"Contemporary Bowtie" Quilt Top

I have been watching some You Tube videos lately. Among other things, I noticed a sew along for making a vintage bowtie quilt.

I was curious what a vintage bowtie quilt top (or block) was.

So, I researched it. I did a bit of a deep dive, in fact.

I found a couple of videos about vintage bowtie quilts that people had found. The video on the right below actually shows the newer way to make the block but also showed us vintage quilts.

 
 

I also found one lady who actually showed us how to make the block the ”vintage way”.

 
 

I even found a video of a lady who showed us how to make a completely different style of them. I found it interesting. The result is a bit more 3D than I was looking for, however.

 
 

The one I made is not an antique bowtie, but rather, it is really a look alike. The idea is that it “looks like” the bowtie quilt block when it is finished from a bit of a distance.

I made these blocks as the video shows above - using 2 - 3.5” squares and 2 - 2” squares of the color and 2 - 3.5” squares of white/light. (Check the video from Sunrise Quilt studio.) I am not positive the size of the blocks of the sew-along I heard about that I’m not doing. Jenny Doan at MCQC did a block a LONG time ago that was smaller than these.

 
 

I also found one here that makes a 2.5” square instead of 6.5” and I’m inclined to try that block out of my 1.5” squares. Could be cute - and I’d probably make that into the circular layout I’m showing below if I were to try to make one. I did it…..shown below.

I made a tiny bowtie block using 1.5” squares and the little pieces are cut 1”. Isn’t it adorable? By comparison I made a regular 4 patch from 2.5” squares - it’s for another project in the works. See the difference!!! ?

For this top I made 143 blocks and made them face to the left in the actual top. My tendency was to make them go to the right. I forced myself to “go left” with them. I don’t know why my tendency was to turn them to the right as in the photo below.

Another layout of this block

I didn’t want to make them in a circle layout, either, as shown to the right. I wanted these blocks to actually look like the block they are. I actually probably prefer the look of this one - with the blocks facing different ways. However, to me the blocks are kind of hidden and you can’t tell what they are. In this one quilt, I wanted the blocks to be seen - plain and simple. Many quilts I make I am going for a look that maybe you can’t even tell what the blocks are.

I also wanted this one to look light and pale and pretty. I chose blues, pinks, greens and some purples that I hoped went well together. The piecing is uber simple. I mean, seriously. This one makes even my checkerboard blocks look like intermediate piecing.

The blocks I made are 6.5” before finishing in the quilt at 6”.

I decided to let the border be WIDE. I’ve never done this before - at least not THIS wide. But I wanted this one light and feminine. I wanted the extra wide simple border to sort of look modern and old at the same time. That’s funny, isn’t it? It is a contemporary version of an old block. I should try the original way, though. I don’t see why I couldn’t but seems much slower and more difficult!

This is what it should look like after it is finished as I will put a colorful binding on.

Of course after all my perusing “bowtie quilt block” on google and You Tube, they are offering me just about everything that is out there. There really is a lot of information available to you already about most of these things. Feel free to use it - the internet is like having a library at your hands.

Anyway, here is the block: I cut the squares at 3.5” and the little colorful ones that you do the flip and stitch method are cut at 2”. If you don’t know how to make this block, just watch one of the videos shown above.


I decided to put a 10” border on the edges just to be different. I’ve never put such a big border on a quilt; however, this means that the blocks would be in on the center of a bed.

I did make this with 143 blocks or an 11x13 layout. I did use all florals - mostly smallish prints - though a couple of the prints were a bit bigger. I was looking for florals but also colors that I thought went well together. it felt wonderful to pull fabrics from my shelves in my actual stash room. :)

This is what it looked like before I added the border.

The center of this quilt is 66”x78”.

And here is the final top before of course, I’ve quilted it or added that final binding which I will use a color such as pink or blue or a just make scrappy one with the fabrics in the center.

Once the borders were added it is 87”x99” so it is a nice queen size quilt.

I was really just curious how it would look to have all those bowties floating in a center of white. I was going for super light and feminine and just “fresh” and “clean”. Now I don’t know if such a quilt would actually stay clean…there’s that.

But thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Becky Petersen7 Comments