SusanSusan33

My mom made this quilt in the 70s or 80s. It's ALL handwork. No machine piecing. Her first and only quilt ever. My sister has had it forever. I'm not too jealous. ;-). The problem is that it's all falling apart. It's not bonded. Just sewn together. One side has a border around the edge.


I suggested cutting it apart and sew the salvaged squares together. My sister would rather just keep using it. And zig zag the holes. Yikes. THe bating is also falling apart and the backing has some tears in it also. Not just the holes.

barny

I would try to get it from her and replace the worn parts with a color as close as I could get and fix it. Too valuable from your Mother not to do it. If you open up the seams of the block next to the one you are replacing, you can hand sew it back together. Try to convince her it's too valuable not to try.

Craftnut

I have repaired a quilt like this before using tulle, a very fine mesh netting in a neutral color. Believe it or not it won't show. You need to have something to fill in the holes though. Tulle can cover the tears and you can stitch down the edges of the tears through the tulle then cut the excess off. I would do the best you could to repair the spots you can, and then only display it, not wrap up in it. That is if you want it to be around. But know that the best complement you can give a quiltmaker is to use it up and wear it out. Your mom would be pleased to know it gave you and your sister joy.

GailG

I agree with barny! Good luck.

Tartan

Hand appliqué pieces on the top. Cut a piece of batt to fill the hole and use batting tape to fuse it in place and hand stitch a patch on the back. BUT you can only fuse in a batting patch if the original batt wasn't polyester. Polyester melts with a hot iron. If is is polyester batt you will have to hand stitch the batt into the hole.

PenniF

My mom had an antique quilt - made by my Gram back in the 30s...that was stored in the attic and some mice made it their home....so holes like the problem with yours. I fixed it by finding very similar fabrics ....then whether triangle(s) or square (s) - i made an applique patch in that shape - with enough to cover until i was into really good quilt fabric - applied the applique on the front - added batting where needed - and appliqued an adequate piece of white over the hole on the back. It was a bit of a long process - but it turned out very well and allowed the quilt to be gifted to my sister. GOOD LUCK !!

charsuewilson

It looks as if the damage is smaller than the patches. You could photograph the fabric, and print up your own matching fabric on the fabric pages for your printer. Then use that to patch.

Billi

Ok so am I the only one who's first thought well why the heck didn't I think of that? What a great idea to get an almost extract match.

Good luck repairing the quilt.

Craftnut

I have been thinking about this question since last night. What about putting applique bees or dragonflies on the holes? It would enchance the repairs with a detail. Sometimes I have seen these in stores on the notions wall. No matter what you do it will show so why not make it a design detail? As for the tears on the back, you could just add a whole new backing over the old one, quilting in the ditch around the blocks. I agree the holes will need to be filled with little pieces of battting. Charsue's idea of printing the design on your own muslin to match color is inspired, it may not match exactly but will probably come closer that anything purchased new.

SusanSusan33

Wow!! You ladies are full of idea! I've never printed anything other than word documents on my printer, but that sound great and something I need to research more.

The batting looks to be a wool blend, so fusing more in the holes shouldn't be bad, right? Great idea to add a whole new backing. How would I quilt it into the existing quilt?

How bad do you think it would be to add a binding on top of the edges? It's made more like a valance and closed up completely on the edges.

Thanks for the answers, which are brining up the other questions.