acov2184

My husband has a quilt made by his great grandmother that is in a sad state. Some of the fabric blocks have torn and some are completely missing. I'd really like to have it repaired for him for Christmas. I've never quilted before, but I sew a little. I have a small sewing machine. Would this be a difficult project for me to undertake, or would it be better to have someone do it for me? I'm not sure where to begin!

NJ Quilter

I think you might prefer to have someone else tackle this for you. Vintage/antique pieces can be a bit daunting. You would have to first take out all the quilting stitches, then remove the torn blocks. Make new blocks and insert them where the repaired/missing blocks are. If there are no holes through all three layers of the quilt, and it's only the top that has issues, you'd have to remove all of the quilting stitches from the entire quilt, make the repairs and then re-quilt. It could be a very difficult task and if you only 'sew a little' could be rather challenging. Not trying to offend, just trying to give you an idea of what you would likely be up against so you can make an informed decision.

If you decide to have someone else do this for you, take the quilt to a local quilt shop and ask advice/recommendations from those folks. If you have no local quilt shop, see if you have quilt guild in your area. Someone there should be able to give you advice/recommedations as well.

Good luck. I'm sure your husband treasurers the quilt.

acov2184

I'm by all means no expert, but I would say that it would be just the quilt top that needs repaired.

And another question - do you have a guess as to what this would cost? We do have a quilt shop here in town, but it will be a few days before I can get there. Just trying to budget a little.

bearisgray

Can you post pictures of it? So we can see how worn it is?

Sometimes people just cut out a part of it that is still comparatively good and frame it. Or make a teddy bear of it.

There are times when an item has reached the end of its useful life.

suebee

Maybe even take a section of it, have it framed. Then it would be preserved forever that would be so cool.

Ooops! Bearisgray beat me to it

dunster

If there is a quilt museum near you, they might be willing to evaluate the quilt. Often preservation is the only option, not repair. Don't count on a quilt shop being able to give advice. Here is a web site with some information about quilt restoration/preservation/repair - http://www.quilthistory.com/restoration.htm

acov2184

I tried to upload some photos, but they wouldn't go...I got a message that said "upload failed". The quilt is white, red, dark blue, and light blue. Only the dark blue squares are the torn ones, the rest are all totally fine. I don't know if maybe the fabric quality was lesser than the others or what...

Pepita

I've run in to 1 lady that does quilt restoration. They are rare. It is a tremendous job. She talked about having to re quilt the entire quilt (along with replacing many blocks)because the thread from the quilting had dry rotted. She had to take tweezers to pull the old thread out. She has projects planned for the next year and a half. And she hasn't gotten her name out to many people!

BETTY62

I would take it to the local Quilt Guild and get their opinion. Chances are there is someone in the Guild that could look at the quilt and give you and evaluation as to what needs to be done to repair the quilt, a name of someone who is qualified to do the work and an estimate of what you could expect to pay to have it repaired.

AngeliaNR

Sounds like the problem might have been the original dark blue dye weakening the fabric.

I hope you are able to get it repaired--good luck.