Hidden treasure

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a good day. Thanks so much for all the good wishes for my dad's birthday! It was quite festive in spite of it all, even though the Zoom call was complete chaos. Mute, people, mute! It was a fun kind of chaos, though, with the comparison of coronavirus beards (ugh) and even the newest great grandchild was awake for her debut appearance. Not a huge party, and not what we had planned, but fun nonetheless.

So, today I need some advice from all of you out there who are much better quilters than I am. It involves this amazing quilt:

I had a hard time getting a good picture of the whole thing because I didn't want to hang it up, but this is a finished and basted quilt top just waiting to be quilted up, and it's made up of embroidered squares in a 30s style.  The basted top measures about 56 by 72.  Where did I get this? It belongs to my sister in law, and she wants me to finish it for her.

Of course, the story is more interesting than that! My sister-in-law's mother died not long ago of complications of Alzheimer's disease, which she had suffered from for several years.  (No funeral because of the virus, too, which is just unspeakably cruel. We all understand, but gosh, that's bad.) Carol was dedicated to sewing of all types-- she did home decor, clothes, quilting, embroidery by machine, amd anything else that needed stitching. She made her daughters' wedding dresses, and all of the bridesmaid dresses, too, along with her own mother of the bride outfits. Most of Carol's sewing notions and such had already been distributed, but there are always a few things left, aren't there?

My sister-in-law is cleaning out everything else that's left so that the house can be sold, and she came across a bag with what she recognized as a layered and basted quilt. Since she doesn't sew, she didn't take it out of the bag, just put it in a box and sent it off (she also sent me some spare rulers and a small cutting mat, plus some old magazines and a book, too.)  She wanted to know if I could use it, or if there was anything there worth saving. When I got it , the quilt was folded with the backing facing out. Imagine my surprise when I pulled it out of the bag and unfolded it!

The embroidered squares are really quite nice, on a good quality muslin, and well worked. No visible knots!  The backing is pieced and has a floral "frame" around a piece of pink fabric. The pink matches the sashing, and the floral is the same as the border. Also in the bag? A nice long piece of the floral, cut 2-1/2 inches wide. This must be the binding! And machine embroidered right there on that pretty pink backing is this:

Which is how we discovered that this quilt was not made by her mother, but by her grandmother, or as a collaboration between them.  Her grandmother also died of Alzheimer's disease, not long after the date on the quilt backing. It has been in the bag and waiting ever since.

Obviously I'm going to finish this treasure for my sister in law, but I need to make a few decisions first. So, to the questions!

1. The quilt is securely basted (see those big stitches?), but the batting is a poly that feels like sandpaper. It's also coming apart on the edges:

Even though I hate to take out the basting, I think it would be best to use some new cotton batting, don't you?

2. Would you do anything to the embroidered squares before quilting? I have read about stabilizing them with a fusible interfacing, but should I do that? The muslin is a good quality and they look like they were finished yesterday.

3. How would you quilt this? Would you stitch on the muslin squares, or just on the sashing and borders?

4. Should I wash it after quilting? How?

5. Anything I haven't thought of that you have?

Okay, so I guess I have a new adventure to undertake! Good thing there's nothing else going on in my life, right? All of the hard work seems to be done, though. I'll just bring it across the finish line.

Thanks for any help you can give me, and I hope everyone is having a good week. Wash your hands and stay healthy, friends, and check some of those bags you have stashed. There might be hidden treasure you forgot about!

Sharing at Midweek Makers

Recycling win

Hi everyone, and welcome to the weekend! Hope everyone on the East coast has dug out from the storm. Yesterday someone said "hey, the sun's out," so I grabbed my coat and went out and just stood in the sunshine. It was great! Then I walked over to the library so I didn't look like such an idiot.

I have started on the BOM kit that I pulled out of the closet. (For now I'm calling it the Kaleidoscope quilt, but I'll probably change the name later.) Here's the first block:

Cute, huh? We'll talk more about that quilt later, because that's just here so that there's a pretty picture at the top of the blog. Our real subject today is this:

(I know--the floor needs refinishing. We just pulled up carpet that was covering it, so refinishing is the next step.)

Yes, friends, that is a quilt with the center cut out. Very nicely cut out, but cut just the same. I did not do it! (Sorry for the bleached picture. I was so sure I had a good one that I went ahead and worked on the quilt before I checked them properly. My bad!)

I got this at the quilt shop, believe it or not. There was originally a panel in the center, and whoever made the sample decided that's all of the quilt that she wanted or needed. I didn't get the whole story, but this part of it ended up in the shop's scrap table. So I bought it, extra cheap! (Less than $10, because the scraps are priced by weight!)

After I got it home I had to think hard about what to do with it. There really weren't a lot of choices, and it seemed like a shame to cut it into potholders or something. I really wanted to save as much of the pattern as I could. I decided that the only thing to do with this was to cut it into two long pieces to make a wide table runner. (I took the binding off part of it first.)

I straightened the edges and then butted them up together and zigzagged them together, like you do when piecing together quilt batting. I used a closer zigzag than I use for batting, and also slightly narrower.

Then I made two long strips to cover the stitching on the front and back. Even though the strips weren't cut on the bias, I used a bias tape maker because they fold the edges in so nicely. I stitched these down with a straight stitch using a zipper foot to get very close to the edges:

I fixed the binding and ta da!

The strip is not crooked at the end! It just looks that way in the picture!

A long table runner! I'm happy with this, and it saved that mutilated quilt. I call that a win! This measures about 23 by 60 (which also tells you something about how big that table is.)

I was lucky enough to find enough pieces to match the fabric on the top of the quilt. I even pieced matching lighter pieces at the ends of the strip.

You can barely tell there's a cover strip there.

A plain strip covers the stitches on the back because I didn't have matching fabric, but I don't think it matters.

 What about the other pieces I cut off? A little binding and they'll be 4 placemats! Double win!

So, I'm thrilled with this. It was fast, easy, recycled, and cheap! Plus it looks good finished. What else can you ask for?

Everyone have a great weekend. We are going to visit some relatives this weekend, which is better than it sounds because we genuinely like our relatives and enjoy spending time with them. Hope you have a win or two and maybe some nice time with family. Happy weekend!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Amanda Jean at crazy mom quilts and also Angela at soscrappy, because what is this if not blue scraps?

(Just a small reminder that Tuesday is the February installment of the Classic Stitches BOM. Come on and sew along!)

July projects

Hello all, and welcome to July! (gulp!)  And a happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends!

There's this project that I have been putting off for literally years, and I think this July is the perfect time to pull it out of the basket and do something with it. The project is this mess:

Okay, it doesn't look very messy, but it sure feels messy. This is an abandoned red and white Burgoyne Surrounded quilt that I started in 1998--I think. Maybe it was 1999, but I don't think so. Why was it abandoned, and why haven't I finished it since? Well, there's the story.

I started this as a class at a local quilt shop. It was a small class--I think there were 5 of us. As a mark of how much things have changed in the last 16 years, here are the instructions, typed on a typewriter, with hand-drawn illustrations:

The class was two sessions, but the teacher got sick and the second session was postponed, which was okay. These things happen.

And then the quilt shop CLOSED. For good. I wish I was kidding.

I tried to contact the teacher several times, but I never was able to get a hold of her. That's when this went into the drawer. I probably could have figured out how to finish it, but the instructions seem to require more details that I think the teacher would have provided. I've taken it out a couple of times since, but I've not been serious enough about it, or motivated enough, to finish it. Also, it makes me a little angry and a little sad every time I look at it. It's time to move on, although I doubt it's going to be a Burgoyne Surrounded quilt.

I have the parts all nicely separated and labelled:

And some leftover strips that aren't cut yet:

What I don't have is any yardage left. Not sure what happened to it.

I guess my first step is to assemble some 9 patches and other pieces, and then go from there.  I think I'm waiting for the quilt to tell me what it wants to be. I don't think it wants to be Burgoyne Surrounded. We'll see what happens!

The other projects I really want to finish up in July are all the HST projects. I'm really happy to get them out of the closet. This is the one I was trying to decide about this weekend:

I have a pretty good idea about using these HSTs, but it requires adding some fabric. I can't decide which way they look better, with the yellow or the blue. What do you think?

That's what's happening around here! It's a holiday week, so I doubt there will be much time for sewing. My husband is taking a few days off, so who knows what he has planned.  Probably not a trip to the quilt shop! Then comes the 4th of July, always a good party. Hope you all enjoy your celebrations!

Linking up with Freemotion by the River and probably also Freshly Pieced.

Rhubarb rescue

Many months ago, I acquired this quilt top with a request to "rescue" it and make it useful.

The pink is an unusual color that I'm not sure I've ever seen.  It's not bubble gum, not light, not exactly dark. I've been calling it rhubarb. The light areas were simply muslin, very fragile in some spots. It was also huge--it started out about 85 by 110. I was told that it was made by a friend's mother at least 30 years ago and was hidden in a closet after she died. (I think it was a good bit older than 30 years, based on the condition of the muslin.) The family wanted to be able to use it and remember mom. On further inspection, though, I suspect there was a reason why it was in the closet. This quilt was not made by one person, it was made by many, and many of them did not know what they were doing. Most of the pieces were hand-pieced, but some were sewn on a machine. Some of the hand-pieced ones were pieced with hand quilting thread, the heavier waxy thread that I have never known how to use. I use it for basting because it's easy to pull out. Do I have to say that there was no such thing as a standard seam allowance anywhere in this quilt?

There were also other problems:

Holes!

 And this:

Is that blood? I think so!

So, there were many troubles to be dealt with here. I thought of it as a challenge.  Since I had no more of the original fabric, and the quilt was way too big anyway, I ended up cutting a good part of it away, saving the best part for a new center, then using some of the discarded pieces to repair what would be the main section of the refurbished quilt. It seems like cutting away a lot, but I was following the quilt pattern in order to preserve as much as possible. There was also some rearranging to keep the blocks correctly oriented. I also tightened up as many of the seams as I could, and re-cut the borders to fit the new size. Then, just to stabilize the old fabric and make sure the quilt held together, I basted it all to an extra-wide piece of new white muslin. It was finally flat and stable, with no more bloodstains! Then my good friend the longarmer took over the challenge, and quilted a butterfly panto on it. She did a great job!

I had my doubts during the whole process, but it turned out great! Here it is on a bed:

Yay! It looks good!

This finished at about 72 by 72. I think I managed to save the best parts, which to my mind were the pattern and the unusual pink color. I wish I could have saved more of it, maybe to put together a smaller quilt or a wall hanging, but what I discarded was really fit for nothing more than the trash. I'd like to think that this still honors the original quilt makers, even if it's not exactly what they originally constructed.

I'm calling this a successful rescue! Hope everyone has a great week.  Mine will be filled with meetings and final paperwork, then commencement this weekend. Then we can all recover from the emotional upheaval of the semester.

If I remember, I will link this to Connie's Linky Tuesday tomorrow.  With the mushy state of my brain right now, though. . .here's hoping you all have a clear-headed day!

To see what others are doing today, check out Patchwork Times.