August 26, 2014

First Prize Quilt



This surely is a "collector's dream" quilt.

It pretty certainly dates to the 1930s.  The peach and soft green were both new and popular colors at the time. I think the cream background is fairly close to the original color, i.e. not a yellowing of a truer white.

August 21, 2014

Trip Around the World

This Trip Around the World quilt is a comfy cozy sort of quilt, don't you think?

Here's a cross-section close-up view of all the fabrics.

There were two squares with torn fabrics.  For both of them, I used the trick of flipping the patch fabric to the reverse side.  Sometimes this works really well to mimic the faded look of the older fabrics.  It totally depends on how the fabric was printed.  The reverse needs to have just the right amount of bleed through color from the front.

These photos compare swatches right sides up (at the bottom of the photos) to the reverse side completed patches.


And in this photo, I marked where the patches are.  I had lots of trouble finding them, and I'm pretty happy about that.  Goal achieved.


August 18, 2014

Embroidered Initials

This quilt dates to c. 1900.  This 4-patch 9-patch combination block would be a nice pattern for beginning quilters.

There are initials embroidered with a tiny stem stitch in most of the blocks.




This block has a previous repair - I can tell because I can see the appliqué stitches and the pieces don't always match up to the old seams.  The initials were covered over.

Here's a tiny patch that I did - I'm excited about successfully manufacturing a two-color patch across a seam!


August 14, 2014

Happy Summer Sailboats

Isn't this just the happiest quilt!  This is part of what makes repairing quilts so much fun - I get to have quilts like this come and visit for a while.

The combination of block designs and colors make this quilt a delightful rendition of being out on the water on a sunshiny day. (And yes, it does look like it was cut down at some point in its life.)

And isn't this interesting - an appliquéd Mariner's Compass.  Has anyone else seen one before?  I love that it's multicolored.  But these days I'm finding myself drawn to any design that uses the full spectrum, so that's not too surprising.

August 11, 2014

Art Deco Second Addendum

Well, here's another addition to my increasing knowledge Cleopatra's Fan, the Art Deco-style pattern on this quilt.  Here's what's gone before:
Original post
First addendum

A very astute and friendly reader of this blog scouted out and is sharing a couple of websites with us.

August 6, 2014

Art Deco Addendum


I posted about a week ago about the quilt I repaired with an Art Deco pattern that I couldn't name.

Yesterday morning, over breakfast, I was leafing through the current catalog from Keepsake Quilting, and came across a kit for this quilt.
  CLEOPATRA S FAN QUILT KIT
Keepsake Quilting kit #6253

August 3, 2014

Embroidery and Prairie Points

Next up in the quilt repair queue:  The stitching on this one, both the embroidery and the quilting, is really expert.  And then it has the prairie points giving a nice sparkle to the edge.  Try imagining the quilt without them; it really would lose a lot of spirit.


Sadly, this lovely embroidered quilt had an unfortunate interaction with the family dog.

Here's the repair step-by-step.

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