Shirt-and-tie quilts, by Nancy Sturgeon

A necktie is a traditional gift for Father's Day.  But what if Dad already has a closet full of ties ? Nancy Sturgeon advises, "Start collecting your family ties before they are thrown away or donated to charity."  Nancy created an heirloom quilt by using about 100 different ties for the body of the quilt, and 140 tie tails for the prairie points.  Her masterpiece, shown below, includes almost the entire tie (tip, label, lining, and fabric).  

Tie quilt, 52 x 52", by Nancy Sturgeon, at Threads Through Time

Nancy explains the motivation for her 'tie quilts': "My neighbor, Donna, started this project. After her dad died, she wanted to make a quilt from his ties-- though she doesn't sew much at all. I found a book called Quilts for guys : 15 fun projects for your favorite fella, edited by Cyndy Lyle Rymer. In it was a wonderful quilt design, and Donna and I decided to make it.  I cracked the whip over my friend Donna to get her to finish her quilt and we are both proud of them, though they are very different."  Donna's sparkling quilt is shown below.

Nancy also made quite a few smaller wall hangings for friends and family from leftover ties: "The quilt below is the smaller wall hanging that I made my dad. I also made one for my daughter's father-in-law and my brother-in-law and my neighbor who gave me a stash of Jack Nicklaus golfing ties. One wall hanging was square and the others were rectangular... some times I used the small neck area of the tie for the binding, and some times I used the labels. Each wall hanging was different."

What we love about this story is not only the beautiful quilts themselves, but the way in which Nancy's projects have brought together neighbors, friends and family to create wonderful new memories. She even made a crazy quilt silk jacket for her mother using "golf" design ties. So, is Nancy getting tired of making quilts from neckties? She says: "I love ties and have a huge stash of them all ready to make another quilt."

Image credits and links: Images are shown with the generous permission of Nancy Sturgeon at Threads Through Time. To read the original post - with more details about Nancy's tie quilts - click here.