Looking for advice on old quilt blocks
 

I was excited to receive some beautiful blocks that my great-great-grandmother made. BTW I am 63. Wow, does that makes these blocks ancient?
She used the feedsacks and or small print fabrics as a Dresden plate pattern. The only thing is, they are hand appliqued on lawn or batiste fabric. Any advice on how to stabilize and use them to make a quilt?

Lucky you. I have a Bethlehem star top that I bought from my Grandmother's Aunt. It wasn't pieced that well but my Grandmother's sister had her quilting group hand quilt it.

It depends on your quilting skills. You could remove them and attached the blocks to new good quality muslin fabric. Another possibility is to use some sort of a lightweight fusible interfacing. Good Luck.

What a great gift!

The only thing I can offer is: be sure to check the seams, as that fabric wants to ravel.
Have fun working on this one.

I have some hand embroidered blocks made by my grandmother. They are on Batiste also. I hand washed them and then added them in a quilt as is. I used Warm and White for a batting and I'm hand quilting them closely to stabilize them. They were very dirty and musty after years in the attic. They survived soaking them in Biz and hand washing so I used them in the quilt. I wanted to keep them like Grandma made them. I also thought that if they didn't survive the washing...I wasn't going to use them in a quilt. Another idea is to wash them by hand and frame them to hang on the wall. They would be protected under glass.

Learning moment please, what is batiste? Thank you

Bastiste is a fine, semi-sheer, cotton or linen fabric. Used for lightweight shirts and dresses as well as handkerchiefs and underwear

I think I would attach them to another fabric with an interfacing fabric or a stabilizer.
They could also be appliqued onto another fabric, with tiny hand stitches around the dresden plates.

Thank you very much. Understand the need for a more suitable foundation for the plates.

I would machine baste the batiste to a pre-washed(and therefore pre-shrunk) good quality muslin, using water soluble thread in the top (can also use in the bobbin if your machine can handle it, but not necessary as bobbin thread will be hidden under the muslin). Baste to a larger piece of muslin (you can iron the two pieces together first), then trim the muslin even with the edges of the batiste. Assemble into a quilt top, baste as usual, then quilt.

Choose the batting carefully. I would probably consider using a Quilter's Dream cotton in either a hand-quilting or machine-quilting weight, depending on how you are going to quilt it. This will keep the batting thin (in keeping with the period) and give the quilt a nice soft drape, compatible with the lawn background fabric. The quilting will keep all of the layers together (including the muslin).

I just think that backing with fabric rather than one of the modern stabilizers is more in keeping with the original blocks.

Edit: On second thought, since this is hand applique, I would probably recommend hand quilting using Hobbs wool batting. This would also be in keeping with the period, and the wool gives particularly good definition to the applique. Although you would be hand quilting through an extra layer (the muslin), it should still be relatively easy to do since both wool and muslin are relatively easy to hand needle.

We had a quilt appraiser come and speak at our quilt guild. She said that an antique quilt with modern fabric added, looses it's value. The quilt is dated by it's most recent fabric. So, for monitary value, you wouldn't add a more modern fabric. But if you want it to last a long time, and be useable, it would be alright to add a stabilizer or muslin behind the blocks.