Originally Posted by mcdaniel023
I was given tubs of my aunt's quilting stuff when she passed away. My uncle gave me one and just said he hoped I finished what was in it. Because, it was the last quilt she worked on. It was for my daughter who at that time was in her first year teaching. My aunt had bone cancer and could only use one shaky arm at the time. The quilt is wonky. She intended it to be that way, but it is really wonky. I just can't pull out those stitches. I know how hard they must have been for her. Do you think it will turn out ok if I square it up and put a border on? Or should I just put it back away or do you have any other ideas?
I'm so sorry about the loss of your aunt.
I think you should do whatever makes you feel best.
If it were me, I would think like you: every stitch she put into that top, she put there with love and with personal sacrifice (in terms of energy and pain). Removing them would feel like I was not honouring the sacrifice she made to put them there.
I also think that perfectly squared up, flat quilts are sometimes over-rated. In this day and age, precision and symmetry are easily attained with the use of machines. I'm a novice quilter but I've been looking at quilts for many years and have seen many vintage/antique quilts that were crooked, not square, wonky, wavy and far from perfect. Those "imperfections" were, in my eyes, part of their beauty. They were the physical evidence of the makers who were humans rather than machines.
As an example, check out the thread on the friendship quilt top from Paris TX. The name blocks on that quilt are in different handwriting and none of them is perfect calligraphy. They slant, the names start out in letters of one size and then get larger or smaller, some of them are difficult to read, etc. And all those things add to the value of those blocks, made by those loving hands in 1932.
Strictly in my personal opinion, I love your aunt's top and would do the minimum squaring/truing needed to put a border on it and quilt it. Put a label on the back with your aunt's name, the notation it was the last quilt top she ever made and it was for your daughter.
Your daughter and whoever treasures that quilt after her will love it for its authenticity.