In March 2026, I turned 75. I didn't do anything earth shattering to celebrate. In the past two years, I have faced physical challenges - not life threatening but hand mobility challenging putting a cramp in my textile art activity.
In honour of my 75th, I decided to start winding down my textile practice. Now, this isn't a terribly slow process since I have enough "stuff" to keep me busy for quite a while...
I decided to start with this box of batting scraps.
I had been quilting for 20 years and accumulated many scraps from the batting cutoffs once the quilt is quilted. I have tried different kinds of batting over the years and my favorite brand is "on sale". I did not, unfortunately, mark the batting type as I cut them off so I had a bin of various types and while batting of similar types can be sewn together and reused in a new quilt, different types cannot (different rates of shrinkage).
They can, however, be sewn together to use in art quilts which generally are not washed hence shrinkage not an issue.
So on March 7th, I started sewing them into approximately 10" - 10 1/2" squares and ended up with this pile of squares.
I was a little short of 75 squares so I cut some more from Faigie's fabric which was either batting or wool felt. Since it isn't being washed, it didn't matter.
This was the first necktie quilt I made (made either 2005 or 2015 - can't remember and too lazy to check right now) from my cousin's late husband's ties. I did the Dresden Plate 9 patch and the border braids, but Carmit (my daughter) finished putting it together and quilting it. Our first collaboration. This king-size quilt resides in Israel. There were 90 ish neckties used and because I needed 108 blades, some ties were in there twice, once on the front of the tie and once on the reverse side.
It was a labour of love but once finished, I said that I never wanted to look at another tie again.
The next time neckties were offered to me, I said it's just silk fabric. You can treat it as silk fabric. So I accepted the neckties - they were/are beautiful - and while deconstructing them thought about the man from whom the ties came. I picked them up from his widow knowing nothing about him. I read the comments on the funeral home website's obit and learned that he was active in his synagogue and many people mentioned the ties he wore to shul. I thought that the ties had probably heard all of the Torah readings. And so my Torah Tie Project started.
I have written about it in my blog but these are the finished Torah Tie Quilts.
So I am no stranger to ties. And my friends kept bringing me ties...
So I decided to use this bin of ties for the 75 project.
The ties had already been deconstructed before I received them so I just had to iron them and then attach lightweight iron on stabiliser to them. But before I could do that, I had to decide on a pattern. My neighbour, who is an upholsterer, gave me some books of fabric samples. Many of them were white, in different materials and textures. For most of them, I could get a 5" square. This became the centre of the block. I cut out the 5" squares, ironed on stabiliser and placed them onto the centres of my batting squares.
Then I cut out lengths, 2 1/2" wide of stabiliser. I needed two 5" lengths for the sides of the white squares, and two 9" lengths for the top and bottom of the squares.
Then I ironed the stabiliser onto the back of the tie and cut.
I should have paid attention to the placement because the pattern is off kilter but in the big picture, it didn't present a real problem.
Then I sewed two 5" pieces on the sides of the square, one on each side. (I know: explaining "one on each side" may be overkill but not everyone can read IKEA instructions). And ironed the seams open.
I admit that occasionally I sewed the centre square with the interfacing facing up instead of the fabric, but I didn't notice it until the embellishing part. Not that noticeable either.
Repeated 75 times.
And then the fun and/or anxiety started. How to embellish the centre squares? My first four were easy - I had originally crazy quilt pieced them. So I did my usual embroidery, beads, findings combo.
Then I remembered that aside from the white upholstery/drapery fabric sample I had received
3 1/2" X 10" silk samples in many colours. I figured that if I placed one 3" ish square in the middle of my 5" (now 4 1/2") square and layered another smaller square in the middle of that, they could look nice. And if I used a fabric which is intentionally frayed, it adds texture. And with beads, buttons, findings on that - well, you get the picture.
I did however want to do some embroidery. And each time something embroidered popped up on my feed, it found its way onto a piece. I also wanted to try needle lace embroidery. And I did. Not as fancy or even stitched as Sarah Homfrey, but good enough for me.
I also tried a couple of little quilted vignette making,
In short, I finished 75 squares in just under 75 days. I shared progress with the Pomegranate Guild along the way.
I had originally planned to finish each block individually, hoping to exhibit them at some point.
After I (almost) finished the first one, my inner lazy self cried "too much work". So I decided to join the blocks and make them into wall hanging quilts. 3 of 12 blocks or 5 of 15? I decided on 5 of 15 because I can manipulate them more easily on my sewing machine.
I made a temporary design wall in addition to my permanent one so I could see all the blocks at once and move them around to make the wall hangings so I could spread out the different techniqued centre squares and try to avoid having all the embroidery or collaging in one place.
Sneak preview:
I put them up, made my choices and took them down to sew together.
