Thanks for sharing with us Eddie...you have done a marvelous job. You are obviously a very special person, you don't entrust such precious family treasures to just anyone! It must have been great fun to finish what was started so very long ago (an I love the fact it has those quirky seams!).

Beautiful finishing & quilting you did on this lovely old quilt. I know your friends are glad to have you do it. Enjoy the quilt they gave you, also. Glad to hear you're busy. Sorry Melissa isn't feeling well. Hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow.

How beautiful and how very lucky you are! I love the uneven seams these are so much part of the charm. You have finished it off so nicely. I am curious as to why you chose machine quilting over hand quilting mainly to do with the integrity of such a piece this age. And also perhaps some one might be able to tell me about the dating of such a quilt. I read just recently in the Australian Quilting Mag that the dating of a quilt is determined by the latest fabric used not the oldest, how would you get on in this case with a recent fabric being used for the backing? Gal

Wow, that is awesome!

Beautiful job you did on this. Old ones have a lot of character.
I also have the same question about the machine quilting over hand quilting, to maintain the integrity of the original piece.
I have a top that was entirely hand pieced and appliqued in the 1920's to early 1930's with miniscule hand stitching
I recently showed it to another quilter, and was told it needed to be hand quilted.
In that case, I may well be 100 as well, before it is ever completed!

That's pretty much my reasoning as well -- I don't do hand quilting, so it would never get done otherwise. Gail wants to have these quilts out where she can enjoy and use them, rather than them remaining on the top shelf of her linen closet for the rest of her years. :) I'm not sure how these were be categorized "age" wise with the introduction of new material to the backing and binding. Probably as noted earlier, that they would be considered "new" now. When I was over at their house, though, it was really kind of sad in a way seeing all of these beautiful quilt tops that they had from their dearly remembered ancestor and they were put up, out of sight, not being enjoyed for the wonderful link to their past that they are.

Thanks for the inspiration - I have a three tops, on each from both my grandmothers and my mother (all passed away) that were never finished. Thought I had to stay true to their age and hand quilt them so they have never been done. Would love for them to finished and used and loved.

Yes, definitely thanks for the inspiration!
I had gotten a vintage reproduction piece to border mine with, that looks really nice with it, and then was having second thoughts about using the new fabric with the old top.
Since I don't know who originally did the top, it is my plan to use it and enjoy it, character and all.

A wonderful thing you did for those people. I LOVE old quilts, and have several that should be in a rag bag somewhere, but I love them just the same. You did a great job quilting it. Fantastic!! Can't wait to see the next ones.

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