Bowing Down.....

and of course that seems to indicate a lowering the head and a bending of the knee. But that's not it today. Rather than that, think "bo" *VBS* With the posting of the newest bow tie quilt top last week, a couple of questions arose. I answered those in e-mail, but it got me to thinking. I really DO use the old standby "bow tie" block quite often. I like the look of it, the various ways you can lay them out, and the ease of piecing since we no longer have to use a Y-seam. With the invention of the "use a square, sew and flip", bow ties got a whole lot easier. And they lend them well to working with scrap, as you can see in these pictures. The only one of this 6 that I followed a pre-determined "set" on, is the red, blue and purple Half Dropped Bows quilt. That's the pic with me holding the quilt. It was one of my earlier quilts. It's machine pieced and hand quilted. Back in the early 1990's. In the other pictures you can see(and they will enlarge with a click)that I sometimes keep all the backgrounds the same, but more often I use scraps, not necessarily even keeping both background pieces the same. I do, however, seem to keep the bowties all one fabric. Not sure why, but I don't like them to all mixed up. I think it's that in each/any scrap endeavor some thing needs to be static, so the eye can rest.
 If you want to give bow ties a try, the formula is very simple. I make mine mostly 6.5". It's a size I like. Not too big, not too small. Altho 2.5" and 4.5" are nice too, and I've been know to make those also.
You need two squares of background fabric for each bow tie. I cut them 3.5" and set them aside. For the bow tie itself, I cut two squares(novelty print) 3.5" and two squares of the same fabric as 2" squares. Those become the knots. The block is laid out like a 4 patch. A bow tie piece next to a background, and reverse that in the row below. Lay the small square RST in the lower corner of the background where it touches the bowtie fabric. Stitch across on the diagonal, trim and reposition. Do the same with the bottom row. The side where the 2" square touches the bow tie is opposite from rhe pieces above. Sew, trim and flip that little square into a triangle also. Join up with the bowtie body and then sew the "parts" into a 4 patch. Now I know it seems impossible to get anything reversed in this very simple block, but trust me....it's possible. I know!! When I am cutting up scraps into sizes, I often "cut" for a 6.5" bowtie quilt. Especially from the prints. It's easy to cut an extra 2 3.5" squares, 2 2" squares, pin or stack them together and put aside for when you want to make this quilt. It really does make the job alot easier. If you have questions or need pictures to see the layout, just give me a hollar *VBS*