Taking Care of a Crazy Quilt....by not Restoring It

 

The owner sent me these photos of her gorgeous crazy quilt for an initial assessment.  She and I decided not to do any repairs at this time.  However, it's such a beautiful quilt that I wanted to share it, and I am grateful that she has allowed me to share her photos.

It was made for my great great grandfather John Davis Cassada when he was born by his mother Lucy and his aunts.  Many were single or widowed from the Civil War.  All the initials are attributable to family members.  They were very thrilled to have a male in the family and used many 'fancy' scraps of silk and velvet. 

 John Davis Cassada was born in 1874.  His mother's name was spelled Lucie and Lucy alternatively.   John was born in South Boston, Virginia.  His family moved and he married and settled in Halifax then Raleigh area North Carolina. 

The reason I didn't have her send the quilt to me for repair is that the damage, shattering silk, is minimal for a silk quilt of this era.  Shattering is the damage caused by metal salts that were sometimes added during the manufacturing of silks during the Victorian era.

But I also know that the pieces that look alright in the photos could actually be very brittle or weak.  Packing to ship would be very stressful for them, even if the folds are padded carefully.  Handling and stitching would add more stress.  That all seemed to outweigh those few pieces with damage, most of it still minimal.  

Lately, I've had some silk crazies here that have been quite a bit more fragile than I expect.  I'm wondering if these silks have passed some kind of threshold of fiber weakness.  I mean, it's been 40-ish years (oh, my) since I started doing this work, degradation could definitely be progressing....  The damage from weighting of silks is known to have no real remedy.  Storage in stable temperature and humidity levels and being kept out of the light can slow the process, but not stop it.

Another factor is the quantity of patches with hand-painted designs.  It's not uncommon for the paints to damage the fabrics.  And yet another factor are the 3-D, gathered flowers (alá yo-yos or Suffolk puffs) and what I think is some embroidery with chenille yarns (thicker and fuzzy).  The quilt would need very careful packaging, with plenty of padding in the folds and between layers to keep the 3-D bits from getting flattened and the paint from cracking.  

So if the owner decides to have some repair work done someday, finding someone local and avoiding packing to ship would be best. 

Anyway, let's just enjoy this one for having survived so well and hope for careful storage and a long future for it.