Enlarging a finished, washed and shrunk OBW quilt.
I posted this OBW almost two years ago, and after using for a season my husband and I agreed it was a tad too small.
I was appalled at the full price of the fabric so it went on my to-do list for sometime when I could afford $18 a yard fabric. As luck would have it, a member of this board spotted it on sale for around $8. So I pounced and bought 4 more yards. That was March or so. I just couldn't get interested enough because I knew what a Pandora's box this would be.
First, I had used wool batting and had no more. But I did have the backing plus lots of cotton blend batting.
Second it had been washed and did shrink enough to tighten up the quilting. Where to start.
I removed the binding and found there was quite a bit of give and stretch in the edging material. The backing was easy to enlarge. It hadn't shrunk as much as the front and it wasn't mitered. The front strips were added and the corners mitered as before. I stretched the original material as I sewed the new pieces. The batting joint, fell between the new seams of the front and the backing, so I fused it, thinking the extra would lie in the coloured bands which were only stitched in the ditch. A little extra there would do no harm.
As for quilting it. I left it loose, almost to the max allowed. My INTENTIONS are to presoak the new edges in hot water the first time it needs washing and then wash the whole in cold water. As you can see in the picture, there is only a little bit of wobble in the new edges. I added ten inches all around. Would I do it again? I doubt it. It was not the easiest repair job I've done and if someone asked me to do it for them, I'd ask big bucks.
Pictures are the before and after.
MaryKatherine