Can This Quilt Be Saved?
I bought this vintage quilt top
last year on the internet. I had
stored it away until I had the time
to work on it.
I'm a member of a Quilt History Study
Group here in Lancaster; so when I
saw this piece for sale I was so excited!
I recognized some of the fabrics from
about 1890 - 1900. But I wanted to bring
it to the Study to make sure.
Now when I say a "piece" for sale I mean
that the seller called it a "cutter quilt".
I clicked on "buy" and bought the piece.
Later I went back to view the piece again
and I noticed that there were SIX OTHER
PIECES for sale! So I e-mailed the seller
and asked if they were cutting as they
sold or if the rest of the quilt was
still whole.
To my relief; they said it was still whole
and asked if they should cut another
piece for me....NO!! I will buy the
remainder of the quilt "UNCUT"!
When I received it in the mail I was
so excited! Granted it does have some
torn spots but it's Queen size!
Just look at these old fabrics!
This is just one piece of the corner
of the quilt that was cut. The quilt
was not quilted but tied.
You can see where some of the pieces
are torn.
Here's the back....
All hand stitched with small stitches
and straight lines. That's a lot of
work for all these pieces and queen
size!
That's one of the reasons that I would
like to salvage what I can.
I noticed that one of the blocks were
repaired.
Front view of repair
Back view of repair
What I did so far to this piece is
I removed the back and the batting.
The quilt did have a funny odor sort
of like a chemical smell. I had to
put it outside in the shade to air
it out for a couple of days. Taking
it inside at night.
Here I just removed one block that
was in shreds. I will continue to
remove all of the damaged blocks on
this piece before I work on the rest
of the quilt.
It will take me a long time but I
believe it will be worth it.
I will post the other part of the
quilt very soon.
Happy Quilting!
