I finally finished all the prep work on my bag of ties. It took a long time, but I plowed on through and finished. I ironed featherweight interfacing to each tie to stabilize it, then I cut as many strips and pieces as I could. Most strips are 2" wide, but I made some narrower, and even cut some 2" squares. We quilters are thrifty, and I just couldn't let any of this beautiful silk go unused. I have stacks of center points, and even more stacks of strips.
This is just a small part of all I cut.
And, then I started making blocks. I am still trying to figure out if I should try to do the blocks and strips by color and value, or just random. I made my first blocks, trying to pick fabrics and colors that seemed to go together, and contrast, but I don't know if I succeeded, or if it was worth the effort. I made one block just randomly picking pieces, and I think I like it as well or better than the ones I tried to plan. Any input is welcome. I know this quilt will be very scrappy and random, and I am usually all about random and scrappy, but right now I am kind of wondering if it is going to work like I had it in my head.
Red center blocks
Neutral center blocks
Totally random, just picking strips from the piles.
And, totally unrelated, but so exciting, my granddaughter Micah took her first steps today, and hasn't stopped since. Once she finally took the first couple of steps, she is walking all over the place. Such a special time.
Thanks for reading, I appreciate it,
Esther
I love the tie blocks. It is hard to do the contrasting thing when you are limited. i did a small wall hanging once and bought "silk like" fabric to help. Having said that, i think for what you are doing you would want to make it of all ties, unless you could get some silk some where. I love the scrappy look. Maybe a sashing would help. (then you would have to buy) Maybe what happens when you picture all of the blocks together you see that some of the prints get lost in the rest, which is ok. If you picture it on a couch or bed it is less intimidating and people will have fun picking our their favorite pieces. It is kind of like you cant treat this like any other quilting project. The fact that you are doing something with that amazing fabric will be a blessing.
ReplyDeleteHope the rambles help.
I have lots of special ties I want to make into a quilt so I keep coming back to this one, it's really what I want to do but one, silly question--are the ties appliqued to a backing? are they fused? and if so, will they be quilted? Thanks
ReplyDeleteLove this quilt. Trying to do something smilar for my nephews from their grandpa's ties. Can't wrap my head around piecing the block together. Any suggestions?
ReplyDelete