Need advice for an antique top
Hi Everyone,
I'm looking for advice for an antique quilt top that I have. I'm guessing that it is well over 100 years old. I've had it in storage for about 35 years.
It is all hand stitched and a few place need repair but overall it is in pretty good condition. My questions are these:
1) Is there any value to such a top and, if I quilt it on my longarm will it decrease it's value - either historically or monetarily?
2) The pieced blocks were larger then the solid blocks so they have excess fabric that wants to puff up. How best to handle this?
-Could I use a high loft polyester badding to help fill out the excess fabric? This would make for a puffier quilt. I'm not a fan of polyester batting so, there's that.
- I would probably stitch in the ditch around the sub blocks of the pieced main blocks then quilt a design in the solid blocks.
3) One of the sub blocks is oriented incorrectly (seen in picture 1, lower right. Do I correct that?
My guess is that this was a feed sack quilt that was hand dyed. Some of the greens are different and not sure if it is fading or something else.
Hopefully those of you on here that are more knowledgeable than I am will have some thoughts on this.
Thank you!