I was reading this thread http://www.quiltingboard.com/posts/list/23066.page and LisaT posted a link to a quilt made out of vintage tablecloths and sheets. What a beautiful quilt! I just got a small vintaqe tablecloth from my parent's house but there may not be enough fabric to do much with. Then, I thought of my grandmother's hankerchiefs. She had probably dozens of them, almost all brand new, some with the tags still on them. I put my favorites in a picture frame divider but maybe I can make a quilt with them.

They are thin, as hankerchiefs are, so would anyone have a recommendation about how to back them with something or is there a product that they could be fused with that wouldn't make them as stiff as a board? A light-weight fusible? An iron-on interfacing? Maybe sewing them with a design onto a background square?

Those are beautiful!
I have a pattern of a quilt , made with handkerchiefs. they cut 13 1/2 in cotton blocks, these are light gray, but could use any color you wanted , and then appliqued them on the blocks. I will be glad to post a picture if you want.

Also a pattern of butterflies, made from hankies and appliqued on Will post picture if you want, just let me know

Yes, I would love to see them. I have never seen one with hankies and was going to do some searching on it.

This is how they are displayed in my sewing room now. I am not sure where the other ones are, I'd have to look for them.

This is one of my favorites. It's a child's hankerchief and it is just darling. I don't know which childs' it was.

There is a soft cover book by, House of White Birches that is called Hankerchief Quilts. (I think) Very cute and lots of projects. Most quilt stores carry it.
I gave my neighbor a huge stack of them I had collected through the years to make a butterfly quilt with them from this book.

Sorry it took me so long, on dial up, and it really sucks today! :lol: :lol:

the first one is done as butterflies, and the second is just squares.

[img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_uAI_9RibNE...0/IMG_0270.JPG[/img]

[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uAI_9RibNE...0/IMG_0271.JPG[/img]

Thank you for posting them, they're just beautiful! I haven't seen the butterfly one before.

I do like the hankie quilts but I really like the way you have them displayed now Pam, but it sounds like you have plenty.

Oohhhh! Nice! I have lots of hankies to make a quilt with. I did iron 2 onto a fusible and hand quilted them to see if it would work. A friend is making pillows out of them so maybe I can get her to post a pic. I will have to look at home tonight and see what the fusible was, it worked really well and they are not stiff at all. I am hoping to do a quilt as you go with them.

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.

Beautiful hankies, Pam! I love how you have them displayed now!
And thank you Ninnie, for the pictures you posted, and of the link you posted Pam! They're absolutely beautiful!!

Years ago, I had a whole box that were my grandmother's. I think I sold them at a yard sale a long time ago. :oops: :!: I've been re-collecting them for awhile now, all the while kicking myself for not keeping the ones I had! I've gotten some off Ebay, not cheap though! And quite a few at yard sales, estate sales, for .50-$1.00 each. :D
I absolutely love the quilts that's been posted here using them!

Handkerchief quilts are awesome.. I saw one at the AQS Expo in Knoxville today with the Hankies folded into butterflies as in one of the pictures shown..
May I say it was BEAUTIFUL!
what a lovely way to preserve a bit of textile history.

trying to send a picture of one I saw a a quilt show

That is so pretty!! I had to download and turn it sideways because I wasn't sure what the middle was. Very imaginative to do the woman's skirt in a hanky.

I bought 65 hankies on eBay today. I really want to try doing one.

Wow!!!!

I just took another look at the hanky lady and had a thought - hankies were used a lot to embellish Victorain crazy quilts - just an idea to toss into the mix, Pam! :D

Funquilter, thanks for posting that, it's really pretty, and so creative!!!
:-)

I have a book I found about 6 yrs ago

Hanky-Panky Crazy Quilts by Cindy Brick
publisher: American School of Needlework Publishing
1455 Linda Vista Drive
San Marcos, CA 92069
book number is 4209

It is fabulous. Have collected hankies since 1979 when my grandma died and I inherited a bunch of hers. Have a Hanky-Panky crazy quilt in progess that I have been working on for about year and a half now. It is all appliqued on by hand along with laces, hand crocheted doilies (my grandma) made, antique buttons and beads, etc. It is turning out just fabulous. Am making it queen size and also am making 2 pillow shams with blocks of hankies, etc on them. Will post work in progress as soon as I can get my daughter to help me as I am computer and digital camera dummy when it comes to doing stuff like that. Can type apx 120 wpm but no good at other electronic stuff - lol. Hope you can find this book as it is great. Oh, I have apx 100 hankies in my quilt so far.

Sandy

My blocks look alot like the one posted by "funquilter". They are appliqued on to white cotton blocks with no stabilizer at all and all hand appliqued on and then I add laces or doilies and last I do button or bead work. If has deco lace or scalloped edges I leave them that way, otherwise I add lace or embroidery/tatting work to edges. Use center of floral hankies or lace doilies for center of each block and applique corner cuts of hankies layered around it til get to outside edges of block.

That sounds beautiful, and a lot of work! Looking forward to seeing pictures of it.

I received 65 vintage hankies and have another 38 (?) coming that are new.

What a neat idea!!

I wish I had a picture of it, but don't, but I saw a wallhanging at Road to California show a couple of years ago that used folded (gathered?) hankies to form the dresses and parasols of old fashioned ladies. It was simply beautiful - made me wish I had some hankies. The laces on the edges were the hems of the skirt and hanging down from the edge of the parasol. The skirt waists were gathered such that they were 3-D and stuck out from the wallhanging with lace petticoats under them. The face, arms, and such were embroidered if I remember right. It seemed to be an ingenious use of old fashioned hankies. Wish I could describe it better, but this is the best I could do.

I'm very interested in this thread ! I have a box of my late Grandmother's hankies .I have never seen a hankie quilt . I don't think I could bear to cut them ! Some are very sheer , some are not . You have posted some really good ideas . I haven't decided what I want to do with them yet . Annie.

PS I like the way Pam has her displayed :D

Oh wow such beautiful work and i love the idea of quilts made with them i just love the way Pam has hers displayed.

Those came from a time when hankies were beautiful. I can't wait to see what you do with them.

I can't wait to see what I do with them either! :lol: I've been looking and searching and playing on EQ. It's hard to really envision it in EQ without the real hankies. The center embroidery is a representation of using pillow case edges that my grandmother embroidered.

I think I have seen that quilt with the ladies dresses and parasols but I can't find it now. It is beautiful.

Beautiful! Love the butterflies too! :D

Very nice!