New quilter here. I have an antique quilt that my great grandmother made (or great-great - not sure and my mother doesn't remember). It was falling apart and I wanted to preserve what I could.
Layer one is hand quilted. Some of the stitching has broken but most of the blocks are in amazingly good shape - just a handful of blocks need repairs. The sashing fabric used was obviously lessor quality or perhaps from a different time period because it is much thinner than the block fabric and it just shreds when you touch it (no saving it). This whole layer was machine stitched to the other layers. I carefully removed the machine stitching (for a month I might add) so I could separate this layer. Most of the blocks ended up being separate b/c of the disintegration of the sashing material. I am happy that the blocks are mostly in good shape. What might I do with those? After repairs, should I use them into another quilt project? I question that b/c their age but would like to display them in some way, not in a drawer. They are very special to me.
Layer two – I actually didn’t realize there was a second quilted layer. This layer was machine quilted and in great shape. Just a few places on the edges need repairs. This layer was sandwiched between the hand quilted layer and layer three. There was some additional machine quilting of this layer to the backing layer (looks like this was a completed quilt that the other top was attached to and binded). Again, removed machine quilting. Fabric is in good shape so I’m thinking it might be younger. However, backing fabric is very old so I’m not sure if this fabric was just in good shape b/c it was sandwiched and not exposed. I think I could easily repair the edges and put this on batting/backing for a lap quilt, but what do you think?
The backing layer is one piece of material with roses on it, very antique/aged looking and is also shredding as was the batting between this layers. I was able to separate most of it and some of it is in larger pieces but due to the fragility and the machine stitching to layer 2 and batting, it mostly fell apart. I have saved the larger pieces but I’m not sure they can be used b/c of its condition. Any ideas?
Sorry so long, but I’d love to hear your ideas.