Quilt Repair Tidbits #3

The next post of fun quilt repair moments. 

This week:  a prize-winning family heirloom quilt.  Check out the design and sewing skills, about as perfect as a quilt can get.

I hope this beauty will inspire you to join in the virtual quilt repair and care workshop that I will be teaching in winter 2024.  All the info is on my website.  Email to be added to the mailing list for notification when registration opens.

The workshop will cover restoration and conservation supplies and techniques and how to choose which to use, and also, fabric history, and preservation concepts like storage and cleaning.  Everyone will get to show a quilt or two and we’ll discuss how to proceed with their care.

The marvelous appliqué.

 The marvelous quilting. The feather wreath echoes the appliqué.

Look at the border with alternating flower designs!

How many stitches per inch?!  Beautifully made!

There were a few areas of worn fabric.  Since the owner was planning to continue storing the quilt, we decided against doing any stitching into the weakened fabrics and left it as is. 

I recommended storing with proper materials, especially padding the folds with acid-free tissue paper rolls, and also, periodic refolding along different lines.  These will avoid worsening the creases that have formed which could eventually lead to more fabric damage.

The Woman’s Day Sweepstakes Prize for appliqué.  Unfortunately, some of the identifying info about the venue is illegible.  Quilt likely dates to the 1930s or so. 

Kudos to this quilter of the past for honing her skills and making this graceful and wondrous quilt!

Hawaiian Quilt

The category "Hawaiian quilt" probably conjures up the well-known style of quilt developed in Hawaii.  These quilts use two large pieces of solid-color fabric.  One piece is folded like a paper snowflake, cut in an intricate botanical pattern, carefully unfolded onto the base fabric, and appliquéd down.  Then, it is quilted in parallel lines that echo the shapes of the appliqué.  

 

This quilt was made in Hawaii, as the machine embroidered label tells us, but varies from this famous design style.  

A Beauty of a Quilt

 Here's a gorgeous quilt.  It's as simple as that.

This quilt came to me for repair.  The quilt dates to c1850.  As old as it is, it is in nearly pristine condition, save for a place in the center where it got wet somehow with something.

Here's how fabric looks in an undamaged block.

Texas Star with a Surprise

In some ways, this cheery quilt is a typical 1930s-40s quilt.  But not all ways.  Read on....

The quilt has a favorite look of this era, a huge collection of multi-colored print scraps on a white ground.

It's a bit different in that it's not one of what I see as the top 3 scrap quilt patterns from this era - Grandmother's Flower Garden, Double Wedding Ring, or Dresden Plate.  Texas Star is not rare, but still not one of the top three.

What really makes it a one-of-a-kind, at least in my experience, is the quilting.

Spools and Sawtooth

One of the nicest things about repairing quilts is that some really marvelous quilts cross my path.  I get to see and work on such a wide range of quilts.  Here's one I really enjoyed.

I love the combination of the spool blocks and the alternate sawtooth edged blocks.  The blocks play visual games. The two blocks form a cool secondary octagonal pattern that kind of comes and goes.  I find it hard for my eyes to focus on the blocks themselves, and instead there's a rhythm and movement across the quilt. 

Amish-made Sampler Quilt

 

This quilt was a wedding gift, much adored, and came to me in need of some patching.  The needlework is marvelous, which after all is something Amish quilters are famous for.  This is a quilt made for sale, not at all in the traditional style of the antique Amish quilts.  Repairing it required that my needle skills stay on par with those of this great quiltmaker!

My Magical Magic Vine Quilt Is Done!!

So here's the story of a UFO (UnFinished Object) that on Sunday June 12, 2016, officially became a Finished Object......after about 8 decades!

I bought the 1930s top at an antique store in the 1980s.  It was quite a find!  The applique artistry is amazing, it came packaged with more of the same green fabric that was intended for the back, and green is my favorite color.  I decided to do a bang-up job of quilting to honor the wonderful work of the anonymous woman who started the quilt.  Since the 80s, it has been the quilt I take with me when I demonstrate hand quilting and talk about antique quits. 

So I've worked on it just a few hours at a time, just a few times a year.  In the meantime, I've raised two kids and done tons of other quilting and sewing.  A couple of years ago, I decided it was time to actually put some focused hours into it, quite honestly, so the poor thing wouldn't end up for sale again as a UFO....

Rose Baskets

Oh, my!  The design and technique on this quilt is amazing! 

The quilt was made in the mid to late 1800s, maybe 1860s or 1870s.  It sustained some damage at some point in its life that faded out the center block but left the fabrics mostly intact. 

Glowing Lone Star Quilt

Here's a quilt that's definitely "one to write home about", or in this case, ha-ha, one to write a blog post about.

This 1930s beauty was sent to me for repairs.  The ring of green diamonds was pretty much totally in shreds, and the ring of tan diamonds was not far behind.  In the end, the owner and I decided to have me replace all the greens and just the tans that were in the worst shape.

That decision hinged on finding fabrics that blended well with the originals.  I ordered swatches from my favorite on-line source, Reproduction Fabrics, and took photos to compare them and pick the best match.