THE TIES THAT BIND – Around The Frame

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers and father figures out there! What a special day to relax and enjoy your children whether they are young ones or young-at-heart. If you are a dad of a certain age, you will remember your children gifting you with a tie on this special day. Whether a wide tie from the 1970’s, a foulard or paisley, or maybe a wacky tie, you could certainly count on receiving one on Father’s Day.

Times have changed: wearing a tie everyday has gone out of vogue. Some creative quilters collect them and make quilts out of them. There are books like Christine Copenhaver’s Necktie Quilts Reinvented or like most projects these days you can find a YouTube video on how to create them.

Today I pay homage to neckties with a little 18” x 18” hand quilted quilt made by Penelope Johnson of Clackmas, Oregon. A few years ago, we met through Etsy when she purchased small grandmother’s flower garden blocks from me to embroider on to dishtowels. Last August I came across her shop and favored a few of her creations quite possibly embellished with my blocks. Penelope was so delighted, she sent me one of her towel creations and this little necktie quilt that wasn’t doing well in her shop. Look at the neckties with their little shirt collar buttons: ties with geometric, paisley, solid color, tone on tone, and of course novelty prints.

For those of us who have lost our dads, who remember them whipping their ties around pulling the knot, straightening it and one final tug, the necktie will always take us back to those days of being with our dads and honoring him with a new one on his special day.

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