cowpie2

My grandma made each of her grandchildren (100+) a quilt before she died. This is mine which I've had for about 45 years. It has become very worn, so I skinned the back and batting off because they were very worn out. Overall the top looks to be in good condition except for the outside border. As you can see from the closeup it is very fragile and worn thin - might not show in the picture, but you can see my fingers through the fabric.

If I trim the outside border down it will become too small for real use on a bed. I will be hand quilting it following many of the same lines my grandma used and I will continue to use the quilt because that was her wish that we love, use and remember her with our quilts.

I'm looking for opinions. Is there something I can do to enlarge the quilt just a bit without making it look bad? I was thinking of trimming the border down to about a 2" to get back to the good fabric and then adding a 4" muslin border which would be enough for size. The green sashing is a generous 4" throughout the quilt. I appreciate all feedback.