Taking care of an antique quilt

[Kristine P.]

My mom brought me an antique quilt that was my Grandmothers and it has many worn holes in the backing so the batting wants to fall out. How can I fix the holes with out taking away from the quilt. I think it was made in the 20's or 30's she did not lable it.
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Kristine , UT

[Kristine P.]

My mom brought me an antique quilt that was my Grandmothers and it has many worn holes in the backing so the batting wants to fall out.

Im surprised no one else has anwered? it sounds like there are alot of holes - rather than a lot of patching, why not just tack net over the areas to conserve it? Or, just accept that it is an hierloom and just fold it so that it looks good and place over the end of the bed or across the back of a sofa or on a trunk - it'll look decorative. Make sure you add a lable so people know why its important to you.

[Kristine P.]

Another thought would be to possibly tack a new backing onto the quilt to help stablize the old one. Maybe look into finding a similar material to what is there...

[Kristine P.]

The netting has been brought up with me before. That may be my best option with out taking away from the value. My grandma won many blue ribbons for her quilting so I hate to do anything that would take away from that. She even quilted the binding on.
Thanks for you help
Kristine, UT

[Kristine P.]

A friend has found dresden plates (unmounted) made by her grandmother. Some have brown spots or some brown around the edges. she wants to have the appliqued and set into a kingsize. Any ideas of what to wash the unmounted plates with before she goes to the expense of having them set?
Woogums

[Lilo B.]

Hello Woogums,

Cindy Needham recommends a product called Restoration for washing antique linens. Cindy has been quilting with antique linens for about 30 years. It may not remove all of the brown spots due to the number of years they have been in the fabric. Hope this helps.

Lilo
http://www.englesideproducts.com/cat...?category_id=1

[Pat L.]

My grandmother and great aunt , made & quilted a lovely "Sun Bonnet Sue" (polyester scraps and all lol) many years ago - I let my daughter use it for her bed when she was younger and she LOVED that quilt - so much so , that the prairie point edge all around it is worn and frayed. I'm debating what to do - would love to redo the edge (big job I know - but how on earth would I "match" the colours?!) or should I just remove and put a regular binding on it?

I really don't want to leave it as is as it looks "shabby and sad". Would love to hear anyone's ideas. Will try and post a pic. soon under my profile (or maybe a future blog) so you can get a better idea.

[Pat L.]

You might be able to salvage the prairie point edge by simply replaceing the most worn prairie points. I have thought about how I would do this because I have a quilt I thought of repairing but just haven't had the time. I would carefully disassmeble the edge and remove the exisiting points - any points that could be saved would be and others just set aside or disposed of. Then I would take the ones I could save and scan them on a flat bed scanner and print myself "matching" replacement patches on prepared for printing fabric - basically reprint the original materials. Depending on the size and number of points needing replaced this may be quite an undertaking, but in the end it might be worth it to have the quilt back in its original condition to save for future generations.