The Ties that Bind

My dear friend lost her husband to cancer and after I made memory T-shirt quilts for her daughters she asked if I could also make quilts for her and her mother-in-law with his ties.  As if she could stop me;-)

I started with this pile of ties which I first had to disassemble and then interface.  Since I needed to get 2 quilts worth of fabric out of these I spent a lot of time planning everything out before I started cutting.

For the first quilt I decided to go with a fairly traditional tie quilt pattern and made a giant Dresdan plate.  I should have added some objects to the photo for scale but this Dresdan is 40" across. Since I had 30 ties to work with I bought a fancy new 15° ruler to cut the large wedges but after that it was pretty much the same process as my (still unfinished) Blue Plate Special.

To keep the focus on the ties I kept the quilting simple.  Once I'd quilted down the edges I used a hera marker to mark lines radiating thru the center of each wedge out to the edge.  I used a shirting fabric for the background and combined with the different weight silks it was a bit challenging to quilt but I love the finished effect.

The second quilt was inspired by a quilt by my insanely creative friend @RebeccaLorenQuilts.

For this one I made fan sections with the wedges and then glued them down to the Essex Linen blocks.  The biggest challenge was adding the quarter circle wedges.  I made circles with linen and interfacing then cut them into quarters and fused them on to the blocks before piecing them together.

I used navy Essex linen on the back, reminiscent of a blue blazer, and the binding was made from one of John's dress shirts.  It was such a honor to make these quilts but I'm really hoping I don't have the occasion to make any more for a long, long time.

My friend Michelle of From Bolt to Beauty is hosting a Brag About Your Beauties linky party and giveaway so hop over there and check out her amazing collection of projects!

To a Tee

This is another project I worked on this summer during my blogging hiatus.  A dear friend of mine lost her husband to cancer.  These quilts were made for his daughters from his favorite T-shirts.

I've never made a T-Shirt quilt before, and I have say this is one of the most labor intensive projects I've ever done.  I used an entire bolt of SF-101 to interface the shirts.  Of course I did this during a heat wave...  I was literally sweating over a hot iron.

Fitting all the pieces together was a bit like putting together a puzzle.  I tried to keep them to consistent widths and the height in multiples of 3".  This was definitely one where I was thankful for my design wall!

Huge thanks to my friend Jane for letting me use her longarm to quilt these.  I used a big loopy scribble and was able to get them both done in a day.

As usual these got dragged around while I hand tacked the binding.  I don't know what people who don't quilt do with all those random wait around times.  I go crazy without something to keep my hands busy!

I backed these with some snuggly flannel.  It's almost like a hug...  I know nothing can ever replace their Dad but I hope these are a warm reminder of him.

Checking in with this week's Finish it Up Friday by Crazy Mom Quilts.

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilts are 68" x 70"
Fabrics: Sashing and Binding FSDS Cosmic Blue.  Backing Mammoth Flannel Checkerboard - Ocean.
Batting: Quilter's Dream Cotton Select.