Art Quilts

This year's San Diego Quilt Show featured two quilts sewn with neckties.

"Bow Ties" by Cindy Barger used ties in the bow tie quilt pattern.
She used her husband's ties after he left his "dress-up job". She said the quilt made better use of the ties.

"Necktie Mandala", by Peggy Caballero, used strips of silk from a customer's father's neckties in a mandala shape.

Unique Quilt

Gorgeous tie quilt I saw on eBay. The seller described it as "...It looks like it was made in the 1950's or 1960's from the ties that had gone out of fashion at that point...The backing is white cotton, and the face is entire made of ties"/ "...It measures approximately 46" square" The seller claims it was purchased "about 20 years ago from Jon Lundberg's Vintage Men's Haberdashery, which used to be located in Kensington California."/

Extraordinary Quilt

Absolutely amazing quilt made by Stacey of
Peppermint Pinwheels, she calls this quilt Silk Orange Peel.
(flickr link)

Stacey says, "The tie silks I used were actually either samples or remnants from a factory that made neck-ties. They weren't ever finished into ties, but were about 4-1/2" by 12" (app.) pieces.
To make the quilt I used a paper-piecing technique, but used muslin instead of paper to add stability. I also used a pattern by quilt-maker Karen K. Stone."

I noticed that Karen Stone suggests using scraps from neckties and the paper-piecing technique in at least two of her patterns:
Enticement

and
Untitled

More Quilt Designs

Necktie Quilts.
Click on highlighted text for more information

Art Quilt by Jana Morgan.She describes it as "men's neckties, hand-dyed fabrics, thread and yarn on canvas"
and "This piece is made up mostly of men's neckties that I wove into a thick fabric, hand-stitched together with other hand-dyed fabrics, cut into squares, reconstructed into a grid, stitched to canvas and drew over with machine stitching. I invested months of meandering, free-associative stitching into this painting / crazy quilt. Both the long process and the final form reflect my personal response to / map of the flows and restrictions of everyday life (daily driving) in Los Angeles"

"Tied to Thad", String Quilt by Martha Herbert

Striped ties quilt by Cheryl Gerhart

Quilt from her boyfriend's ties, by Feng Shui by Fishgirl

"Leo's Ties of a Life", as posted on Offenburger

Unique pattern (click on image to enlarge) that was in a quilt show in Hemet, 2008, called "Preacher Bill's Ties", by Glenda Alexander (I saw it posted on Threads in Time)

Memory Quilt by Donna Sinrud

Circular Quilt

Karen, of Quilt Luver, sent me a photo of another quilt she posted about previously.
This quilt (more like a wall hanging) was at a show in Durand, Michigan.
No information is available about the creator.
It's fun to see the different variations of patterns that people choose with ties.
This round pattern is popular in rugs too.

Bowtie Quilt Pattern

I would credit the quilt maker if I knew more information, but this image is shared from another blog, in a post about the Kalamazoo Quilt Show.
Thanks to Quilt Luver for her post, and Amy for giving me the heads up.

I've seen other necktie quilts made in the bowtie pattern, but I really like the design in this one.
Note the fringe of ties at the lower edge.

"Ties to the Past" Quilt

My mom and I recently attended a Quilt Show put on by the Kaleidoscope Quilt Guild of Lemon Grove.

I was blown away by a necktie quilt by Rita Anaya.
Ms. Anaya was kind enough to send me a photo of her quilt, since my camera was recently stolen.
There is a label on the back of the quilt that tells about it, and includes some of the interesting labels off the tie backs.

She said, "The ties belonged to my Dad who lived here in San Diego and some from my uncle who lived in Texas. Both passed away several years ago."

The wonderful thing about necktie quilts is the emotional layers, including a layer of whimsy in fun fabrics, a layer as a time capsule, and a layer of remembrance.
Often, necktie quilts are memorial or mourning quilts.
Necktie quilts tell a story--of the year the ties were made and the prevalent styles and colors of that time, and they also tell of the people who wore these ties...and how they were important to us.

Ties Quilt

Stephanie, at Make It a Wonderful Life, posted this fun quilt made for her father-in-law, from his large collection of ties.

More Quilting Inspiration

Cauchy09 had, from what I can tell, several hundred neckties that had belonged to her dad.
She decided to incorporate them into quilts.

At one point she randomly decided that 3.25" x 7" rectangles would be the appropriate size, so this limited her design options


She decided upon this gorgeous rail fence pattern, done in quadrants of like colors

(click on image to enlarge)

She still had lots of ties left over, so she made another quilt top, this one an experiment in color and random placement

Another view here.

Vegan Vice made this amazing crazy quilt


Sometimes I see items on ebay or elsewhere that inspire me.
This quilt was up on ebay

The description read: "This is such a beautiful Vintage Patchwork quilt made from old ties. It's in good condition !!!! This is very collectable!! I found this at an estate sale in Pennsylvannia.
This is so gorgeous and measures 72"x68" inches."

detail:


Another one from ebay, this one more like folk art...just random, like a string quilt

Fun and Funky Quilt

Whimsical quilt made with neckties and clothing,
by Caryl Bryer Fallert.

Fallert says, "This quilt was inspired by my husband's decision to sort through and discard a twenty-five year accumulation of old clothes. I wanted to use his old clothing to represent the high-pressure business man coming home and 'unwinding' after a hectic day at the office."

More information and detailed photos here.

Also, great quilting article about sewing with neckties, and several photo examples, over at Quilt Bug.

Mixed Quilt

Here's a fun quilt from Quilt Words.

It is made from silk neckties, and men's wool suits (all thrifted fabrics).


I really like that she was not afraid to mix both fabric content and texture.

The finished blocks are less than seven inches, with individual logs cut at 1-1/4" to render 5/8".
Whew, that is really small when you're dealing with slippery silk and nubby wool.

More info about this quilt posted here
with better pics here,
and more details here.