Warm memories sewn up into a quilt

Upon retirement, Tech vice principal vows never to wear a tie, By John Church Jack Utter of Frankford was determined to never wear a necktie after he retired and his wife helped his dream come true. Lisa Krauss-Utter shipped all of his neckties to a friend in Wisconsin to be made into a special gift. “I took every last one of Jack’s ties and mailed them to friend Barbara Thyren of Boscobel, Wis., to be made into a quilt,” said Krauss-Utter. The quilt is truly a retirement memento as Thyren filled in the corners and the center of the quilt with a list of all the titles Utter held while serving at Sussex County Technical School. Utter graduated from Sussex Tech as a welder in 1975 and later switched direction to earn a degree in history at East Stroudsburg University. While at Sussex County Technical School, he served as a history teacher, building trades teacher, principal and he recently retired as vice principal. Many of the ties in the quilt were gifts from students. Formerly a 20-year resident of Franklin, Thyren made her reputation as a skilled seamstress while doing alterations for family, friends and neighbors. Although she had made much smaller quilts for her daughters and grandchildren, Thyren never made a piece of this size and complexity. “The first issue was making the ties all the same size,” said Thyren. “I opened the seam on the back of the ties and re-folded the fabric on some of them. I made the narrow ones wider and the wider ones narrower.” The uniform pie slice-shaped pieces were be assembled into circular patterns of widely varying colors. Two musical and lighted ties had the electrical parts removed before being added to the fabric puzzle. Utter’s ties had different stretch characteristics and Thyren found she needed to sew backing behind them to stabilize them. A big job “Making the quilt was not easy,” said Thyren. “I had no directions, just a photograph I saw on the Web. After taking apart 144 ties I was afraid to start putting them together.” Starting in January it took until March for the ties to be assembled into a pattern and sewn onto the quilt top. A layer of batting and a backing was attached before she sent the quilt off to be professionally quilted. (Quilting is the curving pattern of stitching that covers the entire piece and keeps the layers from shifting.) A quilter in Wisconsin made quick work of the task and returned the piece to Thyren. “There was a waiting list for the quilting service and I was lucky to have the work done so quickly,” said Thyren. After sewing on a binding around the edge of the quilt by hand the project was completed in May. The finished piece measures 90 inches by 100 inches. All that remained was presenting it to Utter and the perfect opportunity was when the Utters visited Wisconsin to attend a wedding. “I had to buy a tie for Jack to wear to the wedding,” said Krauss-Utter. “His entire collection was sewn into the quilt.” “In addition to being a unique and beautiful quilt it is a tapestry of wonderful and rewarding memories,” said Utter. Apparently many other people like the quilt as it earned a People’s Choice Award at the Sussex County Fair this year. Utter had to be reached for comment by phone as he has been taking his retirement seriously. He is in Colorado on a fishing trip and it’s a good bet he is not wearing a necktie.