What will happen to the butterflies when washed?
 

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When she was nine, the mother of my college friend hand-stitched a blanket stitch around butterflies and flowers to appliqué them on a large 18” square. The butterflies and flowers are not fused nor are the edges turned under, so I guess this is raw edge with hand-stitched blanket stitch appliqué.
My friend found green fabric for me to sash the blocks and border the quilt. We hand quilted around the butterflies and flowers. Now it really needs to be washed before she gives this quilt to her daughter and grand daughter.
Were quilts in the past appliqued this way? What will happen to the applique butterflies and flowers when washed?

This method is very common in old quilts. I suppose it may fray after repeated washings but it may not, depending on the width of the seam allowance.

The best way to wash that quilt is to hand wash it gently. Use one of the quilt soaps like Orvis. Fill your kitchen sink with lightly slightly warm water. Let it soak for a few minutes and rinse. Let it air dry. If you put it into the washing machine it will shred. The dryer won't do it any good either. Good luck. Nice quilt.

most machines have delicate wash these days. or just soaking and spinning out will help clean it. then lay it out to dry and later do an air dry in dryer to fluff it a bit before wrinkles set in. Lovely quilt!!

More than likely it will fray and pull away. I made a butterfly one with the raw edge, after seeing how it was falling apart I sewed around all of the raw edges again. I will never do raw edges again. I now use tricot and turn the edges, press it down so it sticks in place and sew, works better.

Would using a thin line of fray check be an option?

No, fray check dries stiff.

I thought if you ironed fray check it would remain soft

my DM did raw edge all the time and her quilts I have have been washed many times and all is well with them.

I have a butterfly quilt I hand quilted and raw edge appliqued in 1973 and it has held up very well.

We had older quilts at my mom's that rarely got washed. They never touched our skin and we had no animals inside. That being said, I would hate for that quilt to disintegrate when you wash it. Hope you figure out how to stabilize it. Otherwise just assume that you will have some fringing on the edges and embrace it.

Maybe some quilting within each butterfly or flower will lessen the stress on the outside blanket stitch and help preserve the project. I would echo stitch or go wild and do whatever appeals to you, the sun, stars, small butterflies within the larger butterfly.

It will fray a little but I think that's the charm of raw edge applique. I was gifted a raw edge applique quilt for my son who was born in 1977 and as far as I know it's still together.And I use Fray Block which dries clear and soft.