I have a friend that loves to work on pieces like these.. She has a stash of 30's, 40's fabric to repair antiques. She takes the torn/frayed off and matches a fabric to replace it and then she quilts it.

I have seen quilts that have been in the trash can at yard sales (they gave it to her) that she has repaired.. Some she has had to make smaller and some that have been made as wall hanging. Her work is about $250. - $600. depending on how much you want done.

A number of years ago I repaired a quilt that belonged to a couple who were friends of mine. To them it was a special quilt as it had been given to them from a church group when they left the church. It was not nearly as bad as the one you showed but I did take out the "bad" pieces and matched fabric as best I could. Found a yellow that was almost an exact match. Then I removed the torn fabrics and quilted stitches that were on that fabric and hand sewed the new pieces in the empty spots. Then I quilted the new pieces just as the old ones had been. Surprisingly it turned out quite well and the couple were very pleased. I did tell them not to actually use it as it would not be strong enough to withstand use or washing. It all depends on how much time and effort you want to put into it and whether you could actually find similar fabrics for replacement. Good luck no matter what you decide.

I once saw a quilt show that featured just what you have described. Unless my feeble memory has deserted me, most of the quilt experts were from the Library of Congress.

Watson, my SIL also brought me a quilt made by her g-ma that was very tattered and worn--much like the one you are dealing with. Before I saw the quilt, she was saying probably just needed binding--but wow! So she and I took her quilt to a LQS where the owner collects and rehabs old quilts. Here's what she told us: 1) think about how you plan to use it--like someone else said, repairing the tattered and worn parts may fix them but the rest of the quilt will soon be in the same shape 2) if you repair all that needs repair, you basically will be replacing the quilt. What she suggested is that we carefully clean it with a product like Restore and wash in the bathtub(I always put in a plastic laundry basket to swish it up and down and then remove still in the basket--it keeps the weight off the seams) and then lay out flat to dry. Then fold so the greatest amount of damage is non-visible and make sure there's no further sun or smoke(cigerette) damage. We decided not to use the tulle overlay as she's not putting it on a hanger, etc. Good luck!

It looks like a lot of work for what end. A friend had her finished quilt ruined by mice. They had eaten holes in the quilt. She took months to repair each hole with backing batting and top fabric to keep the pattern . The quilt was for her brother who thought it was a very funny and loved the quilt. You are taking on just as much, how will it be received in the end?

I did this before. every flower looked like this:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...psqa2oe0lk.jpg

The whole quilt looked like this:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...psouotzt3c.jpg

I bought turkey red fabric that looked similar to what degraded and needle turn -appliqued it over top of the degraded flower petals. It turned out perfect. It was not hard.

If it happened in the middle of the white, I may have covered the spot with tulle and darned it, but i would never encase the whole quilt in tulle.

I think I have very similar fabric to the degraded "S" you could have.

I might have the pink flowers, I do not have the yellow.

This is EXACTLY what I would do to mend this. I have done something similar on two quilts where the fabric was just disintegrating...I did not remove the old pieces, but used them as a basis for template which I hand appliquéd on top of the damaged area. if there was quilting inside that area, I mimicked that, quilting from the back to follow the original stitches...........Both quilts were saved.

QuiltingHaven, what a fabulous quilt. It must have felt great to save it. Does anyone know what this pattern is called?