I don't know how bad the frays are or what kind of machine you have, but most newer machines have a wide variety of fancy stitches. What if you treated the star parts as if you were doing a crazy quilt. You could use a wide variety of stitches, carefully selected to be fairly wide and dense so that all the edges would be covered. Personally, this seems to be easier, less fussy, to do than to cut out alternate pieces and try to get them to match the original. This way, you'd keep the original fabric and "feel" of the quilt; you'd be reinforcing all the seams so that less damage would continue to happen; and you'd be putting your personality into the repairs. I'd personally use fairly bright colors to make the repairs a highlight rather than an oh-oh.

(I'm a novice quilter, so take that into account.) I would match the flannel as closely as I could (or use a blender) and wash it several times to both fade it and shrink it. I'd replace the whole frayed piece and hand sew it over the old piece (I might try to remove it, I'm not sure until I see it). I'd either hand quilt or machine quilt over that piece to make sure it's stable and will last through another bunch of washings.

I definitely would not try to retire the quilt. Once it's your soft, snuggly quilt you've loved, you do not want it replaced with a stiff, sparkling new quilt. It's kind of like trying to replace grandma's soup with tacos.

bkay

I would use wedding tulle and attach it to the frayed spots. It will stabilize the frayed parts but it will protect the worn parts and not be visible across the room.

If you can, make him a new quilt. I'm sure he loves the one he has but most of that love is because it was very warm and comforting. Over time the warmth diminishes but the memory stays and we become attached, almost like a comfortable pair of shoes, we don't realize how worn out they are until we get new shoes.

Awww..I've been chosen to repair a flannel quilt - it was a tied quilt also with points. What I found, the only way to repair was to replace. I found colors so close in matching, the owner couldn't tell the difference! He actually thought I repaired instead of replaced! Once I hand stitched the new pieces, then I machine stitched them for extra bondage.

bkay, I agree with you and I love your comparison of grandma's soup and tacos.:) I agree that if she loves her warm, soft quilt, she would love to see it repaired.

Wow, thanks to all for the great ideas. I agree that a new quilt is a good idea, but that will have to wait its turn in my projects line up. You are all great for caring, thank you so much.