Janan

Hello!

Attached is a picture of my completed (almost) Sun Bonnet Sue quilt! I hand quilted in the ditch around the blocks and 1/4 in. outside the Sues. The crochet lace at this moment is only basted, waiting your wonderful suggestions.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the SBSs (1926) came from my 99 year old MIL (Edith's) quilt top, which had been done by Edith's mother. The crochet lace (1932) also belonged to Edith. It was a wedding gift from her mother-in-law. I reconstructed the quilt and will eventually give it to my grandaughter (9 yrs old), when she is older (much, much older lol).

My goal was to complete the quilt before Edith's 100th birthday in December. Other than being part of her birthday celebration, it was the family's hope to drape the quilt over Edith's casket when she passed from this world. I would bring the quilt with me every week, when I visited her in the nursing home. Her mind was sharper than mine and she enjoyed watching me make this quilt out of her treasures, knowing it would go to her youngest great-grandaughter. About 3 weeks ago, she went through a sudden decline. Her mind remained good, but her body began to fail her. I sewed with feverish frenzy. Last Sunday, I was doing the last of the hand quilting during my visit. She was weak and lethargic, but enjoyed the visit. That night she failed quickly and Monday she passed away. I put the binding on the quilt and simply hand basted the lace and it was lovely on Edith's casket.

Now I can take my time putting the finishing touches on the quilt. I want to take the great ideas from you guys and embellish the girls a little with some embroidery. That will be fun. I also want to FMQ in the blocks holding the girls. Suggestions?

Regarding the lace. I want to undo the basting and remove the lace so I can wash the quilt. Before the funeral service, I took a lint roller and damp cloth and went over the quilt, but I have a Persian cat that wants to be involved in all of my projects and I know the lint roller couldn't have removed all the cat hair. And hand quilting it, my hands couldn't have been clean. I'm thinking of hand washing it in a tub with a drop or two of Deft liquid and letting it air dry. You think that would be good?

I have a couple of ideas of how to reattach the lace, depending on your input. Originally, the plan was to simply sew the lace along the top edge. Another idea is to FMQ a gentle loop over the entirity of the lace. That way it would be more secure and wouldn't flop loosely as you move the quilt. If I can't machine quilt over the lace, I could hand quilt it. Another idea I had occurred as I was picking buttons to put in the corners of the quilt. I have a selection of adorable little pastel buttons. If I were to sew buttons along the inside edge of the border, you could "button" the lace on the quilt. Then the lace could be removed when the quilt needed to be washed, then reattached.

I have no idea how my grandaughter will use the quilt when I give it to her (yikes!). I plan to use it occasionally myself rather than storing it away for years. What advice should I give for care?????

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M.Elizabeth

A beautiful quilt and heirloom. I have custody of a 17-year-old granddaughter who would probably care for anything I passed on. But that time has only recently come! Allow the granddaughter to see it and know it will be hers, but not yet!

Janan

Thank you, Elizabeth! Brooklyn has seen me working on it in the beginning, but she hasn't seen the finished product. I will tell her the story behind it. I'm also having a label embroderied with the story.

tesspug

I think buttoning on the lace would be a good idea. Otherwise I would sew it by hand. The quilt could then be wash gently by hand in the bathtub and rolled up in towels to gently squeeze the water out. I have a row of clotheslines I can put up to hang quilts to dry. We have two buildings with a breeze way and DH put up hooks to hang the lines on.

humbird

My condolences on the passing of your MIL. What a tribute to her to have the quilt drape her casket.

As for the lace, buttons sound fine, but I think hand quilting it on would be nice also. Big help here!! LOL

I wouldn't FMQ the background blocks. I would perhaps crosshatch by hand. I couldn't bring myself to do machine stitching on this beautiful heirloom quilt. (JMHO) Embellishing with a bit of embroidery would be very nice. You have one lucky granddaughter. I made a SBS/OAS quilt for my granddaughter about fifteen years ago and hand quilted it using crosshatch. I did not quilt over Sue and Sam. Just echoed around them. It turned out pretty nice. I alternated the Sue and Sam blocks.

Janan

Thank you, Humbird! That is about what I have decided to do. It was also recommended in a previous post. The white has a cross hatch pattern already, which would be easy to follow. I may do every other line.
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grannie cheechee

That is a beautiful SBS quilt, and what a TREASURE!!!

Bree123

Lovely quilt! I agree with humbird about the crosshatch pattern in the white parts. I'd probably do either a floral vine or hearts in the sashing.

As for laundering ... I actually wouldn't use Dreft because it has fragrance & dyes in it that can be hard on vintage fabric. Most of the time the best best for vintage/repro fabrics is Orvus; please do read the instructions for working with Orvus. I have asthma & contact allergies, so I use the recommended gloves & wear a paper mask when working with it. Otherwise, I go with a dye-free/fragrance-free liquid detergent like Tide Free, Tide PurClean, Seventh Generation or such and wash it in cold water on the gentlest cycle. If you can lay flat to dry, that's best; I partially tumble dry on low (until it's 80% dry) & then finish by hanging dry. I know that's pretty nuts, but I spent a lot of time researching the properties of cotton/cotton fibers and how they interact with different variables (heat, agitation, chemicals, etc) so I try to put that knowledge to use when caring for my quilts.

QuiltnLady1

What a treasure. I have a lot of crocheted lace -- much of it from the early 1900's - and I wash it with no problem. The thing to remember about crocheted lace is that it can draw up when washed and needs to be blocked so stitching it down would help it keep its shape.

Another thing-- I would be concerned about the buttons pulling on the lace. When my grandmother made her lace (I have table cloths, bedspreads, doilies, etc) she did not knot when she ran out of one skein and started a new one -- she overlapped the ends. If your lace is not knotted, the stress of the buttons could cause the lace to come apart (Having DH lay on top of one of my bedspreads caused it to start to come apart -- it was a pain to fix.)

Janan

Thank you, Bree and QuiltnLady1 for the excellent advice. Based on this, I will find a way to stitch down the lace. I will look at the seams to see if they are knotted or overlapped.

Bree, I have some Tide Free. I have a front loading washing machine. It would be ok to wash the quilt in the machine on the gentle cycle?