How To Repair A Vintage Quilt

Good morning time!  I am astonished to study that, not simply did I achieve last Tuesday'southward weekly goal of completing half (24) of the blocks for Lars's Mission Impossible graduation quilt, but my mom and I got ALL 48 blocks done last week.  Woo-hoo!  They are all laid out on my design wall now, waiting to be sewn together.

Mission Impossible: All Forty-Viii 12 inch Blocks Complete!

I only have a few decisions to mull outset, such every bit:

1. Am I going to sew these blocks into rows next, or volition I stitch sets of four 12" blocks together into 24" blocks first, 12 "Ten" blocks and 4 "O" blocks?  If I make them into 24" blocks first I think I stand a amend chance of sewing them together in the right management, avoiding the dreaded seam ripper...
2. I need to piece of work out a pressing programme for the seam allowances
3. I need to effigy out how to remove that extra majestic textile from the corners of these blocks where it's all in the seam allowance

But while I'm pondering those things, I took a niggling detour and went back to that vintage quilt repair that I'1000 undertaking for a friend.  I had my 'Nina 750QE all prepare upwards for invisible car appliqué piecing from the within curves on those flying geese blocks, and that'south the aforementioned technique I wanted to use to patch the vintage quilt.  All I needed to practise was switch from the Smoke monofilament to Clear monofilament.

Vintage Quilt Elevation with Backing, Batting, and Yarn Ties Removed

Here'due south what I know well-nigh this quilt.  It was made by the grandmother of my friend (who is about to become a grandmother herself in a few months), and my friend's husband remembers seeing it in her parents' business firm before they were married.  Those are the only facts I know so far, only I've asked their daughter to try to discover out more so I can make a label from the quilt when I've finished repairing/resurrecting it.

Exploratory Surgery: Removing the Shredded Orange Binding, Bankroll, and Polyester Batting

As I began taking the quilt apart, I realized that the fabrics of the quilt acme were faded and weakened from UV exposure -- my friend had been using it every bit a picnic coating under the Carolina lord's day for many years.  See how much more vibrant that paisley print is where information technology was covered by the bounden fabric?

See How Vibrant That Pinkish Used to Be, Nether the Binding?

I wish I'd taken pictures of this quilt front and back when I first got my easily on it at the beginning of February.  The bright orange backing fabric was shredding, hanging off the back of the quilt like ribbons, and exposing large sections of batting.  The forepart of the quilt had several big holes where material was shredding and disintegrating across multiple material patches.

One of the Worst Holes, Located Near the Center of the Quilt Top

The original quilter had tied the quilt with yarn at 4" intervals rather than quilting the layers together, so I went into this with the idea that I would remove the binding and snip the yarn ties to split up the quilt layers, patch those large holes, and then layer the pinnacle with new batting and bankroll and machine quilt it on the longarm.  I did not even consider tying it with yarn again considering the fabrics are and then weak and the yarn ties were putting too much stress on the fabrics.  In several places, the knot of yarn had ripped right through the quilt top.  I call up that quilting stitches will do a better job of marrying the top to the new batting and backing and then they function as one, allowing the fragile quilt height to benefit from the force and stability of the other quilt layers.

Original Yarn Ties in a Good Department of the Quilt, Spaced 4 inches Apart

1 more surprise challenge was the construction of the quilt height itself.  There was a base or foundation layer comprised of several different white fabrics that announced to cutting from cast-off garments and linens.  Like the quilt top, the base layer fabrics are different weights, different weaves, some cotton and some constructed blends, and the quilter did not bother to remove seams and hems from these pieces earlier sewing them into the quilt.  Upon initial inspection of this quilt, I'd planned to leave the base layer intact, but one time I got the quilt apart I discovered that the foundation was not salvageable.  It was badly shredding, those beefy seams and hems hidden beneath the quilt top could cause problems for auto quilting, but the kiss of death was the realization that the assorted fabrics in the base layer had shrunk at dissimilar rates from one some other and at different rates from the fabrics in the quilt acme.  It was all pleated and puckered where information technology wasn't shredding, making information technology incommunicable for the quilt acme to lay every bit flat equally it could without the backing.  Oh, and the WEIGHT of the base layer was making it difficult for me to handle the quilt top for repair without ripping it.

Pieced Foundations Semi-Fastened to Quilt Peak

The construction method was kind of haphazard, with the quilt top fabrics pieced together in a random mode similar to the improvisational piecing of today'south modern quilters, and so those sections of pieced fabrics were sewn to the foundation fabrics merely intermittently, with gaps of upwards to xiv" betwixt stitching lines that held the quilt peak to the foundation.  All the same, some -- simply not all -- of those seams were property the quilt top patches together too as attaching the to the foundation.  And then, over a period of several days, I carefully snipped abroad the foundation fabric betwixt stitching lines, using my duck billed appliqué scissors to avert accidentally snipping into the quilt pinnacle.  There are besides quite a lot of hand stitched repairs to the quilt top made by my friend that go through the foundation cloth every bit well, and I felt that those stitches were role of the quilt'south history that needed to remain so I cut around those stitches every bit well.

Carefully Snipping Abroad the Foundation Fabric Along the Seam Lines

And of grade, historian and vintage material lover that I am, the whole time I'm working on this I'1000 trying to pin down an approximate appointment for when the quilt was fabricated.  The number ane rule of dating a quilt is that a quilt cannot be older than the youngest fabric in the quilt, and this one had polyester batting and polyester-alloy fabrics.  I know that polyester fabrics were introduced to the market place after World War II, just I accept not been able to find out when polyester quilt batting was start sold.  If anyone knows, please allow me know in the comments!

Every bit for the colors and print patterns in the quilt top, those are telling me 1960s or 1970s, specially when I consider how much wilder and brighter all of the colors would accept been earlier the fabrics faded.  I'k also factoring in what I know about the history of quiltmaking in the United States in the 20th century.  Quilting roughshod out of vogue post WWII with the growth of consumerism, readily available and affordable commercially fabricated bedding, and people associating patchwork quilting with the hard times and "making do" of the Depression and state of war years.  Some of the older quilters continued making traditional quilts for pleasance, but this detail quilt doesn't mesh with styles that were popular with quilters in the 1950s and it's free-form structure and lack of uniform seam allowances suggest to me that this was made past someone who was new to quilting, someone who had not been taught by previous generations, someone who was figuring information technology out as she went along.  I experience like this quilt belongs somewhere in the Quilt Revival of the belatedly 1960s-1970s...  EXCEPT...  My friend said her grandmother made this quilt, not her female parent, and that item makes me lean towards an before appointment (1960s) versus a later date (circa Bicentennial quilt revival in the mid 1970s).  Too, while the structure of the acme suggests a beginner quiltmaker, the yarn ties were precisely spaced in a iv" grid with knots that held the exam of time, and the double-fold bounden was neatly and skillfully finished by hand.  I did ask the great-granddaughter to try to find out which grandma made this quilt, where/when she lived etc., and I'll exist interested to larn how accurate my quilt sleuthing has been.

Y'all, if you are still out there making quilts without labeling them, you lot are going to drive people similar me NUTS in the future!!

Seriously, though -- this quilt is an example of the best destiny a quilter could always wish for his or her quilts.  It has been handed downward from generation to generation, literally loved to pieces, and the quilter's granddaughter notwithstanding tin't bear to throw it out because this quilt is a connection to a grandmother's dearest long afterwards the grandmother is gone.  But, without a label, the next generation is non going to know who made this quilt or why it'southward special.  PUT A Characterization ON YOUR QUILTS, people!  It doesn't need to be fancy!  Only "Made by Emerge Johnson Smith, Anytown, U.South.A., 2022."  Scrawl it in the corner with a Pigma Micron fine tipped permanent in pen and exist washed with information technology!  Your great-great-grandbabies will thank you for it.  :-)

So, back to my repair process.  Having a rough idea of when the quilt was made has guided me in selecting prints from my stash.  This is all about sentimental value, then I'm trying to brand myself as invisible as possible in the repairs -- I want it to still look like grandma'south quilt when I'm done with it, not Rebecca'south version of grandma's quilt, y'all know what I mean?  I want my repairs to blend in.  I've bleached most of my patch fabrics because the ones in my stash that have the right 60'southward-'70s vibe take colors that are way too vibrant to blend with the faded original fabrics:

Scraps from my Pineapple Quilt Backing, Before and After Bleaching

Scraps of Tula Pink from my Disco Kitties Quilt, Before and Later on Bleaching

For those really big holes in the quilt top, I randomly pieced some odd-shaped scraps together first and and so appliquéd them over the damaged department of the quilt top.  It was challenging for me to carelessness straight lines and correct angles in order to create a patch that didn't look like an obvious later addition.

Damaged Section Before Repair

I am just smoothing the quilt top over my ironing board, getting it equally flat and smooth every bit possible, and then laying my patchwork patch over the damaged section, trying to match the edge of my patch to a seam line wherever possible.  I am turning the seam allowance under past hand, without measuring, deliberately making it a trivial wonky, then flattening information technology with the steam iron.  When I'thousand satisfied with the patch and its position on the quilt top, I secure it with a bead of Roxanne'southward Glue Baste-It just forth the edges and hit it with the iron again to dry out the glue.

My New Patchwork Department Positioned and Glue Basted In Place On the Ironing Board

And and so I automobile sew together the patch in place the very same style I was doing the invisible machine applique sew together to secure the inner bend on my geese blocks.

Appliquéing my Patch to the Quilt Summit with Articulate Monofilament Thread

Now, I know what you lot are thinking -- your hawkeye eyes accept spotted Tula Pinkish and Kaffe Fassett prints and you are judging me for putting such hallmark 2022 fabrics into a circa 1965-1979 quilt summit.  Well, I feel like Kaffe's and Tula's prints have a heavy 60s-70s influence that works with the other prints, and they bring back some of the life and zing that the original fabrics have lost to fading.  They would also help a hereafter quilt historian to hands date when the repairs were washed, in the even that my new label falls off (or if I'm not able to get enough information to brand a label).  But I selected the musical notation fabric and the disco kitty specifically with the quilt's electric current owner in mind, because she is an amazing (like World-SHATTERINGLY amazing) singer and cat-lover who was recently deprived of a kitten under dubious circumstances.  And then the kitty stays!

This Was the Other Really Bad Pigsty in the Center of the Quilt Top

Appliquéing My New Patchwork Department Over the Damaged Area

For the repair shown above, I bleached the coral floral print fabric and the Kaffe Fassett impress on the correct, but did not bleach the lilliputian schoolhouse print or the jelly roll strip of lavander Kona Solid.

Back Side Later Stitching Repair, Prior to Trimming

Later on stitching, I flip the acme over and carefully snip abroad the damaged portion of the quilt peak below my repair.

After Trimming Away Damaged Section Beneath Repair

My invisible machine appliqué stitch is similar to a blind hem, but it's actually a tweaked Vari-Overlock sew with a very narrow swing bite and tiny, short straight stitches between the zigzag.  Although I'one thousand using clear monofilament thread in the needle, I've wound a medium beige threescore weight Mettler cotton embroidery thread in my bobbin, so you can see what my stitch looks like on the back of the quilt summit - information technology'south that jaggedy brownish zigzag.

See How Nicely That Repaired Section Blends Into the Quilt Top?

I Call back the Kitty Cat Looks Pretty Expert, Too

Yes, the kitty cat draws attention because he'south a cutie, but I don't recollect my REPAIR is obvious in that section of the quilt so I'grand pleased with it.  I

And then now that I've taken care of the sections of the quilt acme with the most astringent impairment, I'thou sewing open seams closed where I find them and patching smaller holes.  There are a number of places where the quilt top fabrics have torn right forth the seam lines and smaller holes sprinkled throughout the quilt.  It has to be a balancing deed -- in that location are and then many fabrics in this summit that are worn to the betoken that you lot can see through them, simply if I replaced ALL of them it would change the quilt height to the point that it would no longer exist recognizable every bit the aforementioned quilt.  Call back that I'thou already irresolute the backing and binding cloth and I'll be quilting it instead of tying it with yarn once more -- those are large plenty changes.  And so I'k simply going to focus on the most severely damaged areas, fixing the worst hole and and then the adjacent-worse hole then on until it gets the the bespeak where the top tin can be successfully quilted.

And and so, my To-Do On Tuesday Goals for this week are:

1. Complete repairs on Vintage Quilt Top
2. Assemble Mission Impossible Blocks into Finished Quilt Tiptop
3. Load Vintage Quilt Tiptop for Longarm Quilting
4. Spotter Judi Madsen'southward iQuilt Classes in Preparation for Paducah Quilt Week Classes

I'g linking today'south mail up with:

TUESDAY

Source: https://www.rebeccagracequilting.com/2019/04/vintage-quilt-repair-mission-impossible.html

Posted by: hickdeaverm.blogspot.com

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