Appliqued Cat quilt hiding behind simple Nine Patch Top

When I undertook to blog on the process of repairing a vintage quilt, I forgot how SLOWLY I quilt! Still I stitch on.

Right now it’s all about quilting this new top onto the existing top, batting (with some replacement pieces of batting) and the original backing. This is a slow process for me in the best of conditions, largely because my Grandma Livesay has fussed so many times about people who quilt in long, sloppy stitches, and her voice rings in my head as I work. Okay, there are a number of things from my childhood I’ve tried to outgrow and that lesson is one of the big ones.

If you are willing to sit and put the work into making a whole quilt, I’m going to try very hard not to criticize the work you are doing. Maybe I’m saying that because my quilting ain’t lookin’ too good on this one!

I am finding it very difficult to stitch through not just the extra layer of fabric but the thick, bunched-up old batting too. That’s resulting in uneven stitches and many longer-than-desired stitches.

I mentioned previously that I had to choose how to secure this new top onto the quilt and I chose against the “tack-quilting” option. Here are some pictures of a quilt that was repaired by tacking on a new top. I’ve peeled away a portion of the replacement top to reveal a beautiful appliqued cat quilt, with many holes and missing pieces.

Take a look at the backing this practical quilter chose. It’s two different fabrics that have been sewn together. This is the preferred backing, but is common especially on old quilts because fabric wide enough to cover the entire width of a bed or quilt were rare and costly. Do you notice that the fabric she chose hid the seam so well? The top portion of fabric is printed as patchwork while the lower, brown fabric, is the added piece. I suspect she had this fabric on hand, for if she’d bought it for this purpose, would have undoubtedly added another piece of the same print.

Uncovering the mystery behind this Nine Patch top felt like a combination of Christmas morning and an archeological dig. I didn’t know what I’d find or whether it would be at all salvageable yet I could hardly wait to see the quilt underneath. I will certainly plan to repair this one someday – but I’d better finish the whole-cloth repair first, hadn’t I?