Thanks to Nancy H and Judy in Ohio

Thanks to you both for the quick answers.  While googling around last evening I found the Missouri Star quilt co. videos.  There are many!  Although it wasn't meant to be in the shape of a necktie, the Dresden plate shown on their video looks just like a bunch of neckties.  (smaller, and in the Aunt Gracie prints) The video is very clear and understandable.  So, I think that I will go with a wall hanging, maybe 40 X 40 or something around that size.  My SIL says she is sending me a picture of my brother, so I will copy it onto white muslin and use it as the center.  Not sure when all this will be done, as I also opened my big mouth and volunteered to make a T shirt quilt for a friend from church who's oldest girl is graduating from homeschooling and going off to college in Sept.
I also have to clean out closet in quilting room to find the bag of ties!
We are having a lovely spring day today, light breeze.  Sun in and out.
I found another yoga class that meets on Tues. mornings.  It is gentle and v e r y s l o w.  Best of all it goes through the summer and is Free.  A local church has it in a small Sunday School room.
Sara in Fla.

Y2K + 13 update

What a productive retreat! Much to my own amazement, I got all 9 28" blocks made for the Y2K + 13 quilt!

This took a mere 1296 squares and 4 days to complete! There will be more white sashing between the blocks and then an outer border that will accomodate the remaining 717 squares to bring the total up to 2013. So far this has been much less tedious than I expected. Remind me I said that when I am in the middle of piecing those borders...

The squares collected from here and from the Quilting Forum needed very little added to allow these crayon box colours and there are enough squares left to complete the borders, I believe. Amazing!

I will post more pictures as the project moves to the next stage...

Paper-Pieced Quilt Top

The first photo shows you a paper pieced quilt top I started working on in mid-February of this year. This is from a kit I purchased at the SewBatik booth in April, 2011 at the first Spring IQF in Cincinnati and I felt I had to get busy working on it before I attended the 2013 Spring IQF in April of this year.  :-)   The kit is called "Wings of Eagles" and they were still selling it in their booth in 2013. It was supposed to be a twin bed quilt but I fizzled out after making only 35 blocks; it turns out that I am not fated to make umpteen pineapple blocks.  My version will be only a couch quilt.

My DH and I had plans to visit our granddaughters who live almost 500 miles from us and so I took along this paper pieced beauty and pulled a Tom Sawyer on them.  :-)  They are ten years old and I told them that I hoped they would be old enough to help their grandma use bent tweezers to remove paper from the back of her quilt.  Well, the idea of using bent tweezers to remove tiny crumbs of paper was just the trick  We used the empty Coke carton as a wastebasket as we ripped off the large pieces of foundation paper and then the girls (twins) shared the tweezers for the delicate crumb picking.  Is Grandma clever or what?  I had already pulled papers from seven blocks before I left Ohio.  These little Marylanders got papers off of twenty more blocks while they chatted away at my side.  Only eight more blocks to go!

Both of my grandmothers were quilters.  My mother made several quilts. My daughter is a quilter. I think I have created a bit of interest in my son's two girls so that they might grow up someday to seriously consider quilting as a hobby ....  gotta keep that gene pool flourishing.  LOL

Quilt out of neckties?

This is not a new idea, but I opened my big mouth, no have to do what I said.
Last June as I reported, my 66 yr. old brother died.  On closing up the house, my SIL gave me most of his ties, and I said I would make a quilt out of them. 
Well, now she wants it!  I have checked out Pinterest, and have seen "Daddy's Ties".  Anyone out there made one?  How hard is it to work with silk?
Looking for something basic--I'm thinking like a flower with the "petals' being the various neckties.  He had several with musical notes, music theme, as he taught piano.  They are in all different colors.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Sara in Fla. where ther storms have past.