I got a call from a friend in town - she said - my husband has been attending a lot of auctions and he bought a box of quilts. I want you to have them...
I so I headed into town to see the treasures he had found! and they were awesome - they were tops, not finished quilts - which truly - was all the better.
I pulled this one out and laid it on the floor, and both of our mouths dropped. Arlene said - I am pretty sure I know why this one was NEVER finished.... and a challenge began:
BUT!! I am going to quilt this puppy... as is... it is not a family heirloom to me, and it looks like a lot of fun to try to tame this one.... it may never be square - but I am going to try for....
Quilted!!
Yep - I am not even sure I care if it lays flat - but I will try to see what I can do!!
Wish me luck - and fun... I am sorta looking forward to quilting something that isn't for show, or for a present, or for perfection... i got this!! haha!
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16 comments:
if you use a cotton batting and when you are done with it wash and dry it on high and you will get a marvelous crinkly antique look and that will look great with it and you might not even notice the hills and valleys!
MAN! I hope you're not pulling your hair out in the midst of trying to quilt it. I think I'd lose my mind. Good luck with all that--HAHA
That quilt is fabulous! The best part is those odd rings that don't match the rest of the quilt! I recently had a double wedding ring handed over to me to fix. The quilt was pieced by Andrea's grandmother and a cousin had got it quilted. I had never seen such a hack job. I mean they took the white backing, rolled it over to the front and zigzagged it to serve as the binding. Andrea had another quilt her grandmother had made and it was impeccably made so to say the least she was really upset when she received the quilt. She asked me to improve it so after it was taken apart - that is the backing and batting from the top, I realized how badly the top was pieced. Your top looks great compared to what I was dealing with. Huge folds, holes in the hand piecing, and basting glue on the back. The only way I could fix the thing was to take it apart, replace the background with fabric that matched, and trim all the arcs. I ended up hand quilting it and Andrea was thrilled with it. I am so glad you can quilt yours without having to take it apart.
It's good of you to get this one done. Someone will surely appreciate it! I've made one and know how hard they are!!
You can do it! I had a really antique quilt top brought to me for quilting, and I spent a lot of time crawling around the floor and decided to hand sew in pleats to take out a lot of fullness before quilting it. Whatever you do, having this be a finished quilt is going to be wonderful; I hope you have fun finishing it off!
That's the spirit! It is a challenge of a pattern and this quilter at least tried! What a great friend to pass them on to you!
*GASP!!!!**. A whole BOX of unfinished antique quilt tops? I would think I'd died and gone to heaven!! I'm going to go the opposite direction from the previous commenter's suggestion. I think that using a batting with some loft to it would be more helpful for camouflaging this quilt's "personality." I have even seen where professional longarmers have added a piece of poly batting just under the spots with "C-cups" almost like trapunto to take up some of the extra fullness in those areas, and was intrigued to see that the extra batting under those areas actually was not noticeable in the finished quilt. I have a vintage top "waiting in the wings" for me that has issues as well, so I'm going to be taking notes on how you tackle this beauty. I agree that the couple of rings that don't seem to "go" with the others are part of what makes this quilt really cool. There's probably a story there -- maybe those were extras pieced by someone else and passed along to this quilter, who used them as a head start for her own project? I cannot wait to see how you'll quilt this one!
I'm hand quilting a quilt now that has puckering issues but not as bad as your quilt. I'm not familiar with how to machine quilt but my suggestion is to pull it tightly in all directions while quilting. This has helped greatly with the quilt I'm working on. I know when I showed my quilt on my blog, I had several doubtful comments. I look forward to seeing the finished quilt. Happy stitching!
Once it is on the frame, could you spray it with water and straighten it out a little by pulling it more taut? Or maybe pressing it... I'm just a piecer, not a quilter, so what do I know?
Wow! I'm sure it would tell a great story if it could speak. Fingers crossed you manage to tame it. Have fun.
What a challenge but it such an awesome quilt! I love that pink and the corner is awesome! I know you will rock it!
i agree...it can be sorta tamed and will be a gorgeous heirloom when quilted...if you change your mind....i wanna be first in line....gorgeous find
You will make it work, and it will be gorgeous and useful.
Good luck Alycia, what a wonderful quilt - hopefully if will keep someone warm after it's quilted....the little black swan of a quilt :-)
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with that quilt.
It's a beauty for sure! Good luck with the quilting.
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