Hello Alice, Welcome !! :-) I'm in Northeast Fl. I have been quilting and making quilts for 31 yrs. The 1st quilt I made was a crazy-quilt and used an old soft blanket as the batting. I made it for my eldest son @ the time. He is 38 now and is now using a Kingsize quilt that I made out of charm sqs (5" x 5" cotton sqs). It took me about 5 yrs to gather all the charm squares. Let me know if I can help U at all. Instead of using the ties right now, an easy quilt would be to make a lap quilt (maybe 50" by 60") just out of 5" charms or 6" charms. That way it will go fast.