This project has been long overdue, almost 3 years. After the bridesmaid dress quilt I wanted to try and upcycle men’s ties into a quilt. My father in law graciously gave me a bunch of his along with one of our friends. I ripped them all apart and set them aside.
Later that December my father in law passed very unexpectedly. The third anniversary was just a few weeks ago. Losing a parent is hard and has taken our family some time to heal. This post sums up how I felt three years ago.
As we have been unpacking my fabric into the back room I found the bag of ties. The idea immediately came to me to make a pillow cover for my brother in law and mother in law for Christmas using these. There was enough interfacing left over from the t-shirt quilts that I didn’t have to run out and get more. Considering I do most of my creative work from 8PM – 11PM having stuff on hand is a bonus for me.
Of course I started working on these December 27th. Yes, after Christmas presents now. Sorry for the low light photos it was late at night and our living room isn’t great for light. I wanted to show how I made these blocks.
I took these pieces and trimmed them into 3″ squares. In my scrap bags I grabbed two different shades of gray to create half square triangles. My original vision was half square triangles with differing grays.
After pairing the tie squares and solids, I created half square triangles. The seams are pressed open and I did not trim up the blocks.
Each square was placed to be a light gray then medium gray alternating.
The piecing was fairly easy on the first one. I should have used pins to match up seams. My mother in law didn’t seem to mind. I backed the pillow in a solid brown scrap. Added bonus I still had some stuffing from making pillows a while back. Have you tried to fight the crowd at Jo-anns on a weekend? I truly best to avoid that places except late at night. No one is there.
She was excited to take it home with her a couple of weeks ago. Kevin…yours will be in the mail this weekend. Here’s a sneak peek if you can’t wait. See I buried it at the bottom.
I finished the last two up this week. Rob and I were sitting around watching Homeland while I stuffed pillows. Not sure if he realized it or not, but I was wearing his dad’s old Giants shirt, stuffing the pillows made from his dad’s ties.
Each pillow is different and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Friday.
http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-quiet-christmas-quilt.html