Done is good! Four very old quilt tops were brought to me..
A lady I know recommended me to her friend because I am in a quilt guild. Now I don't profess to be any kind of an expert on anything, and am relatively new at quilting (I prefer to make tops and quilt by checkbook to a long armer) however I have been sewing since I was 4yrs old. I do alterations, have made 20' x 40' draperies for a theatre and leather chaps, etc. designed and made 75 matching square dance dresses all custom fitted, so I am no stranger to a challenge.
Oh, did I mention, she WASHED the quilts! When she called me to ask how to iron, front? back? I swallowed hard and said no ironing, only pressing, and I certainly wished she hadn't washed them! She trimmed strings and pressed them. She isn't sure who made them but thinks a great aunt.
She brought me four very old tops. One was hand pieced with 3" blocks, the other three pieced by machine. One was paper pieced. Every one was strip pieced on the bias. Not a square corner in the lot, not a matched point. These were definitely utility quilts. Some had thicker fabrics than I would have expected, some were in need of minor repairs. The washing made them very wavy, wonky and unsquare!
She just wanted them finished into quilts. She said she needed "a wrangler", and that is what I did. She paid me up front and was very generous.
I took them to my LQS and with lots of input, we picked out backs and binding fabric (I washed them so we wouldn't have a problem there) and I did some repair work. After much conversation with fellow quilters, it was decided that the borders on one quilt would have to be removed. It was wonky and was not going to quilt well.
After the long arm quilter finished, it was obvious that another quilt would need the borders removed as well. The borders were a good bit smaller than the sides of the quilt, so when we took them off the quilt relaxed and most of the puckers created by the long arm disappeared. They were by no means perfect, but not terrible! I was excited to see them coming to life as quilts.
I squared them up as best as possible (that hand pieced one was truly wonky and I had to cut quite a bit off the top and bottom to get it reasonably square). Across the top it starts out with a full 3" square and the row narrows into the next row quite a bit. But overall it looks wonderful. I finished the binding and am rather proud of them! She hasn't seen them yet.
Over all, this was a great learning experience. Some of my friends said I was crazy, a lot of responsibility and they wouldn't do it. But this lady isn't a quilter so the imperfections won't be glaring to her. She doesn't even think her kids will appreciate the quilts, but wanted them finished and didn't know where to start. They have been sitting in a cupboard for 40 plus years. Now they can truly be used and loved (if not abused, they should last 40 more years).