Thank you for your nice comments. I cut the ties out with the template provided in the book and sewed the ties together to make a fan, I then appliqued each fan to a background block with my sewing machine set on an applique stitch. Yes you certainly can use a tie in more than one fan block. I had to use 21 of them twice. The border is a braided border. I saw it on the internet but I cannot remember which web sight it was on. If you google braided quilts you can probably find a web sight for it.