BlueBars, really, really nice quilt. You did a great job with color placement, and the elephant is so well done! This may be my favorite "ties" quilt ever. :)
Cheryl

That is just wonderful. You can be very proud.
Linda

I think it's wonderful, too. The elephant is the crowning touch!

That is very pleasing to the eye!! Love it!

What a wonderful quilt! You did a great job on it and I love both the use of ties and the elephant!

That is awesome. You did a great job. I have to agree that is the best tie quilt I' ve ever seen.

BlueBars, That is very nice. What a good friend you are!
Nancy

Far and away the best tie quilt I've ever seen! I'm inspired to start picking up old ties on thrift sales and try something similar.

Annie

That is a great tie quilt. Must try that some time.

Bluebars,
This is wonderful. What a great memory for your friend.

TFS
Sally

I was never interested in using ties for quilts, but you have changed my mind!!!
I love it you did a great job.
Rosa

Tres magnifique!!

Liz

That's a GR8 quilt,great use of the ties and the elephant is just the perfect thing to set it off.TFS
Kathi

I will share with you what I learned on this project:
It took just as long to cut apart all the ties as it did to make the quilt. And bits of shreds everywhere all the time.
Some fray a lot more than others.
Silk snags easily, so use a new sharp needle.
The reason why there are straight pieces between the paper piecing is because the blocks got so thick sometimes where the seams cross. But they had to be on bias so those strips didn't stay very straight. Difficult to quilt through all those thicknesses, too.
The double knits were awful thick. Choose nice soft ties; that bright blue stripe was delightful to work with. The really thin silk ones were like linings, really flimsy, and I doubled them up to give them more body.
Some look very different when you turn them in a different direction, reflect light differently.
You can add variety by reversing the fabric--all of the inner squares, and most of the outer ones, used both the front and the reverse. The elephant's ear is reversed to change the color.
Leave as much paper on for as long as you can, and tear away the paper pieces carefully because everything is on bias and the silks are very stretchy.
Use a solid cotton batting so it does not shift or stretch and holds all those bias pieces in place.
The wool backing was thick and kept everything very flat and nice.
The easiest part of all was the bias binding. The last step, hand stitching the binding to the back, the thickness of the wool kept me from catching the silks on the front.
That's all I can think of. I would love to see what others do too!
Bluebars

That is wonderful! And I love the elephant! You really did an excellent job. He will love it.

Teresa

Great job. I bet it felt very satisfying to finish such a challenging project. You should be very proud. Congratulations. Way to go!
And thanks for passing along what you learned.
~Geraldine

I especially love the way you did the binding. Ditto on all the kudos about the best tie quilt. What is the significance of the elephant? Political? Retiring is like taking an elephant off your back? Elephant for memory?

I love quilts that have a story. Carole

WOW! I really like this too. I have a box of ties but only pictured tie-shaped, pie type blocks. This is way cooler. And I really like the elephant. Ingenius to use the reverse for the ear. It turned out wonderful.

Congrats, and tfs.
Faye

Thanks for all your nice comments; glad you like this quilt.
The elephant is something special to this couple. They support elephant sanctuaries, etc., decorate their home with an elephant theme, and are Republicans. And there was this fabulous textured gray silk tie! It looks Kind of wrinkly like an elephant? So that's where I started. The rest had to be simple blocks to keep it easy and scrappy, 'cause that elephant was not easy! And it keeps the focal point.
Usually I do hand applique, but silk does not cooperate, so paper piecing worked great for this.
I saved all the tie maker labels in a ziploc bag. Maybe I will tack a few of them on the back for hanging this wall quilt. How's that for recycling? And of course I will have to make a "Made By" label for the quilt itself.
BlueBars