Originally Posted by
quiltingshorttimer
I have a Grandmother's Flower Garden hand made by my grandmother in the 1920's. I the dark spots problem and was really worried it was mildew. Had it appraised and was told that the bats in the early part of century were likely either cotton or wool and the cotton was not needle punched or had resin in it so needed to be closely quilted. And that my dark spots were pieces of cotton seed and not to worry--helped date the quilt as authentic.
Thank you for your response! Sounds like you have a wonderful piece! I bought a grandmothers garden patch quilt top on EBay some years ago, in PERFECT condition, main color is green which really feels like patches of flowers in a garden, and I can’t WAIT to finish that quilt!
I hear what you are saying about the cotton pieces being stuck in these older quilts, but this quilt I have just found at my late grandmother’s house has thousands of specks in it. I never noticed them when the quilt was first taken out of the plastic packaging at all. I even spent about an hour spray treating the quilt for spots that appeared where there was some exposure on the open end of the bag. It wasn’t until I went to take it out of the washing machine that I noticed tons of black and brown specks all throughout! I was scared! I had no idea what this was! I still don’t which is why I’m hoping for some help in this forum. But as I said in my post, I picked many of them out through the cross fibers of the fabric (which was not easy at all!) and over and over the specks seemed very attached to the cotton, not with the cotton. But this many pieces? And why didn’t I see them before the quilt got wet? It’s mainly white, so I should have seen something! And all that stain spray treatment? You’d think wetting the quilt with the spray would have revealed this more than it did. ??
it’s all very frustrating and I think I still have to actually throw this quilt away.
thank you!