Thursday, March 31, 2011

Neck Tie Quilt

I am finally creating at a good pace and it feels good.  Good enough to write a blog post about it.
A few years ago, my cousin presented me with a tote full of neckties (thank you CeCe) and through the years I have added to that collection by going to the thrift store and buying more, and by taking any and every tie that was donated to my collection. I ended up with a barrel of ties.  My darling husband was so kind to take three days and make ready all my ties by cutting them open and taking all the filling out.  Thank you Bobby.
I decided that I would make a quilt out of the ties first, then what is left will go into a jacket.  I did not realize all the beautiful ties I had collected, my husband even traded a couple of his ties for the ones he found in my barrel.  There are silk, satin,cotton,wool, and also some polyester.
I have started on the quilt first, I decided to use the foundation piecing method since I have all different kinds of fabric and textures. It is hard to use some of the ties because they are so beautiful, I keep putting different ones back for the coat.  So now I am closing my eyes and whatever tie I pull out, I have to use.  That makes it a lot easier.  I am going to put the quilt together row by row as I go along.  I am not going to worry about what colors or textures should go next to what, it is an art quilt that when it is done, won't win any contests(?) but will be beautiful in it's right.  I will continue to post about this quilt and when it is done you will see.  My husband said "if you don't do anything with these ties after I have done all this work, I will not do anything like this again" So that is another instinctive reason for me to get this quilt done.

As you can see, there are many nice ties going into this quilt.

Here is a picture of my first block. 

Here is a sneak preview of the cuddle quilt I just finished for the quilt guild that I belong to. Go over and take a look at that blog also.