Quilt repair advice
I have an old quilt that dates anywhere from 1940-1970, well love. It is an apple core design and has entire apple cores that have eroded away on top and some where the backing is missing. At first I was going to deconstruct the quilt and add new apple cores where they are missing and re-sandwich and re-quilt. This quilt only have sentimental value. It was made by my grandmother and great-grandmother (who passed before I was born). My issue is it is hand quilted. If I deconstruct the quilt I lose all the hand stitches that two great ladies placed in the quilt. Is it better to just applique pieces over the top and save the stitching? Or is it better to rebuild it completely so that it easily lasts another generation?