In making the tie quilts, I took the ties apart, hand washed them (if necessary), then backed them with an iron on backing. Used templates for all the pinwheel pieces, hand traced them , cut them out and then just sewed them together like fabric. Quite the challenge, the other quilts I made ranged in size from 35"x 42" to twin size, to this California King. I had a friend of mine quilt the CK quilt, too big for me to do.