Power ties in bloom

It's day 5 of our series on quilts made from neckties, and we're so excited about "Power Ties in Bloom". This is a series of quilts made by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood and exhibited at ArtPrize 2010. The ties were donated by West Michigan business men and community leaders.  Jennifer used the ties to create five different quilts with colorful, hexagon-shaped blooms.

We love Jennifer's creative re-use of neckties, and the way in which this classic quilt pattern has been made to look thoroughly modern.  Jennifer explains: "I took apart the ties, backed them with interfacing, cut them up into three inch squares and used an English paper piecing method to hand-stitch the tie fabric into hexagon shaped blooms. I hand-stitched the hexagon flowers together to form giant appliques to attach to backing fabric that I machine quilted.  About 25 volunteers helped me stitch more than 120 of these flowers."  All five of the "Power Ties in Bloom" can be seen at Jennifer's website, Craft Sanity. You can also see a videotaped interview of Jennifer, discussing Power Ties in Bloom, on YouTube.

Image credits and links: Images are shown with the generous permission of Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood.   Craft Sanity is her creative blog, podcast and magazine for those who love things handmade.