Quilt Repair Chronicle Week 1

Please recall from last week’s article that I’m undertaking to repair a nearly 70 year old quilt.  As with most of my projects, I have WAY underestimated the scope of this repair.  I find myself wondering what my grandmothers would’ve done if faced with this.  I doubt they would have had such a question because they would no doubt have conducted repairs along the way, instead of waiting until holes worked their way all the way through the quilt and batting poked its way out.

But I can’t go back – I say that a lot, you know.  You can never go back, you can only deal with what’s in front of you. 

Okay, first question – what to use for patches.  I don’t make my clothes, therefore I don’t create a whole lot of scraps.  And so many of the clothes we wear out are synthetic fabrics that don’t lend themselves to quilting. 

I kept remembering Matthew 9:16 that says, “No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment…” while I understand there is a deep spiritual lesson there about Jesus bringing a whole new age of grace and dispensing with the old age of the law, the literal meaning of his words seem to ring true in this situation.  It just so happens that I have a good supply of very old scraps – and I am so excited to tell you about these.

Domino Sugar Bag - it’s actually a creamy white, I’ve enhanced the photo to better highlight the faded brand name.

Back in 2016 I shared a story about my Great Aunt Willie Ward – she’d turned 100 years old in that article.  Aunt Willie was of a generation that despised waste.  She saved everything and found a use for most things.  Every time we went to Aunt Willie’s house, she tried to send us home with a car load of the stuff she’d saved.  These scraps came from her. 

There are cloth bags, even a scrap of a Domino sugar bag.  There is unbleached Domestic fabric (I think this is commonly known as muslin, however, it is always called domestic on the mountain and is a common quilting fabric).  Domestic fabric came in various grades of quality and thickness and I have several examples.

I don’t know quite what I’m going to use those bags for, but I couldn’t bring myself to cut them up for patches so I’ve opted for the Domestic.

Replacement Top over Whole Cloth Quilt

Aunt Willie also gifted me with several quilt tops – these are pieced tops that have never been quilted.  So that was a great option to cover one side of this quilt.  And it’s a very old means of salvaging a worn quilt.  In fact, I have another project waiting in the wings which is an appliqued cat quilt which wore out and was covered with a simple patchwork top and tack-quilted.  That one came from my husband’s family in Georgia. 

I especially love using one of Aunt Willie’s quilt tops on this project because it’s just the sort of thing she would’ve done.

Finally there’s the binding around the edge of the quilt.  This had apparently been replaced because it was  a poly-cotton blend of fabric which is too modern for this quilt.  Also, it is in really good condition, and the binding is usually the first part of a quilt to wear out.  As I began looking at the machined stitches that attached it, they were tight and sound while the surrounding fabric was loose and worn so I opted to just cut it away and save more of the original fabric.

And while it seems precious little, that’s my progress for the week!  I have patches cut and pinned in place; I’ve located and sized the replacement top and cleaned out the lumpy batting the surrounded the tears and edges.   We’ll see where we get to next week…

New Life for Old Covers

A couple of times I’ve written a little about quilts and quilting.  While I learned to quilt at my grandmothers’ knees, I make no claim of expertise.  In fact, I have a dear friend who is in fact an expert at the craft and she’d probably tell you I know nothing about real quilting.  I wouldn’t argue with her.

Yet, I’m working on a project and I’d like to share it with you over the next few weeks and we’ll see if I can actually accomplish it.  You see, I have a treasured old scrap that I hope to revive somewhat. 

I think the birth of quilts must have come from an abundance of scraps.  Scrap pieces of Lou’s new Sunday dress, Papa’s new shirt and little Ben’s worn out overalls.  Just because the back side got all ripped as a young boy skidded down a hillside, doesn’t mean the rest of the pants should be thrown out!  Fabric was one of those scarce resources on the Plateau – a land not inclined to grow cotton, made for a people dependent on store-bought yardage and that meant money.  There was precious little of that. 

Every scrap was saved, every scrap found a use, eventually.

I have seen quilts made of double knit polyester – those quilter friends of mine may be in need of medical help after reading that statement.  The color fast scraps from 1970’s dresses and pants suits made for a heavy quilt, but, gracious it was warm. 

I’ve shared with you here the quilt my Great Grandmother made of her Mother’s dresses.

I’m a fan of whole cloth quilts – probably because I’d much rather quilt than piece.  But getting a piece of fabric that large has historically been pricey. 

The quilt I’ve pictured here is whole cloth front and back – the same cloth.  As far as I know, it started out as a bedroom door.  Did you ever see an old house with curtains for doors?  A tour guide at an old house once told me that property taxes at one time were based on the number of doors ( I guess that was a way of counting the number of rooms in your house) so doors were only added where absolutely necessary – and that’s one explanation for why old homes never had closets.  Look at the picture, is that a fabric pattern you would choose to decorate your home? 

About 1958 my Great Grandma took the curtains and made them into a quilt which the family would use it until 1970 when it was passed on to my mother.  I remember using this quilt all the time I was at home.  And now I have it.    

After more than 60 years of constant use as a quilt made from old fabric, you can see that it’s showing some age.

As we’ve often discussed here on The Stories, recycling and repurposing are a way of life on the mountain.  Quilts have always been recycled.  Now, I don’t know that I’ve ever actually seen patches on quilts – but then most quilts are patchwork so would you even know if it had received a new patch?

Another way to repurpose a worn quilt is to give it a new cover.  When batting was hard to come by, using a worn quilt as the center layer on a new project is a pretty good idea.  Sometimes you can learn a lot of history when an old quilt tears – because the gash may reveal an interesting batting.

I may try that to add a whole new layer on one side of this project.  However, there are a couple of holes that go through all three layers of the quilt, so there’s no way around adding some true patching.

While my expert-quilter-friend told me this quilt wasn’t worth repairing, I think the biggest obstacle is in the batting.  Old batting was pure cotton that wanted to wad up.  You may notice that antique quilts are usually quilted in very close rows or grids – that’s to bind that batting down as much as possible.  Today’s quilts can be fluffier quilted on a much larger framework because the batting will hold up so much better.  (Of course we’ll have to wait another 60 or 70 years to see what today’s quilts look like when they’re as old as this one!)

If you have any advice for me, I’m happy to hear it – just click “comments” below!