Many old tattered quilts were reused as the inside of a newer tied quilt. I have seen a lot of them at the museum.

Yep. Sometimes it was lead. Lead was the cause of all the old silks disintegrating in the crazy quilts. Lead was deliberately used in the manufacturing process because silk was sold by the pound at that time, and the addition of lead increased the weight of the fabric, which equaled profit.

We had a car in the 80's (I think)---it was a GM Hornet, which had front seat covers that were white with black dots all over. The dots were the size of pencil erasers and kind of closely spaced, in even rows. Over time all the black dots, every little one of them, deteriorated out, just like you described, so we ended up with white seat covers with evenly spaced holes. That was so weird. I always wondered if it was from a dye created in a third world country or if it was because the black retained heat/sun so much more than white in a hot closed car.

Wow what an amazing story! So fortunate for you to have this quilt.

What fun! I love surprises like that! One time I bought a pretty watercolor painting at an auction for $15. Then I took it home to reframe it I found 2 other equally nice paintings behind it.

~ C

Wow, that is so interesting! I adore old quilts and you found a nice surprise!! There is something so endearing to me about old quilts, in good or bad shape!

I've also rescued some. If the fabrics are strong I will use them, and just take off what is in shreds. Yes, dyes were unstable in some of them. I just found 2 yesterday cleaning out my sewing room. One is beautiful, but the back is made out of something like chintz- really weirdly done. I'm going to take the back off, batt it and hand quilt it. It has some great fabrics in it.

I have a quilt of my grandmother's that has been done that way. The "new" part of the quilt may be as worn as the one inside. She was married sometime around 1880. My grandpa bought the first plot of land where I was raised in about 1883. He died in 1936 and my grandmother in 1944. My dad bought the ranch from his mother in 1943. I was born in 1937. This quilt was not used by us that I can remember. so I can only guess at how old the inside quilt is and even the outside "new" covering. Some of the fabric used was pretty thin and I discovered the quilt inside by spying a pattern through this thin material. I can tell that what I see is triangles, but not enough to know the pattern. I don't know whether I want to take it apart or not.

Tattered and torn....It is still a wonderful piece of History. You are very lucky.

And it's interesting to wonder when a piece of garbage turns into a piece of history. (I have an old quilt that I am wondering this about - is it worth my time to repair, or is it truly garbage?)

I've heard the term 'mourning print' once before. Does it refer to gray and black prints?