Nancy, thanks for the great Christmas gift idea. Two of my grandson's love ties (ages 6 and 5). I am trying to do a homemade Christmas this year. Now, I just have to raid grandpa's closet.

suehenyon wrote:
You are very welcome! It was a very fun and quick project!

yes, unless you are half blind

suehenyon wrote:
I love Nancy's idea, too! Sue, if you want to include someone else's comment in your text box, just click the box in the upper right of each comment that says "QUOTE".
It will automatically include that comment in your new comment box! Easy-peasy!

I'm bookmarking this page (Nancy's ties, haven't figured out how to quote yet) for baby gifts and maybe (hopefully) grandkids. How cute & what a great idea!
Thanks Nancy!

Hi Teri,

If you have any young grandsons, you might want to save a few of your husband's ties to make little boy ties for them. I recently made one for my 5 yr. old grandson using a tie purchased from a thrift store for 75 cents. Basically, I opened up the tie, shortened it from the middle seam to about 48" long, and narrowed the fat end. I was inspired by, but didn't exactly follow the tutorial at this link--> http://www.hideousdreadfulstinky.com/2009/09/tutorial-making-boys-tie-from-mans-tie.html I wanted my grandson to have a tie that he could learn to tie.

Margo, I love your quilt! Now I have another project on my to do list

Thank you everyone for your help. I think because some of the ties are hand painted..so they say, I will hand wash them and the ones that survive will go into the quilt.
I was looking in my husbands closet and since his retirement he wears tank tops and shorts, all of those white shirts would make great blocks. I may have to wait until he
takes a trip out of town before I raid his closet. LOL

This is sort of related: Quilting Arts, October/November 2010 has an article on using silk ties to dye pfd fabric. I've started collecting silk ties from thrift stores to do this. The pictures of the resulting fabrics are beautiful.

When I made a quilt out of ties, I washed them all first, a few at a time in a lingerie bag with regular laundry, then took them apart to remove the linings. If they didn't make it through that first wash, I didn't use them in my project. After that, I was comfortable washing the quilt.
Mine was a crazy quilt that was foundation pieced onto Ricky Tims' Stable Stuff. The backing was pieced with cotton/poly shirts and the batting was Hobb's Heirloom (80/20) I was pleased with how it turned out.

I used Light weight fusible interfacing when I made a quilt with ties. Most ties can be washed and hung to dry and you should clean them before cutting apart. Good luck.

My husband has about 75 ties that he does not use since he has retired. I am going to make dresden plates with them and then attach them to fabric blocks.
Question
I am sure I need to use some kind of stabilizer in order to be able to sew, any suggestion?
Should I attach the dresden plates to a silk block or cotton?
I think cleaning the quilt will be problem.
I love the idea of passing this quilt down to our grandchildren.
Any suggestion will be appreciated.