All tied up

Last week Cathy Perlmutter, who writes a very clever and witty blog, posted about a quilt she had made with many recycled neckties. I thoroughly enjoyed looking at it and hearing about how she had acquired so many unusual ties. I left a comment telling her how much I liked it and telling about the things that I had made with them. She prompted me to do a blog post about my works.

None of these are new works, but since I haven't made anything new in a while, I thought I would share these with you. Mine are not whimsical as hers are, but I did have fun making them. My husband was alive at the time and he let me dig into his considerable stash ( I have mentioned before that he was a clothes horse) and I also purchased some at thrift shops since I was looking for particular colors.

This first one, Tailspin, Tie Spin, uses only red and black ties. I bordered it with red silk dressmaker's fabric and I love the intensity of the colors. I used a pattern that used just one template. The tie silk was backed with a lightweight cotton iron-on interfacing, which made it much easier to handle.  This quilt was featured in Janet Elwin's book, Ties, Ties, Ties. It measures 32 inches square.

I hand-quilted it with black quilting thread an inch from each seam, as we did back in the day. I really love this quilt and always thought it would look great in a man's office.

This one uses the same one template, but in reverse, which makes a star. My son and I used to enjoy watching Wheel of Fortune and one of their categories is Before and After, so this one is called

Star Power Ties. ( Get it? Star Power, Power Ties). It measures 36 inches square and uses only tie material, including the binding. It was featured in Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, along with patterns and instructions.

I  hand-quilted this one in concentric circles using navy quilting thread.

Remember back when we were all wearing vests? I made sooooo many of them. Sadly they are out of style, but I can't bear to part with them since they were so much work. This one has a fan pattern made out of ties and the rest is Dupioni silk. 

I machine-quilted this in bronze metallic thread.

On the back I quilted the fan pattern. I don't know what happened to the other tie vests I made. I know I made at least one crazy-quilt style using the tie fabric and fancy stitches on my machine. I also made a couple where I used narrow bias strips cut from ties and appliquéd onto men's wear suiting material along with tie labels. I know I sold at at least one and gave one to my sister. I think mine got moth holes in the wool suiting.

This is a scarf which I made just last year. I may have shown it before. It uses strips of tie fabric, using the sew and flip method on a thin cotton base and then backed with red fleece.

Silky and pretty on one side and warm and cozy on the other.

Have you made anything with ties?  Let me know and put it up on your blog, if you have one.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.