In January I was contacted by a High
School Classmate about making a tie quilt. Her Father had recently passed away
and she wanted the quilt for a gift to her mother. I had never made a quilt on
commission before. I had been asked plenty of times but had always turned it
down because I am kept so busy with everything else I do. But, I was really
intrigued with the idea of a tie quilt.
She told me what
size she wanted the quilt. Do to shrinkage from the quilting and laundering I
planned to make it a little bigger. I began with a sketch. Then I took this
design to the computer.
I do not have a
special program that I use to design quilts. I simply use Word, so this is the
best I could get.
Next I did some research on-line for making a tie quilt. The best thing I found was to wash all of the ties in the hottest water and dry them in the hottest dryer. Some of the ties did not fare as well as others. But overall I was surprised how nicely the ties did come out
I found a lot of
suggestions on deconstructing the ties. I chose not to go that route because I
wanted to keep the integrity of the ties and use the ties as ties.
This was my first
cut.
I was a little
nervous about cutting into the ties.
I had decided
that I was going to stitch a circle of ties together and then applique them
onto the background fabric. Here I had taken two of the skinny ends to audition
stitches to determine which one I was going to use. I decided to go with the
blind hem stitch pictured above and use Superior's clear Mono Poly Thread.
I decided that
the tie circle should be about 36 inches in diameter. I didn't think that it
would look very good if it was too big and I certainly did not want it to hang
over the side of the bed. I thought 36 inches was a nice size for the center
medallion in the middle of the bed.
The ties all
stitched together in a circle.
The tie circle
appliqued to the background fabric. I used Kona Snow for the background. Since
I did not deconstruct the ties the medallion was very heavy.
When I got to this stage I decided not to go with my original design. This quilt was getting time
consuming and heavy. So, I just added some borders. I asked my client if she
wanted blue, maroon, or green. I was hoping she would choose blue and she did.
The blue I chose is Robert Kaufman's Quilters Linen.
I freehand
quilted it on the longarm with feathers and swirls. I have to say that it was
tough going through some of the ties. It was very thick.
I sewed the
binding down by machine. I do think that it makes a much stronger binding. And
on the up side, it is quicker.
My client has not received the quilt yet but she has seen a picture.
She seemed very
pleased and is excited about surprising her Mother with it.
I did learn a few
things in this process. I would like to make another one and do a few things
differently. There was quite a bit of interest when I showed it at my guild. I
am thinking that this might need to be a class that I offer. I will decide that
after I make another.
