it sounds like the fabric puckered from the washing and the batting shrunk. I would try spraying with best press and iron to see if that would help. I have a quilt that my grandmother made over 50 years ago and when my mother was in the nursing home they washed it and it has puckered. I don't use the quilt as it has gotten thin because my mother loved to rub the quilting stitched which were hand quilted and I just use to show in my bedroom with grandma's braided rag rug, her wedding picture and a few other antiques.

Are you absolutely certain you want to take the time and energy to restore this piece to where it is a usable bed quilt? Or might it be possible to maintain and work with the best parts of it to make it a nice wall hanging or frame it under glass with perhaps a photo of the maker, dates, family information, etc., (if it's a family heirloom). It sounds to me like you're going to put in a huge, huge amount of work to try to resore it and in the end not be quite satisfied with the result.

Hi Jane - how surprised I was to see your post and the picture of your bulldog. This is so ironic, because our Sadie as the same color and markings of your bully. We have had bulldogs all our lives (8 of them, I think). We live a mile north of the 101 and 67th AV in Arrowhead Ranch. ScrappyAZ is also from Glendale - if you read this Scrappy, where do you live?

I just can't explain to all of you how much I appreciate your advice for my problem quilt. I feel like I have a whole new set of friends and am so excited. This morning I put the quilt up on my basting wall (in the garage) - was able to smooth the sides fairly well, saw where I needed some more squaring-up and now I am ready to cut the borders. They are at 6 1/2 inches, so as one member suggested, I can square up again after they are on. But I think I am going to stitch a series of basting thread along the quilt and when pinning the borders on, will ease the excess that way. May not look that great, but my friend told me she didn't care - she thinks her daughter will be so happy just to have the quilt back in a position of being able to be used again. I'll let you all know how it goes. Thanks again, Marcia

Good luck to you in this task ahead of you. My mom gave me a quilt top that was to be her wedding quilt. It didn't get completed because of the war and there was no fabric, so it stayed in her cedar chest for years. She married in 1945 and the quilt top was pieced in the 30's. She told me to toss it. I couldn't do that. When I laid it out to start the sandwich process I could see I was in trouble. It billowed fiercely. I ended up picking out all the seams and recutting and reasembling the whole thing. I used a lot of starch to keep the fabric from stretching. It was tedious but I hung in there and now I have a quilt that I cherish. It was started by my grandmother with love for her daughter and finished by her granddaughter with love for her mother. The quilt turned out wonderful.

I agree with this. Better than taking it apart, because you might not be able to put it back together because of frayed seams. starching and ironing MIGHT shrink out some of the stretching.

This thread is very interesting. I was approached by a lady who had a quilt her mother had made, probably more than fifty years ago. It was a variation of a grandmother's flower garden as the motifs were not round but oblong flowers. It was all scrappy but the fabrics were of different weights etc. The background fabric was white pique. You know the stuff we used to have dresses made of in the sixties and seventies. It is a whole lot thicker than regular cotton fabric. I thought I could do something with it until I really started studying the quilt. I think at least half if not more of the six sided pieces would have to be replaced. Mixing old and new fabric usually doesn't turn out well. I will admit that I still have the quilt and am secretly hoping that the owner will pass away or forget about it entirely. I am to chicken to admit that I can't do anything with it. The second concern is that if I do attempt to replace all of those pieces she would not be willing to begin to pay me for my time and frustration.

What a great story and a perfect outcome. :-)

Maybe you should offer to make her a couple of wall hangings or frame a few sections of the quilt rather than trying to fix the entire quilt. If she chooses not to do that - I would try to get it back to her asap so that if she wants to ask someone else to do it that may be willing and able - she can have it done. I wouldn't hold on to her quilt any longer though.

I'm here! I live very near 35th Avenue Sew and Vac (35th Ave/Northern). Really love having two (Mulqueen's is near me too) quilt stores just a hop, skip and jump away!