Need Advice on an Unfinished for a dear friend...
 

I love this board and am confident someone will (hopefully) read and make sense of this project and say to themselves, "I know what that is..it's a such-and-so and this is all you need to do to finish it!"

Interested in input, even if it means taking parts of this thing apart and re-assembling it in a more traditional manner, but I'd rather try to find a way to go forward if I can.

Here's my problem. One of my good friends is a sweetie, but can't sew a stitch. She brought me a
somewhat unfinished quilt that she would really like finished. She's a dear friend and I love her and I really want
to do this for her and of course I said, "sure dear, (gulp) no problem!" Her sister-in-law started it years ago and, as these stories typically go, she died before she could finish it. It was to be a quilt for my friend's daughter, who was too young to participate in anything other than picking the fabric (little green frogs and so forth). Dot is a sweet kid and is now finishing grad school and, as these stories go, would be so grateful to receive a treasure from a beloved aunt. Up until this point it has been packed away in a closet.

The quilt top is a set of apprx. 5" squares sewn together and appears to be
complete. Not all the squares fit together exactly so I am trying to avoid taking it apart.
The backing is green flannel and appears that it was meant to be
pieced. It's hard to tell how this thing was intended to be finished. Is there a
standard pattern or method that has binding on only 3 sides and a pieced
backing?
Because, that's what this appears to be.. it's partially quilted and
the batting appears to be damaged, but I think I can fix that part.
Packed with the quilt was plenty of backing material (flannel) and
what appears to be material for binding (uncut complimentary fabric yardage).

Imagine:
The quilt top is 5" squares sewn together in a pattern 19 X 16. All along one side of the quilt, the top, batting and the partial pieced backing (flannel) were sewn together right sides together..then some quilting (stitch in a ditch) was started along some rows of the squares, appearing to leave the other three sides "open" (batting top and backing hanging out), as if waiting for binding. I've been looking around trying to find a
method this might match.

I'm quite hopeful that someone will figure this out and say,
"oh that's a such-and-so" and the mystery will
be solved OR a way to finish it with the backing and binding material remaining.
Thank you all in advance for advice or suggestions.

Deedee

Can you post pics. Some of us require a more visual presentation (not that you didn't explain it well....it's just how some eyes/brains connect the dots:)).

My guess is she didn't know what she was doing.

Just bind it normally and be done. I don't think I'd worry about what the original person had as an intent because unless you know what kind of a seamstress she was, you don't really know if it is something that SHOULD be followed.

It's really sweet of you to finish this. My husband always says that it is easier to repair something from scratch than take over after someone else has started to repair something (think mechanic, here, okay) and then given up.

"All along one side of the quilt, the top, batting and the partial pieced backing (flannel) were sewn together right
sides together..then some quilting (stitch in a ditch) was started along some rows of the squares, appearing to
leave the other three sides "open" (batting top and backing hanging out), as if waiting for binding."

Was she doing "envelope" or "pillowcase" method? That's the only thing that even sort of rings a bell to me.

Don't think it was envelope or pillowcase method if SID quilting already started on that turned side. I'd just bind the entire quilt, as already suggested, and have done with it. Perhaps the orig. creator didn't really know what she was doing???

Here are some pics.
 

Thank you all so far! Here are some pics - excuse the mess in my house..you can see the culprit in one of the pics. Kitty seems to like the pattern!

The pic Top2 shows what really is a pretty pattern that I would like to keep the integrity of, I think;
The upper left corner tries to show where the along one side the back batting and quilttop were sewn together across what appears to be along the top; and
The backside pic shows the partially pieced backing, the remaining damaged batting (which I'll have to fix).

It's hard to see that some of the quilting was done too. Stitch in a ditch along some of the rows.

Thanks again for help and advice!

I've done some "save my heirloom" projects and they are always a challenge but appreciated sooo much. Personally, I would take the quilting out and take the backing and batting off, so that you have just the pieced top. I would put a complimentary border around that to square it up, then sandwich, quilt and bind. That will also let you inspect the seams in the top and repair as needed so it won't disintegrate with the first washing. You can still use the backing and binding fabric that came with it. Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

That does sound like the most efficient way -

Undo whatever quilting there is
Remove the backing
Remove the batting

See what you actually have to work with

Go from there

You know what it looks like to me? It looks like either the original maker either didn't know what she was doing, as others have said, OR she ditched that project and cut the backing to use in something else. I second the suggestion to take the quilting apart and go from there. It's a cute quilt.

I agree even I you loose some of the original quilting, it will be easier in the long run to undo back to just a quilt top. You may want to have your friend purchase a new batt.