now. The entire quilt is rolled up and put under the machine arm. Before you roll the quilt, of course, baste or pin the quilt sandwich. Set the stitch to "0" or maybe "1" and the zig-zag width to widest position. Then just tack the quilt together in one small spot, hit the back stitch a couple of times to make sure the stitches stay. Then move the quilt along the line, "tacking" the quilt together along that first line.

This picture shows the third line of where you would tack, the quilt being rolled out as it is tacked. When you finish one spot of the tacking, you can either cut the thread at that spot before you move the quilt under the needle. Or you can just move the quilt along and leave the thread connected. It depends of your machine doesn't seem to mind that. Some machines, when you move the quilt a ways then try to sew again it snags and tangles. After the whole row is done, you can then cut all the threads.

This picture just shows the quilt where I blind tied it with red yarn. I like blind tye better without the little rabbit ears sticking up.







This pict shows the regular needle that might be used for tying, but the bottom two are doll making needles that work better with blind tying.

Slide the needle between the top and back of the quilt sandwich and poke needle up at marked spot.










Take one back stitch which catches the quilt backing.

On this, I'm trying to show - take another back stitch, this time not picking up the quilt backing, just the top and any of the batting that you want, doesn't matter. Slide the long needle between the top and bottom quilt layers, hiding the yarn inside, then poke the needle up in the next designated spot. Back stitch, "half" back stitch, so on.

Sorry for the long, boring post, but, you know, I love quilting.