TIE QUILT

CAN YOU HELP? I HAVE NEVER MADE ONE... BUT I HAVE BEEN COLLECTING TIES FOR ABOUT A YEAR AND I THINK I AM READY... DO I CUT LITTLE SQUARES AND FILL THEM TO MAKE IT PUFFY, OR DO I LEAVE LONG TIE SECTIONS SO THAT IT LOOKS LIKE A TIE... HAS ANY ONE TRIED DIFFERENT IDEAS... THANKS FOR YOU INPUT! BON

Here's at least one option http://huntsville.about.com/cs/women/a/tiequilt.htm There are a lot of things to do with old ties. My aunt's sister did a star pattern, by laying them next to each other and sewing them together. She did cut the ends off and used the leftovers for her corners. Definitely sort your ties by fabric content. Silk/cotton/polyester. You don't want to mix fabrics especially if this will be a quilt that will be used and need to be laundered.

I washed the ties (even the silk ones) and pulled out all the stitching and ironed them. (This may be too obvious to mention, but I thought I was brilliant when I did it.) I used a printed foundation fabric that I got at JoAnn and used strips of the ties to make foundation pieced Fan blocks. I used the wide part of the tie for the rounded corner section and the narrower strips for the ribs of the fan. I used a neutral cotton for the larger curved piece. Then I did simple Crazy Quilt type embroidering along the borders of the Fans with the thinnest perle cotton.