Those are beautiful Pam - i think it's a great idea to make them into a quilt - i LOVE the butterflies Ninnie posted!

Pam, You could use a sticky, wash away stabilizer. Stick the stabilizer to the handkerchief, then applique it to a background fabric. Once washed, the stabilizer is gone and the blocks would not be too stiff. Nancy Zeeman uses it for stabilizing fabric for embroidery, which is too small to properly clamp in the hoop. She clamps a large piece of the stabilizer then sticks the fabric to it.

If the wash-away stabalizer is used to applique, do the applique stitches follow the pattern in the hanky?

I also read a brief blurb about a certain fusible interfacing that didn't make them stiff. I didn't have time to look at it more this morning.

With the scalloped and lacy edges (I have many like that) I think stitching it down to the background would probably be best. Depends with lace though if you want to leave it loose and just stitch around the edge before the lace.

I saw this one online and I like how they're folded. I have some with the corner embroidery like that. http://community.webshots.com/album/467212738WmWmdK

I think it would look nice to have the lacy edges free if I were to applique them. Do you mean sewing the hankies together by themselves and leaving the lace free? I wasn't thinking that way, I was thinking if they were applique'd to a background. It might be really easy to damage the lace if they're put together like a rag quilt though.

Beautiful hankies. I had never seen the butterfly idea before. Thanks, Ninnie.
:lol:

Pam, your handkerchiefs are beautiful! I love the butterfly quilt idea. I have seen one like that somewhere- I think in a library book, but I can't remember which one. If the handkerchiefs were appliqued to a sturdy fabric, they would just basically be an embellishment and not part of the structure of the quilt so it wouldn't matter as much if they are thin. I imagine they would wash well, being designed for nose-blowing! LOL!

And that quilt I posted the link to is probably my all-time favorite quilt of all time EVER! LOL! And the maker gave it away!!! (To her sister- lucky girl!)

I like the butterfly one too and I saw a site that had how to fold them. I'll have to find it again but I was in a hurry this morning.

I love the tablecloth quilt too. The one that I have from my parent's house has fruit on it, I believe. It's small, maybe 3' or 4' square, and it is very, very yellowed.

Does anyone know the best thing to wash it with? It seems to be a sturdy cotton.

And oh... that just reminded me that years and years ago I got a silky tablecloth and napkins that I didn't think I would ever actually USE but I just loved them. I think they might be with the good china in a plastic tub under the stairs.

Beautiful Handerchiefs Pam!!! I love all of the ideas for using them in a quilt!! :D :D :D
Another way I have seen them used is to cut them in fourths, appliquing them in the corner of the block (like a grandmother's fan block) Smaller handkerchiefs were placed in all 4 corners of the block, Larger handkerchiefs were placed in one corner only. If they had lace edgings, the applique work was done on the seam edges leaving the lace "free"
One quilt had large and smaller blocks made this way and was quite stunning. The center was a large block with handkerchiefs in all 4 corners and then had smaller blocks surrounding it with them only in the corners. The small ones were put togther to make 1/2 fans.

Great idea, can't wait to see that.

Amma, that sounds really interesting. There are some quite beautiful hankies out there that I have been looking at today. I don't have that many of them and I do like the idea of cutting them into quarters to make them go further.

I was looking at some all white hankies with pretty embroidery, cutwork, etc. and thought how nice those would be on a light blue background.

eBay sure has a bunch of hanky lots, vintage and repros. They are so pretty and reasonably priced for the repros.