The blocks are at least 52 years old, and perhaps older. They were pieced by my great great grandmother, and my great grandmother embroidered family members names on them. I would like to put the blocks together for my grandparent's 65th wedding anniversary in June. Although I don't know who most of the people on the blocks are, I bet they do.
Anyhow, the blocks need to be washed. I will hand wash. Like many old quilts that have been stored for a long time in less than ideal conditions, they have brown spots on them. I really don't know what this is or what causes it. Any ideas how to get them out?
Wow, your blocks are a year older than me, and a year younger than my sewing machine :-) I can't give you any advice, but wanted to say, I'd love to see pictures if you could post some.
Often those spots are caused by dust, body oil (hands), and starch. BIZ takes out quite a bit of the spots and brightens the fabrics. As Taria says, you can soak overnight w/ BIZ== and then you'll be clean and bright, too! ;->
Usually I wash the older fabrics AFTER Finishing them into a quilt; no fraying, no ironing, less hassle. Good luck!
Please do try just one to make certain that they will survive any kind of washing at all. A precious old garment just plain fell to threads when I very gently washed it. I would have been happy to have it brown spots and all if I had only known. Polly
Thanks for all the great ideas. Surprisingly, the blocks don't seem all that fragile, but some of the muslin has a pretty low thread count and I wouldn't want to stress it too much. Thanks for the washing suggestions. Hadn't thought of soaking them over night and that would surely be the least stressful. Since Polly shared her experience, I may just try washing a couple of the blocks alone as a test. And I'm seriously pondering waiting until the quilt is pieced before washing, however, the blocks are awfully musty, so.... And I've got another consideration. My great grandmother didn't get all of the blocks embroidered. However, they do have the various persons signature in pen. I'm hoping against hope it is permanent--that will be another test. I could go over the names in permanent marker, but they've used a variety of colors including pink. I wish I could embroider them myself, but I don't know how. And while I'm not adverse to learning, time is of the essence. Anyway, I will try to post a picture of some of them tomorrow. Some of them have the most wonderful feedsack fabrics in them. And yes, these blocks are older than me too. :-) Again, thanks!
Use Ivory soap. Maybe some enzymes added. The spots are protien left from the women who made them. Their fingers handled the squares. The sad thing is that the spots may not come completely out; but you don't want to destroy them trying. Good luck with the project.
You're very welcome, Shelley > The blocks are at least 52 years old, and perhaps older. They were pieced
What timely advice! I had been debating today about posting about some fabric that was 'left here cause you sew' from the previous owners' son.(No, he didn't leave the Featherweight cause his Granny sewed on it)
One box has a set of 24 hand stitched Dresden Plates that are in good condition. The one cot-size piece of muslin got wet and had the brown lines (yes, they did have a water leak that had been cared for--but the fabric hadn't) . I washed on gentle cycle as there was no way it could be used otherwise.... I ended up with about 4 small dark brown spots so right now I am soaking it in Biz/hot water overnight. There is another piece of muslin that I haven't had time to take out and check; one cathedral window block that is ready to be hand-stitched..has straight pins in it and remarkable there are NO brown dots from the pins... ((SIL will hand sew it when she comes...it has a piece of sandpaper that it is pinned to)); and there are a few more 'blocks' that I haven't opened yet as I don't have room to lay them out. Gotta save something for when SIL comes :) Yes, she does quilt and we are looking forward to it once again. There is another box of fabrics that need a good going thru, sort out and washing, but that will have to wait, too.
Butterfly (who just finished grocery shopping for Christmas--7 PM on a Friday night and we had the store to ourselves--last night same time was even quieter at a different store : )
Don't wash them before at least going over the names with a permanent marker of some kind. It is very likely that at least some of them will wash out if you don't.
Julia > Thanks for all the great ideas. Surprisingly, the blocks don't seem all
Thanks for showing us! They look great set together, and would also look wonderful with a colored sashing and some sort of little corner post -maybe a 2.5" pinwheel. Roberta in D
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I agree, sashing would make them stand out, but.... There are 58 of them though, and since some blank blocks were included, I'm thinking of adding the family members that were not yet born when this project was first started. The quilt already promises to be good-sized without sashing. I may forego it. I'd considered eliminating some of the "esoteric" signatures, however, since I'm really not sure who many of these people are, I don't think that's a good idea either.
I agree - the pinwheels you get without putting sashing will really zing when you see the quilt from a distance. If you put a sashing in you would just get a series of siggy blocks with just a few unco-ordinated triangles around them. I always think the secondary patterns are clever when they appear - sometimes I like them better than the original block.
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