An out of town friend of mine saw a quilt I was working on. I am a newbie so nothing to "impress" her. She loved my WIP. Anyways, as we talked on, she said she couldn't even sew a button on. Her mother sewed and quilted and wanted to teach her how but she never had an interest. Before her mom passed away, she had made a quilt top out of polyester (per Bonnie, my friend). They found it when they were going thru her things. She is giving it to me! I am hoping to quilt or tie this for her and return it to her at Christmas. She has no idea that I am planning on giving it back to her. I just thought that if my mom had made it, I would want it. My question is..since I have only made 3 quilts from cotton..do I back this one with polyester?. Bonnie says she will never finish it or have it finished so my next question is..is this even a good idea? We are friends thru a campground on the coast and I don't see her except there. (usually 1 or 2 times a month) I have no idea what it looks like other than her description of "lots of pieces of polyester sewn together. I don't know yet if it is machine or hand pieced. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. BTW, I have only tied and SID the ones I have made.

that is so nice of you to finish it and give it back to her, what a treasure she will have

I have never worked with polyester so I cannot give you any helpful advice. I think your thought to give it back to her is very kind. She probably did not want to keep an unfinished top but I bet she will cherish a finished one. Of course if you are not sure, you can always bring it along to "show" her and ask her if she would like to have it... just a thought. Good luck!

I like Mad Mimm's suggestion of showing it to her when finished & see if then she does want it. As far as a backing - the polyester quilts make very warm. Perfect for camping. I would use either a flannel or cotton backing, depending on how cold it gets when you are camping. I would not use a polyester. Just my preference.

p.s. - I remember my Mom having a couple like this when we went camping.

I would finish it and give it back, that is a very nice thought. Go for it. Wonder if it is the old polyester that is thicker and wears like iron or something like poly/cotton blend it is made of?

You can use cotton on the back, just prewash to shrink the fabric. Depending on what the quilt looks like i would opt for just doing a stipple on it . It sounds like a scrappy quilt.

Start practicing some free motion stippling on 15 or 18" sandwiches. This is the easiest motif to learn. You will be doing alot for your friend and learning a new technique for yourself. :thumbup:

The idea of showing her what you did with the quilt is wonderful and then you can offer it back to her as a gift of friendship.

this is a good idea

If it is the heavy polyester twill or doubleknit, you will definitely want to tie it, as that is both the easiest way to do it and also the way most of the ones made in that era were done. I'm guessing it is most likely fairly large squares or rectangles, which could be tied either at the intersections or the center of the patches. It is probably machine stitched. You could even just find some of the corresponding twill or doubleknit and use that for the backing, no batting needed.
These are awesome camping quilts as they wear like iron and can just be tossed in the washer and dryer (low temp for dryer).

Why not fleece on the back? Then the materials would match and you probably would not even need batting...

Trust your instinct to finish it in some way and give it back to her. Thoughtfulness is never wrong!

Why don't you photograph what she gives to you and post it here, along with any other information you've discovered (type of material, hand vs. machine sewing, etc.). QB members can that give you much more specific help!

I just love your generosity to this friend!