thanneaKS

I came across a Grandmother's Flower Garden baby quilt at an antique store. The top is made up of 3/4" hexagons, all hand-stitched. The flowers are pink, white, and blue. The path is white. There is a pattern made up of 4 red hexagons evenly scattered throughout. It's gorgeous! However, it was bound (badly) with an orange/brown/white pattern. I took the binding/backing off today--it had been done "fold-over" and up to half of the outside hexagons were crumpled inside. The binding width ranged from 1/2 inch to 2 inches. Thankfully the hexagons weren't cut off. It needs a good pressing--and here's my question. I washed it by hand, once, when it was still together. There are a few yellowed stains on the white areas on the front. Should I wash/soak it again? If so, in what? I thought about oxyclean but worried that it would be too harsh. The fabrics look 1930's and are in good shape, with a little fading here and there. There are two separations I will hand-stitch before doing anything else. I figure pressing will set the stains, and I want to do this right.

My plan is to use a new batting. The original batting was 4 squares of diaper gauze stitched together. The original quilt was tied, not quilted. I plan to hand quilt it--or get it hand quilted. Ideas for patterns? I'm thinking inside the hexagons but they are really, really tiny! I'm backing it with premium muslin and binding it with a bias binding of the same. I haven't figured out how I'm doing that, given the irregularly shaped outside hexagons. I guess I'm thinking a very narrow binding, mitered as needed to follow the border.

I'm pretty sure the original quilter was not the person who bound it. The colors are so carefully chosen and the stitching is so tiny and accurate. The binding was put on with huge stitches, unmatched fabric, and major irregularities!!!

I'm open to ideas--heading off to vacuum up all the fluff that taking it apart generated.