How To Repair An Old Friend
 

My neighbor, who is a paraplegic, asked me to repair a flannel quilt that he uses in the winter. It has seen many many winters and has been washed many times. I've never worked with flannel in a quilt, that's my first stumbling block. The pattern is a Lone Star, which is still beautiful even though it is showing its age. The portion of the quilt that needs repair are the seams that form the points of the star. The fabric has worn through and pulled away leaving a frayed edge.

I have thought of making new pieces to replace the worn one and then appliqueing them to the quilt. I will try to keep the colors the same and not make it obvious that there has been repair work done, however I don't see how it is possible to not have evidence of repair. This is a utilitarian quilt, not for a show or display, but I still want it to look as close to its original beauty as I can.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to proceed? We've had an unusually warm October, but the cold is coming so I need to get this done. My DH says "..just sew over it." He means well, but that is not a solution. Many thanks to any ideas.

I have a very old baby quilt that my GGM made for me when I was born. We used it all the time and some of the fabric has split. I took it to a guild meeting to ask for ideas to repair it. The majority of the suggestions were not to try to hide the repairs, just stop further damage. We don't use the quilt anymore (don't want any more damage). The fabric she used was the kind of cotton fabric you could buy in the dime store and is very thin and fragile looking. Some is print and some is solid color. I haven't done anything with it just refolding once in awhile. I think I would make your friend another quilt with cotton and not the flannel. Flannel is hard to work with and doesn't wear well. Good luck.
Sue

I think your friend should get a new quilt and retire this one. If you choose, you can measure the size of this one and make him a new one (in a different pattern, not Lone Star!) in the same size.

Perhaps a new quilt is in order. Some flannels separate and divide when they get worn, they simply wear out.

I wouldn't take anything apart. I would hand applique new points over the frayed ones. Flannel is not that hard to work with, but I would wash and dry any new flannel several times to make sure it is through shrinking before cutting out and appliqueing the points. If you can't find flannel fabrics that match the points, perhaps look for good contrasting flannel and simply applique over all the points of the star to make them symmetrical. If you are covering up any hand quilting, I would do a little hand stitching over the quilting (perhaps working from the back).

If you are ambitious, you could make him a new flannel quilt too so that next year he can leave this one displayed over the back of a couch to preserve it a little longer.

I think you have the right idea. I would cut pieces to the size of the worn ones and applique them in place. I would make a freezer paper or plastic template. Add a seam allowance around it when you cut out the fabric and iron the edges under. I frequently use flannel in my quilts and don't have any problems with it, so don't let it scare you. Just treat it like any cotton fabric. Wash it first, iron it, use starch won't if you want, glue the edges if that works for you. Your friend will be so happy and surely not examine your work. One thing I would not do with out asking him first would be to make him a new quilt instead. He may find the feel of that quilt to be very comfortable or he may have sentimental attachments, who knows. You are a very nice neighbor to do this for him!

I received an old and beloved Lemoyne star that my DN and DNIL wanted repaired. It was in bad shape after 50 years and 4 years in a storage unit. Used the appliqué method; even appliquéd partial stars over the worst sections of the border. Some smaller holes in the border were darned; they do show a little. Took out and redid the hand quilting (the thread had disintegrated). Oh, and cut off and replaced all of the binding. Here is some of the result:

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They loved it.

Another thought is to add a layer of netting to the top. Use a fine thread that won't really show up very much and add quilting, especially around the frayed edges of the stars and leave the top as is. http://www.annquilts.com/quiltrepair.html

I would appliqué over the worn spots. Be sure to prewash your flannel. Good luck!

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.