Scrap (Happy) quilts from Dad's Shirts and Ties!

For Father's Day, how about a show of quilts made from shirts and ties? We love the idea of making something new, useful and beautiful from clothing.  Here are some quilts we admire, made from plaid shirts, beautiful silk ties and denim jeans.  Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!
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Tie One On, 67 x 54”, by Dianne Sheppard (California); longarm quilted by Jody Gosnell

This wonderful Dresden Plate quilt, made from silk ties, is machine pieced and hand appliqued. Dianne Sheppard says, "This quilt caused me major anxiety as I had never worked with men’s ties before and had no idea where to begin. My daughter’s mother-in-law asked me to make a quilt from her father’s tie collection. After much research and a book loaned to me from a friend, we decided on this design."

Dianne continues, "It took over two years to make, but I’m very happy with the results. What a learning experience!"  We photographed the quilt at the 2015 Pacific International Quilt Festival.

Dad’s Shirts by Becky Ripley at Ripley Quilting (Arizona)

Becky Ripley says, "I remember my dad every time I see this quilt, made from his plaid and striped cowboy shirts and quilted with pictures of some of his favorite things."  She included shirt pockets with pearl snaps, and quilted some Arizona themes, including saguaro cactus shown below.

Winding Plaid by Layne Rahbar (California)

This Winding Ways quilt is so clever! It is a frayed edge quilt made from plaid shirts, one of a series by Layne Rahbar. Winding Ways creates a secondary pattern of overlapping circles. Layne created high-contrast blocks by alternating dark and light plaids in green, blue red and neutrals. She says, "[I am] having fun with this method and still have a bin full of plaids."

Double Plaid Rings by Layne Rahbar

This fantastic double wedding ring quilt was made with upcycled plaid shirts. Instead of piecing, this was constructed by gluing and basting the arcs and corner pieces onto dark plaid squares. The squares were then pieced together, sandwiched and quilted on a domestic machine.

You can see the frayed raw edges in the closeup photo below.

Moonshadows, 90 x 82”, by Anne Joule (New Zealand)

Moonshadows is a huge (90 x 82") was made entirely from silk ties which were hand pieced, hand appliqued (borders) and hand quilted. It won Best Use of Color in the International Division at the 2016 Pacific International Quilt Festival.  Anne Joule says, "I enjoy paper piecing and hand applique. I like to use [silk ties] as the colors last."

Effervescence #2 by Margit Kagerer (Arizona)

This art quilt was shown in the 2015 Invitational Exhibit by the Mavericks Art Quilters at Quilt Arizona.  A native of Germany, fiber artist Margit Kagerer was introduced to the world of quilting and fiber art when she relocated to the United States.

You can find a book of Margit Kagerer's original quilts at CreateSpace.

Cosmo Quilt by Maria A. Michel-Zavala and Esteban Michel

Denim was used to make this quilt, with the aim to recycle discarded jeans (90% recycled, 10% new fabric.) Cosmo Quilt was based on a spiral galaxy, and was designed by Esteban Michel: “The Universe is the Quilt Of Our World.”

Image credits:  Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2016 Pacific International Quilt Festival (Moonshadows); the 2015 Pacific International Quilt Festival (Tie One On);  the 2017 Quilt Arizona show (Dad's Shirts); the 2015 Quilt Arizona show (Effervescence #2); the 2015 Diablo Valley Quilters' Guild show (Winding Plaid, Double Plaid Rings); and the 2014 Tucson (Arizona) Quilters' Guild show.