Divokittysmom

When my wonderful husband and I married 40 yrs ago we received 9 pr of beautifully embroidered pillowcases for our wedding. I also am blessed to have 2 pr that were found in his mother's hope chest after she passed, we think they were made by my husband's grandmother. I also have a pair made by my beloved grandma as well as a pr I made in high school in Decorative Arts Class. These hold a lot of treasured memories for me as they remind me of the lovely ladies who embroidered them.
I used them when we were first married but all of them are for standard size pillows... of which I have none. I have had these hidden away in my linen closets for at least 35 yrs I think. I would like to have them out where I can have the pleasure of seeing them and actually enjoy them.
So..... I decided I want to make a quilt featuring these treasured pieces of time gone by. My questions revolve around the beautiful edgings of tatting/hemstitching and crocheting that I don't want to lose, that's part of their beauty. I know that if I use Fray Block on the crocheted/tatted edges and then zig zag it after it dries, I can safely snip that area with no chance of it fraying.
My questions are: how would I treat those decorative edges then when I want to add a sashing around each pillowcase?? I would like to have each pillowcase as a 'block' if that makes sense. Obviously, I don't want to create a seam there along the bottom edge. Could I somehow topstitch the sashing on the lower edges @ the 1/4" mark,....or???
I also thought of using a foundation piece as in Crazy Patch and attach them all to the foundation piece but then I would lose the individuality of each piece.
As you can see I am stumped! I have googled my idea using my pillowcases for a quilt and came up empty handed. I know this will be quite an undertaking as I want to be very careful how I proceed with not only cutting them but having a well laid out plan for making them into a quilt.
Any ideas would be so greatly appreciated. I attached a photo to show the different decorative edges I am trying to preserve.
Or,.... am I just crazy to think of making them into a quilt?? Be nice now... lol

Dandish

First I want to tell you those are lovely treasures! How beautiful and precious. I dont have a solution, except to say that you might look into what folks to with vintage hankerchiefs in making quilts, and you might get some ideas and instructions that way. Please keep us posted on what you end up doing. Just gorgeous.

lovequilts722

Forgive me as I am new to quilting, but what about somehow attaching a small strip of the original pillowcase fabric underneath the lacey edges so that the "block" still shows the embroidery and the lacy part with a bit of white below the lace? I dunno if that would work at all but it was just a thought. I'm thinking your blocks might not all have the embroidered piece in the center necessarily, but you would still be showing your lace edges like you want. Just an idea.

Good luck with the project... the pillowcases are simply beautiful and I applaud you for wanting to create a new heirloom to showcase them.

Candace

Divokittysmom

I have actually made 2 vintage handkerchief quilt, that's where I got the idea of the foundation piece to stitch the pillowcases to. That idea still may be the most viable option I have for preserving the decorative edges. Thank you for our response!

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t120760.html

I forgot to add that I want to embroider the name of the person who embroidered them for us under each pillowcase.

eashka

When my mother passed we found a lot of pillow cases and other things that she had that were my grandmothers and my mothers. They had been around for so many years that they dry-rotted. When we hand-washed them they just came apart. I was just crushed. I don't know why they came apart but I hope it doesn't happen to your treasures. I think you have some good ideas. Good luck!

mighty

Oh, not sure how to go about that but those are beautiful!!!!!

Susan G.

I have no suggestions, I just wanted to say your treasures are absolutely beautiful. You are so lucky to have these and they are still in such good shape.

judys

My suggestion would be to applique each onto a square of muslin and then just sew the trim to the muslin at the point where it is attached to the pillowcase leaving the trim as an embelishment and room to embroider the names below.
Just a suggestion. These are so beautiful. How lucky you are to have them.

Monroe

I used FrayCheck on a tiny tear in a shirt- and it dried really scratchy- like nail polish. Your pillowcases are beautiful!

nena

Those are beautiful. I dont have any ideas . But whatever you decide to do, it will be a treasure.