I have about 60+ vintage hankies.
Most of them are the lovely cotton florals, some are silk, some vintage laces.

I know I have the seen them in the hankie quilt were the hankies made a butterfly, but I do not really care for that look...

If you have used them in a quilt or project, could you share so I can get an idea of how many I really need to keep!

Thanks

How lucky you are to have some of your own. I've purchased some at craft shows and on e-bay and have started a quilt. It looks beautiful to me, so far. I think if you google it you would find pictures that may be of use to you.

i have a collection also, and i am just going to sew them square to square. should look simple, but pretty.

There are some photos here on the board. The ones I remember are butterflies as you mentioned. I would think if you try folding/pleating you could also get a nice fan shape (or maybe even a basket) from them.

I will be interested in this answer also - my dear mother bought me a shoebox full of them at her church rummage sale - for - one penny apiece - don't shoot the messenger! I think there were about 100 in the box - some very old looking and some of the printed "lunch lady" types.

Found these on the board, along with many other links. I especially like the bottom one.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-90164-1.htm

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-77874-1.htm

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-103698-1.htm

I also have my grandmothers hankies and I have only seen the butterfly or something else where you cut the hankies and I don't want to do that. I was thinking about square to sq also but you would have to applique on some backing I would think because of the weight of hankie fabric. What about this? What do you thinK?

I've used them to make a baby quilt for a friend who had a little girl. I used 9 ladies hankies. I zigzagged them onto white cotton and light batting, then hand quilted around the designs on the hankies. One had a ballerina and most had floral designs. I used pink sashing and borders. I tied it with narrow ribbon. She loved it.

I made a quilt for a girl's graduation gift. The hankies were her deceased grandmothers so it meant a lot to her. Not all the hankies were the same size, so I cut muslin squares 1/2" larger than the largest hanky and then machine stitched each hanky to a square near the hanky hem.(center the smaller ones). (If you have a fancy stitch on your machine, you could stitch them to the muslin with colored thread) Sew the squares together with a narrow sashing and add a border, batting and backing. I tied the quilt rather than actually quilting it, with one knot in the center and one at each corner. (Hankies can be quite thin fabric, so the muslin strengthens the whole thing)

I found a beautiful quilt online where the hankies were used as ladies skirts. I have a box of them as well and this quilt (something similar) is on my list of to do's.