Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Unexpected Discovery



 I've continued with de-constructing this vintage quilt and almost have all the star blocks removed. As you can see they are in a state of disrepair with frayed seams and worn blocks. The quilting thread had mostly disappeared as well and there was a stain which looks like coffee on some of the quilt.
    Within the quilt I was very surprised to find a petticoat with some pale blue embroidery on the bodice. There were two layers of calico or a mixture of pale fabric and one of them was the petticoat. The batting had disappeared as well and it seems that the cotton batting may have been sandwiched between the two layers of calico or pale fabric. I'm guessing the cotton batting was uncarded as the quilting was quite close together but only a very few remnants of batting remain and must have disappeared with heavy use.
    This was a utility quilt and as you can see by the new blocks I've made, there is a hidden gem under all that mess of frayed seams.  I'm really enjoying rescuing the fabric and making it pretty again so keep an eye on my progress.
   For now I'm back to washing and re-cutting the fabric into its new pieces.
 Hugs, Jan Mac
 PS I did finish taking apart the suffolk puff piece and will use the fabric to repair other quilts from that era.


4 comments:

Ulla said...

It is interesting to follow your work on this treasure!

kaiteM said...

I agree, it is very interesting but i would have loved to see the petticoat. What will you do with it?

Jan Mac said...

Kaite the petticoat is the fairly sheer white piece under the star blocks. I think I'll keep it with a block beyond salvage as a reminder of her former glory. I'm thinking I need to start a quilt log and show photos there so will probably keep the petticoat in something like that. I'll take a closeup of the embroidery. There's only a small piece of it probably because she didn't want the blue to show through or because she trimmed it off so it would lie flat.
Hugs, Jan

Jan Mac said...

The petticoat is in the 3rd photo.