lindayu

I received some antique quilt piecing for a flower garden quilt I have posted about previously. As it turns out, the quilt piecing was sewed entirely with a running stitch and 1/8 inch seam allowances! I am worried the quilt will fall apart once it's done.

Short of taking apart the many dozens of prebuilt flowers, what can I do to help make sure this quilt can last?

lindayu

Iceblossom

While it will need to be treated with care, I think you are ok, the edges seem to be very nice and stable without a lot of ravelling.

Back in the day when/before I started, very little was said about seam allowance. Mostly they were eyeballed, you had a template that was the size of the piece you wanted and you rough cut the seams around your drawn lines, or you cut the pieces with whatever seam you chose and eyeballed the seam.

I remember looking for guidance and not finding much -- I remember one book did say that depending on the fineness of weave of the fabric, quilts could be made with down to 1/16th!! I don't come from a quilting background/family and I used 1/2" seam allowance until I got my first rotary ruler in the 80s. 1/4" just seemed so impossibly small coming from clothing and 7/8ths.

toverly

This may not be a popular thing to do but if it were me. I would back the quilt with a fusible interfacing. It would help stabilize not only small seams but those running stitches. At least I would do this instead of taking them apart.

QuiltE

Toverly has a good idea.

Another thought ... if you are thinking of machine quilting rather than hand quilting,
you may want to stitch "out of the ditch" on both sides of all the seams.
Both sides, so that you are sure to grab the fabric in the seam allowance.
It will need to be both, since the seams will be flipping different directions.
A lot of work, but it would conquer your fears.

Another option would be stippling, so that the seams will be well stitched.

Jingle

I am with QuiltE, Quilt it with stippling and it should hold up nicely.

Quiltwoman44

most fusible battings are not permanent. it is meant to be washed out. but quilt it well and it should last a good time. Very pretty.

Tartan

If you get it quilted closely it should be fine. Jamie Walen quilts many antique tops with a layer of fabric behind the top and lots of quilting on his longarm. Lorena from Lorena’s Quilting long armed a wonderful hand pieced Grandmother Flower Garden on her Lorena’s Quilting YouTube site.

lindayu

Thank you for all of the advice!

Things I read to try:

• Try a fusible backing
• Stippling
• Stitching in the ditch

An extra question: is stitching in the ditch a method of stippling? they seem quite similar

Is the stitching in the image stitching the ditch or stippling? I quite like what they did and I think it would reinforce the seams

Onebyone

I would stabilize it with Misty Fuse and use a Swiss Batiste for the backing for the Misty Fuse. Then sandwich with batting and backing and quilt. Mistyfuse is a gossamer fusible that virtually disappears when ironed onto fabric and doesn’t change the hand of the cloth. It is permanent, will not wash out.

FYI: A multi national prize winning quilter told me this is how she backs all her quilt tops for entering in shows.