Bow Ties - an intro

A few years ago, when I was working in the 'rat race', catching public transport and wearing suits - I would always look at mens ties.  Especially their Bow Ties.  I love Bow Ties.  Somehow the wearing of a Bow Tie allowed a man's personality to show through, even though it was being constrained by holiding down a serious responsible role as a Stockbroker, Banker or Engineer.  The bow ties worn by these men were often very flamboyant, against the dark grey/black/pinstriping of their suits.  It is these city men who inspired me to make a Bow Tie quilt.

Of the 327 blocks I have made so far, I pulled a random sample of 16 out of the box so that I could play around with the layout.

Layout 1 - Straight Set

Layout 2 - Octagonal Centres

 

Layout 3 - Interesting...

Of course there are many more layout options with the blocks on point and/or sashing in between them.  I have an idea of where I want to head with this quilt - so I'm off to lay out all of the blocks to see if my idea will work.  I'm quitely confident that it will.

And.... if there are blocks that I don't like in the quilt, I can make more.  There are another 200+ fabric squares in the box from when I was collecting interesting "tie" fabrics.  The ones I don't use will end up on the back of the quilt so they won't be wasted.  The extra fabric squares will probably end up as part of the backing too.