Welcome to Precious Tyes

I have many passions in life and one of them is quilting. The others are reading, knitting,
crochet, cross stitching exercise and being a mom which are all precious tyes to me.
This blog will be about all of these things but mainly about quilting and how it is tied into my life.
The above wall hanging was designed by me and published into a pattern called Homespun Memories.

My blog is also about my Nifty Fifty Quilting swaps which are 50 state quilt block swaps that I started organizing over 10 years ago when my husband was going through depression. It helped me through a very difficult time. We have swapped over 70,000 quilt blocks during this time with many stories that traveled across the country along with our state quilt blocks. Our groups also make charity quilts for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Breast Cancer Awareness Support

If anyone is ordering from Amazon this holiday season then please use our Amazon Link to get to Amazon before you go shopping.  Our Breast Cancer Awareness web pages benefit from each order that is placed at Amazon through our website.  Our page provides educational links for Breast Cancer Awareness. Some of these links includes Susan G Koman, Carol Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, Avon walk for cancer, Nifty Fifty Breast Cancer quilt, IBC support, National Breast Cancer Foundation, Breast Cancer Charities and Breast Cancer Awareness. You can click on any Amazon link on our pages or you can use our search box which is on the left side  www.niftyfiftyquilters.com/bclinks.html


Thank you for your support!!!!!!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Hawaii State Quilt block photos

I have never been to Hawaii but our swap got some terrific Hawaiian quilt blocks from our Nifty Fifty Quilters. My personal favorites are the Hawaiian appliqued blocks. The one pictured here is from our Nifty Fifty 12 swap which theme was Batiks. There was not any particular Hawaii state pattern used amongst our quilters but there were a couple of unique quilt blocks that represented the Hawaiian dance the Hula. And what would a group of quilt blocks from Hawaii be without a Pineapple quilt blocks from our Nifty Fifty 13www.niftyfiftyquilters.com/hawaii.html swap. Check out all the Hawaiian quilt blocks on our website at

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Breast Cancer Memory Jar

 Breast Cancer Month is over but the struggle still goes on throughout the year.  Our family just lost Madeline to Breast Cancer.  Madeline is my sister's mother-in-law but was a big part of our extended family. As one friend quoted this week...."to know Madeline is to love Madeline".  Her struggle started six years ago with Breast Cancer and she fought courageously these past few years.  I made a memory jar for my sister's family. It followed us throughout the services this weekend collecting special memories of Madeline written on colorful index cards and placed in the jar.  I made a mini quilt to attach to the jar using Carol Doak's Heart/Ribbon pattern.  I used pink fabric with golden dragonflies.  The pink fabric represented breast cancer and the dragonflies represented Madeline.  Dragonflies in Japan represent joy, happiness, courage and strength which all describes Madeline. Dragonflies in the United States represent rebirth or renewal after a great hardship or loss.  Hopefully this mini quilt and jar full of memories will help my sister's family through their sorrow and  loss.  





As you can see it is the first time I have made the Heart/Ribbon pattern and my ribbon is slightly off....It is also the first time I used my sewing machine's embroidery option The Amish purposely put a mistake in every quilt to remind themselves that they are not perfect because they have a saying..."Only God is perfect".
http://www.caroldoak.com/pdfs/Heartribbon3.pdf