I think it's finished :-)

Today I sewed the label/pocket to the back of the vintage quilt I've been working on from time to time since last spring. I made the label in the form of a pocket so that I could insert a brief synopsis of what I know of the quilt's history and the repairs I effected, and a couple pictures of the process.

As often happens, when a large project is finished, I feel a mixture of joy and sadness. It was a good project and I learned a lot. I met some nice people along the way

Update on the Quilt Repair

I have done a little work on the vintage Double Wedding Ring quilt. I last blogged about it here. It took a while to finish the binding, but that's been done a while now.  I did some re-quilting here and there where the original thread had worn out.

The time had come, I thought, to work on a fabric hanging sleeve.  In my head it could work, but in practice it's being just this side of impossible. Maybe just impractical. When I googled a question about hanging a scalloped edged quilt the answer was to use wooden compression quilt hangers. I still think the thing will be wavy.

I guess I was concentrating pretty hard on getting the bias binding on so that it wouldn't be puckery, but instead it did end up a bit wavy. After all the fabric was new and the quilt is quite soft. Sigh.

Anyone in the quilting/blogging world have a suggestion?

Binding Nearly Completed

It's been a long haul, but the new binding on the Double Wedding Ring Quilt is nearly complete.  I was reminded again today as I sewed binding on one of the quilts completed by our Wednesday Morning Sewing
Group that I really like the newish clips I bought for this, among other purposes.  Before, when I have been doing the binding on quilts, I tried to take great care in pinning to try to reduce the chance of scratching myself in the process.  The clips eliminate that problem and hold the binding really well.  I have also used these clips when sewing bags and purses together and there are several interfaced layers and piping and maybe batting needing to be sewn together.

The last major jobs to be done are the hanging sleeve and a combination pocket/label for the back that will give a bit of the quilt's history so far, and document the repairs made.

I have a question for all of you reading my post.  I know that some friends and family read these blogs regularly.  I am also aware of a whole batch of other people who read them from various parts of the world. It would be great to know who you are.  Would you please leave me a comment? All you need to do is list where you live, why you came to my blog. You could make other comments if you like. No need to write more than a few words. Please feel free to use the option to comment anonymously if you like.

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

The Latest Quilt Repairs

I un-sewed the old binding, removing the machine top-stitching and the hand sewing. It was pretty much of a mess, worn to shreds, but still close to it's original Kelly green.  That binding, I always wonder why it was chosen.  Of course when it was new, the colors of the quilt were much brighter and included most colors there are. So, maybe it looked good then. In the quilt's present state of faded muted colors, it shouted a bit. However, when I got it all off, so it was no longer bound by such a dark contrast, I felt I had done the quilt a favor. It now looked calm, not a confined by it's dark fence.

Modern quilts are often bound with straight grain binding. It takes less fabric and doesn't stretch if handled properly.

Traditionally quilts are bound with a strip of bias fabric.  It is said to wear better. This quilt requires it with it's scalloped edges.  One of the properties of bias is it's stretchabilty. For the binding to lie flat when finished I would have to encourage it's stretchable tendencies.

Around the convexities of the scallops I needed to stretch sideways on the binding while guiding the quilt and the binding under the foot of the sewing machine so as to give the fabric enough width to cup over the curve when turned to the back. You can see in the photo above, I used a stiletto to help encourage the fullness into the fabric.

In the short concave curved space between the scallops I needed to pull on the binding gently while sewing it on.

It took a long time. It was rather tedious to tell the truth. It reminded me of setting sleeve caps, except that there were twenty of them.

I will turn the binding and sew it on by hand. that part is relaxing at least, even if it will take a while to do.

Not So Much To Write Home About

...or to blog about either I guess.  In the past week during the time I've worked on the quilt repair, I have completed replacing the missing patches with the vintage fabric. During the process I relocated the eighth missing patch I had seen originally when I first got the quilt, but had not seen during the thorough search and charting of the places needing work.  I had enough replacement fabric, so no problem, but it goes to show how careful you need to be in examining for areas needing work.  I also came across several more places where seams had come undone.

I have not done any re-quilting yet, but needed a slight change in activity, so I have started to unsew the binding. I think it was commercially made double fold tape and has done a great job in protecting the edge of the quilt. It is really nearly in shreds in places.  The person applying the binding  used an unusual technique in that on the front of the quilt the binding is top-stitched in place by machine. On the back side it has been tacked down by hand in places.  I will also do one line of machine stitching and one of hand stitching, however I will put right sides together when doing the machine stitching and then flip the tape to the back and hand sew it in place.  My machine stitching won't show.

I figured out roughly how much binding I will need. The edge is scalloped so I came up with a figure of about 9 yards. The fabric I ordered has arrived and has been washed and dried. It is a blender fabric and the pattern is called "Sponged" like the painting technique that gives you several shades of the same color.  Here's a photo of the fabric under the edge of the quilt (with the binding removed.)

As you can see, there are quite a few patches in that same color family in the quilt. I think that it will give the quilt a whole new look.

WIP (Work in Progress)

It's been a relatively busy week, but today I was able to get back to the Quilt Repair Project. I started replacing the patches that were made of a black and white print fabric that have totally deteriorated over the years, leaving holes in the quilt. As I've said before, the fabric I'm using for repair is a scrap of feed-sack fabric that looks to be "vintage" like the quilt, in purple and white print.  Tiny bits of the original black and white fabric still can be found in the seams around the patches, but can be pulled out easily, thread by thread. If they are in the way of what I am trying to do with the replacement pieces I remove them.

So far I've done two of the seven replacement patches. I made a template from a note card and cut each patch as I go, including enough to turn under on all four sides. Then I press the fabric around the template with my iron and some spray starch. This has elements of the technique my Japanese Quilting Sensei teaches for machine applique. I am hand appliqueing however.

The patch on the left side is easily found as I removed the green binding before sewing it in. Can you see the other one?

While getting ready to sew in the patches I found another two inch segment of seam that needed resewing. I wonder how many more I will find? I'm also finding spots where the quilting stitches are no more. I will need to check the whole quilt with this in mind as a last step before doing the binding.

I've ordered a possible fabric for the new bias binding, it's due to arrive on Monday. It will be interesting to see how it looks and whether it will work.

Stay tuned for my further adventures!

Quilt Repairs Begin

On Friday I began the official Repair Of Bob's Grandmother's Quilt. First I made a diagram of the entire quilt on graph paper. I marked one corner of the quilt with a bright ribbon and designated that as the upper left. Then began examining the quilt top carefully for areas needing attention. Because the quilt is square it was easy to divide it into quarters. I marked the points on the diagram.  This process showed that there are seven patches that need replacing and several places where stitching has become undone.  

So, the first photo shows a very small area at the very edge of the quilt where one patch has begun to ravel.  I think that when I apply new binding this will be covered, but I un-stitched the binding and turned under the ravels and sewed the area down to the batting and the adjacent patch so that it is secured in any case. 

Next there were several areas where the seams had become un-sewn.

Which were fairly easily repaired.

Next time I'll start replacing the disintegrated patches. I'm using The Bottom Line's applique thread in a kind of pale gold color which is really disappearing into the various colors of the patches and the background as well.

Adding to my resume

                                                                                                                                                                                           

 A friend of mine brought me a new kind of project this week. This quilt was made by his grandmother and he was wondering what to do about the binding which is badly worn and with the 8 patches that have disappeared.

They all seem to be from the same piece of flour sack print. Trouble is that the print was mostly black with just a bit of white. My sister reminds me that black dyes usually have a metal component. I just remember that black in a quilt can really be a problem.

I'm thinking of replacing the pieces with a dark purple print if the Etsy shop I communicated with can find something for me.

There doesn't seem to be much other damage to the fabric in the Double Wedding Rings on the front and minimal staining on the back.  The batting has migrated badly throughout as the quilting is not dense. I've been searching on the Internet for information on repairing old quilts and have gotten some good information. So after this project I'll be able to add "simple quilt repair" to my resume.  


Today's Bird

This little fellow is called a cattle egret. When I first came to Florida there were some cattle ranches in the area and if you drove by the pastures you would see these birds in among and sitting upon the cattle. With urbanization in this area, you now see them in parking lots and on sidewalks looking into the bushes  trying to find the anoles that are common here.

Usually they are completely white, except in breeding season when the feathers on the top of the head and on the breast are a light peach color and the feathers on the back are a different texture that I'm finding difficult to describe