Apart from more packing, I've spent my leisure time watching the cricket on TV and hand quilting a couple of vintage quilt tops. The Sunbonnet Sue is the top I repaired and you can see that originally it had yellow binding and no sashing at the top of the quilt top.
I repaired the blocks and replaced the black thread button hole stitching which had worn on two of the blocks. The remaining 4 blocks had black button hole stitching but it had pulled out of shape so I couched it back into place with fine black thread.
Below you can see the blocks which I repaired.
I decided to honour its history by hand quilting the top using Baptist fans, without a hoop, to avoid stress on the vintage fabrics and without marking a quilting design. I free hand measured with a tape measure as I went and quilted up to where I had placed pins. The label and binding are done and I think it's a lovely little vintage cot sized quilt now and should be good for at least another 70 years. It took me less than a week to hand quilt it and I really enjoyed quilting the Baptist Fans so I can see I will be doing more of them in the future.
As well as repairing and hand quilting tops, I have been doing some research into some of the vintage tops I own and I'm finding it's a wonderful insight into life in the 1930s and 40s. I am currently hand quilting another quilt fragment and will share its history soon.
Hugs, Jan Mac
1 comment:
You have done a wonderful job with these quilts. I love the baptist fan quilting. I like the look of this so much I want to try it on my quilt with perfect thread. It is so good to see you have kept them looking their age.
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