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-   -   Another vintage quilt top. So fragile. How to quilt it? (https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/another-vintage-quilt-top-so-fragile-how-quilt-t284322.html)

quiltingshorttimer 12-10-2016 05:21 PM


Originally Posted by Wanabee Quiltin (Post 7715787)
I have bought many fragile vintage quilt tops. I sent them to a long arm person who did a lovely panto on them. They are perfect now but I do not wash or use them to wrap up in, they are mainly decorative on my bed. I did wash them once after they were finished. and some I had to wash before they were quilted because they were either dirty or smelled badly. Good luck.

Same here--I had a hand pieced set of blocks--some of the fabric very thin, that I put together and then washed the top (very carefully! hand washed--but it was so yellowed I wasn't sure I wanted to quilt it if it wouldn't come clean) and then machine quilted. I don't use it on a bed or roll around in it, but it hangs great and I'm glad that I machine quilted it--keeps it very stable.

I know many thing that hand quilting is the only way to go with vintage quilts, but if you look up quilt history, once sewing machines were available to the masses, quilts were often machine quilted--even in the 20's.

Chytayzie 12-11-2016 03:10 PM


Originally Posted by Ellen 1 (Post 7715842)
I have never seen anyone use tulle for a large quilt. It is used on small-art type quilts to hold down tiny pieces so they don't fall off. Also, the tulle would be very "scratchy" if the quilt was actually used. As for your quilt, I would quilt it as if it were not "fragile". I also quilt vintage quilts and I use a longarm. (I quilt heavily).

One of my first "old" (1950's) quilt was difficult to quilt and a "learning lesson". I had heard that you should put interfacing on the back of the top because it is "fragile". I did this. There were a lot of problems with keeping the quilt straight, not quilting in puckers, etc. and the interfacing made it difficult to make any corrections. So....I do not recommend doing that either.

Ellen

Ellen, what a beautiful quilt. I love the simplicity of the color, design, and the quilting.

Janan 12-11-2016 04:48 PM

Thanks again, everyone! Ellen, what beautiful quilting.

I looked again at the quilt top and it was machine pieced. The top measures 76 x 76, which is too big for me to machine quilt it unless I decide to make it a summer quilt (which is beginning to sound good!).

What if I put flannel instead of batting in the middle. And then, what if I quilt along the hexagon shapes the HSTs make and do a design in the square? Would that be enough to secure it without over stressing it?

Kas 12-11-2016 06:12 PM


Originally Posted by francie yuhas (Post 7715185)
I would machine quilt a baptist fan pattern...very traditional for that era.

You read my mind!

Ellen 1 12-11-2016 10:22 PM

Thank you. The quilt top was a kit from the 1950's. A friend gave it to me because she knows I love old tops and try to quilt them. I love the idea that someone is looking down from above at the quilts I have completed and is smiling.

Ellen 1 12-11-2016 10:24 PM


Originally Posted by Janan (Post 7716955)
Thanks again, everyone! Ellen, what beautiful quilting.

I looked again at the quilt top and it was machine pieced. The top measures 76 x 76, which is too big for me to machine quilt it unless I decide to make it a summer quilt (which is beginning to sound good!).

What if I put flannel instead of batting in the middle. And then, what if I quilt along the hexagon shapes the HSTs make and do a design in the square? Would that be enough to secure it without over stressing it?



Thank you for the comment about my quilt.

The flannel, instead of the batting, would be fine to make a "lighter/summer" quilt. I think quilting along the HST's would be lovely.


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