Tie Quilt – Wall Hanging

The tie quilt below was made as a wall hanging for my friend Lee, a poignant tribute to her husband Jack.  I used the familiar Dresden fan pattern (blades not petals). The tie quilt below also uses this pattern along with a third tie quilt shown on the Tie Collection page.

In the wall hanging above, each tie was used four times. Few realize how much material is in a tie. As you can see, there was still plenty of material left over to make an insert of tie bits in the border design. Only 14 ties were used to make this lush quilt.

Lee chose the beautiful satin background materials of cream, maroon and navy blue, which added sparkle to the quilt. Custom quilting helped to highlight both the background materials as well as the ties themselves.

Below is a closeup of the wall hanging:

Tie Quilt – Wedding Gift

To the left is a tie quilt I made for a mother who wanted to give her daughter a unique wedding gift - a throw made from her father’s ties. The popular ”Dresden Plate” pattern was chosen by the mother as the best way to display the ties which she had saved for many years. Afterward, she said that “it was wonderful to work with Rosie. She provided ideas and suggestions, then patiently took the time to help me fine-tune my wishes for the final version of the design. She created both a meaningful memento with which my daughter can remember her father, but also a unique objet d’art, beautiful in its own right.”

The daughter was very close to her father, who had died ten years before. As the mother explained, “I picked out a quote from a poem my daughter wrote for her father’s birthday, which turned out to be his last. She [Rosie] embroidered the quote in the center of the quilt and added a lovely image of a mountain and a crane, which perfectly complemented the quote.”

Following are the two fragments of that poem which are featured in the center of the quilt:   “You kindle fires, Father . . . Give birth to star-eyed daughters.”   The red silk in the background came from one of the mother’s dresses. Black shiny polyester was used as a backing, and pieces of ties were mirrored in the border.