Bow Tie Quilt Block

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Just as an FYI – if you have a bunch of men’s ties and need some inspiration, check out my article here: https://scrapdash.com/using-mens-ties-in-quilts/. There are some inspiring pictures at the bottom of this page, too.

A Bow-Tie quilt block is a four-patch block with a square in the center.

The Traditional Method of making a Bow Tie block is to make four blocks with a clipped corner.  Sew these together in a four-patch, using partial-seam piecing to insert a square in the center.  This is a good hand-piecing method, especially if you want to feature something fussy-cut in the square.

An easier method is to use four squares, two dark and two light.  The lighter squares would have a corner of the darker color fabric.  To create that corner, you would draw a diagonal line on the back of a small dark square and place it right sides together on the corner of a larger light square.  Sew on this line and flip the square over.  Trim the underside if you like.

The size of that corner is optional. In the graphic above, I have sized the unfinished small square to be exactly half the size of the unfinished large square. (If I had colored all four corners, it would have looked like a square-in-a-square block.) That would give you a Bow Tie block that looked like the one below.

You could use a smaller small square, too. 

For example, you could size the unfinished small square in the Bow Tie block to be about a third of the unfinished large square. (If you color all four corners, it would look like a snowball block.)

If you are making a scrappy quilt, you can color the corner of all four blocks.  Why not reverse two of them? You could even use different sizes for the corner.  This is YOUR quilt, make it the way you like it.

Here is one that I made for Connecting Threads. It uses a set of 5″ charm squares.

Yes, you can cheat! For example, you could make a four-patch, alternating dark and light patches, and sew a button in the center. Instructions to make a dimensional Bow Tie block are here.

What can you do with Bow-Tie Quilt Blocks?

Here are some layout ideas. I did them in grayscale so the fabric did not distract you. There are only a few ideas here – I am sure you can think of a lot more!

Pictures of quilts made with men’s ties

Here are pictures that a few generous quilters shared with me.

Pattern is From Sweet Pea Designs	Dresden Plates from Pam R	Pam R made this from her dads ties.
Apron made from Men’s Ties Shown at the Davisburg Country Fair In Michigan	Steve’s Ties made these pillows	and his shirts made these!

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