Ten Antique Quilts

[Lois B.]

Margo, Not only is it marvelously wonderful to see these charming family treasures, but it is also good to know what you have been up to. Thanks so much for sharing these lovely heirlooms. What a very special job to be entrusted to you. You must have been pleased to have been asked.

[Lorraine R.]

Family "TREASURES". says it all. Thank you for sharing the wonderful pictures so we all can enjoy seeing the work of years past. I agree that you are definitely the right one to have been entrusted to finish these beautiful pieces.
Lori

[Lorraine R.]

My goodness what a find! Love how you are preparing them for their second life in a new century. You seem to know intuitively what is right for each quilt. How lucky they are to have been entrusted to your care!

[Nancy R.]

Margo - Thanks for sharing! What wonderful quilts and quilting!! I think you win the award for fabric bleeding....

Nancy

[Margo C.]

Margo - Thanks for sharing! What wonderful quilts and quilting!! I think you win the award for fabric bleeding....

Nancy

Thanks for the kudos, ladies.

Nancy, I was really surprised that there was no bleeding onto the other fabrics when I washed and blocked those two quilts! I used 3 color catchers in the washer and there wasn't even much color change on them!

[Margo C.]

What an honor to quilt these so they can finally be loved and used (or displayed) by the family. Every quilt tells a story and you have helped them to tell it!

[Nancy R.]

Margo - Thanks for sharing! What wonderful quilts and quilting!! I think you win the award for fabric bleeding....

Nancy

Thanks for the kudos, ladies.

Nancy, I was really surprised that there was no bleeding onto the other fabrics when I washed and blocked those two quilts! I used 3 color catchers in the washer and there wasn't even much color change on them!

That is really amazing!! Fabric bleeding is really interesting to me. (I'm a geek, I know!) It's not just which fabrics will bleed, but also which fabrics will pick up the excess dyes. (Although this is the first time I've seen someone's hand pick up the excess dyes!!) And. of course, water chemistry makes a difference, too. A friend of mine has noticed that in the past year or so she has started having a lot of trouble with bleeding fabrics that she didn't have in the past. She originally attributed it to changes in fabric manufacturing until I pointed out that the others in our little quilting group haven't had the same problems. So now we're thinking that it probably has to do with the chemicals that are getting into her water from the nearby fracking. Scary!! I'm pushing her to get her water checked...

[Nancy R.]

Marvelous Margo,
It's a copy on all the comments, your expert skills and knowledge will bring these special quilts to a new beginning.
Thanks so much for sharing!

Good point about the fracking, Lots of that happening in MT.

Terry

[Dawn S.]

Margo, these quilts are priceless! And, now I know what you've been working on lately! What wonderful treasures these will be now that you have firmly secured them, and given them a new life. Also, I am amazed at the amount of hand stitching! Such dedication. And, I'm assuming there are so many plaids, because they are from worn out men's shirts? (Some recycling going on here?)

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

[Dawn S.]

Margo, those quilts are a wonderful inspiration. I like the first log cabin, you show, because the block turned 'wrong'(?) makes the pattern turn into a spiral. But they are all great.

[Barbara B.]

Thanks so much for sharing these, Margo!! And I agree completely with Pam Day--you are the perfect person to add the finishing love to these "family treasures"!

[Catherine S.]

Margo, thank you for giving us the quilt show. They are beautiful, and the time and resourcefulness involved is wonderful. Thank you for treating them with the care they deserve.

[Margo C.]

OK....the large red log cabin is on the frame. All of these quilts have had "issues", but this one has more fluffyness than the rest to try to ease in.

I have sprayed the entire pass with starch and hope that when it dries it will have sucked out some of the fullness!



Did I mention that measuring was not high on the quiltmaker's agenda either? :roll:
Where she took large tucks to make things fit, I'm left with some "D" cups!

[Annis C.]

Margo, thanks for sharing all of these wonderful quilts. I'm glad it's you and not me doing the quilting. I would definitely have a hard time dealing with that fullness. I remember color on my hands once, probably back when I was working mostly with plaids.

[Barbara B.]

Even with their "issues", we still love them for their personality and the link to the makers, now gone. As I tell all my beginning quilt students: "There's nothing wrong with your quilt that 100 years won't solve!"