A question about vintage cross stitch blocks and hand quilting
 

I'm getting ready to put together some blocks that my mom made many moons ago. They are preprinted blocks with cross stitch on them. The fabric is really thin. I plan to lightly hand quilt. I was thinking about backing these blocks because you can see through them. Should I piece the squares then add to a solid piece of muslin? Or back each one individually? Another concern is would this be to hard to hand quilt with the extra layer of fabric? And would individual backings help to stabilize all the layers protecting from shifting extra layers?

I would probably fuse them individually on to a very light muslin (or similar) to stabilize them, then piece together. I recently did a string pieced mug rug using an old piece of sheeting as foundation, thin batting, then a remnant piece of cotton fabric for the back. I handquilted this with no problems at all, perhaps you could do a test block to see how you go.

Would love to see pics of your blocks.....you know we love pics:).

There's 36 of these!

Those are beautiful. You have a treasure there. My only concern with backing them with something would be the shrinking. If the fabric they are printed on is that thin, they are probably going to shrink quite a bit, maybe more than the piece you back them with. So I would'nt do that, but thats just my opinion. Would love to see pics after its quilted!!

Very pretty! Are you adding sashing or any contrasting fabric? What color!
I'm thinking a pale yellow tonal would be great. It would add another dimension but not take away from what your mom has done.

to solve that problem ahead of time, she could soak all the blocks in hot Oxy-clean water. That would shrink the fabric if it's going to shrink. It would also remove any had hand oils or other old stains that may not be readily visible. And it would take away any old age coloring, although there doesn't appear to be any.

Nope she didn't want it any bigger, or anymore color. As is....if it were mine I too would beef it up a little.

Grannie , thanks for the advice I would have just put them together!

I hadn't consider that...HUMMM...