1. Home
  2. Quilting Forum
  3. another old quilt/top story - long

another old quilt/top story - long

After visiting the restoration booth at the PNW quilt show, I got invited by another guild member to attend a satellite group that meets once a month - this woman is lovely, restores old quilts and makes/fixes/finish new ones as a bussiness.

She knows I love my rescue quilts, and has given me great advice on the dresden plate top I am currently (and for the foreseable future) hand quilting. First time I attended the get together in her house she gave me a hand quilted and embroidered bag I now use for my current project - and she approached me at the guild's retreat to tell me she had a red and white top for me, and gave it to me last friday.... it is an irish chain that would look great with some redwork in the open spaces, except that I do not embroider! It was given to her several years ago by another member of the guild, and she said she'd never finish it.

Several blocks were completed, plus a lot of fabric painstakingly cut by hand with scisors (you can see the pencil lines in some). It has one problem: the 'red' fabric is actually two, one very nice, pinker, close weave, while the other is oranger, open weave, and it runs! Not when I put it in water, but it has bled to the white and these blocks don't look like they have even been washed, so maybe rubbing? or moisture in the air?

They were hand pieced but not too acurately, so I decided to take them all apart (crazy, I know). I treated the whites with bleach (neutralized with sodium bisulfite to avoid damagiing the fabric) and the reds with retayne. some still bleed, I noticed when I ironed them onto an old 'white' towel - now mottled in orange..

I was going to use the FW to machine piece them and then hand quilt it (when I am done with the other current restorations). What do you think I should do about the two colours of red, and the bleeding?

Dr. Quilter who just noticed her siggy is gone...

Reply to
DrQuilter
Loading thread data ...

imo, there is a reason some quilts were never finished. If you can't get the red to stop running, I wouldn't put much work into the top.

I've restored several quilts and they have all required some work before I could quilt them. The last quilt I restored, a 1950's basket had to be taken apart, recut, and resewn. All of the blocks were completelt different sizes. I feel like I know why it wasn't quilted. The original maker couldn't get it to lay half way flat.

Reply to
lisae

I have thought about your question but I'm not getting anywhere. My puzzling probably has to do with the reason you are trying to restore this quilt. If the quilt were of some historical or family value, or if it were a lovely treasure, maybe, maybe I could understand. It seems to me that you are spending time and heart trying to finish something that may not be worth it. Won't it take longer to take it apart, add a better quality of red and put it back together than it would to simply start a new one? . . . and what will you have if you do reconstruct it? I guess what stays in my mind about finishing a rescued quilt is the one I rescued. It was a 'grandmother's flower garden'. The stitching was too loose, not knotted or backstitched and the background color was entirely too harsh. When I finished it, the background still overpowered the quilt. I gave it to somebody who just needed a blanket to keep warm. It would have been heaps easier to just give them a new blanket. That probably ended my restoration career unless, of course, I happen upon one that was autographed by Elvis. Polly

Reply to
Polly Esther

Reply to
DrQuilter

personally I would see what I could make from the white and the red that doesn't run and toss the red that does. it will be smaller but still be all original fabrics :-)

Reply to
Jessamy

Reply to
Taria

Thanks for putting my feelings into words Taria! Yes, I make new quilts with new fabric, but they have a totally different look - usually I use very bright fabrics, or have been lately, and they give me a different kind of satisfaction. It is odd because I do not enjoy making new quilts with calicos, muted or muddy fabrics, but I love to work with these faded, softer ones - I think it is the restoration I enjoy, the 'feeling of history' as you put it.

Same th> I don't work at the old quilts as much as you Marissa but I get the

Reply to
Dr. Quilter

I was thinking along those lines too. there is not too much of the good red, but I could make a smaller, nicer quilt. maybe another with the rest of the precut white fabric and a second one...

Reply to
Dr. Quilter

I wouldn't call this project a repair or restoration project since you didn't get a quilt top. What you have been given is part of a top and some pieces, a UFO. Nothing says they have to become the quilt the original person thought about making. That person's dream was given up when the parts were given to your friend. The game you have here is "What can best be done with the parts on hand?" That may mean discarding or replacing some of the parts you have to make the best item possible. This isn't a rescue or restoration, it's breathing life back into an otherwise wasted UFO.

You have three possibilities with this UFO: Sew the top with all the available parts and be irritated when the orangey red bleeds onto the white. You will probably never be happy using it because of the irritation it will cause you.

Replace the bleeding orangey red with new material. This gives the possibility to make the same size quilt as the original person wished to make, and you will be happier with the results than if you used the bleeding red.

Or, discard the orangey red and make a smaller quilt using the better quality red and white. You get something that only has the original fabric pieces, just in a different configuration. This is the hardest to do because you have to think outside the box. It may even mean not using the original Irish Chain pattern if you don't have enough of the good red to just make a smaller quilt, and instead going with 9 Patch with alternating plain blocks, or something else you might think up. The easiest way to decide what to do is to lay all the parts out on a design wall or the floor, and just play with the placement until you find a design you are happy using.

Debra in VA

Reply to
debnbill

I can understand this. Recently bought a lovely square of linen from around

1920 with a printed embroidery design, meant to be a table topper. A rather useless item really, but I just felt compelled to finish it! Sick, sick... (Going to use some of the linen thread in my stash.) Roberta in D

"DrQuilter" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

Reply to
Roberta Zollner

GMTA ; ) You would probably be pretty comfortable in our home. SOmeone once said it is full of things we love. Kind of an odd mix but home and special for us. Things these days are made to be disposable. It is sad and most of the stuff seems cold to me. Good luck with the reds in your quilt. Got any photos? Taria

Dr. Quilter wrote:

\
Reply to
Taria

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.