Quilt Restoration
It's been another typical "Ahava's Quilting Sweatshop" project.
This quilt had an unfortunate encounter with a dog. This is the "before" restoration photo. I restored it. I was in a hurry to do so, because I can't wait to dive into my Dutch chintz fabrics from Houston. I'm one of those [weird] OCD [obsessive complusive disorder] "finishers". There are very few UFOs [unfinished objects] hanging around my quilt studio.
This is the after picture.
This is a picture of how I did it. In case anyone else has a similiar project, here's my tips.
The first step is to find replacement fabrics. The unbleached muslin was easy - already in my stash. The maroon fabric was also in my stash. I checked a local quilt store and could not find a better replacement fabric. Older replacement fabrics can be found by checking out thrift stores for any hand sewn dresses and shirts. Also yard sales are good places to find older fabric. You can find true antique fabric at Quilt Festivals but you'll probably pay dearly for it. When I worked at an antique quilt gallery, the Wild Goose Chase Quilt Gallery, they kept a collection of old fabrics for restoration projects. I had to bleach some navy fabric to match the darker, French blue, of the squares because no fabric even matched close. It came out o.k. - a little splotchy but the color is a decent match.
Next I drafted templates for the pattern. I did not remove any old fabric unless it was so shredded as to be impossible to leave in. I appliqued over the damaged areas. I attempted to save as much of the original quilt as possible. I choose to patch only small areas. Larger and missing areas needed whole replacements. I then cut and sistered-in quilt batting. I applied new muslin for the holes in the back. Then I quilted areas patched and replaced and bound it.
Of course, the final step is quality assurance testing by Smokey, quilt inspector general. (He was hurt that I mostly kept him off this quilt. It puzzled him.) Then ship it back to its owners!
Resources: here's a great article on quilt restoration by Ann Wasserman.
This quilt had an unfortunate encounter with a dog. This is the "before" restoration photo. I restored it. I was in a hurry to do so, because I can't wait to dive into my Dutch chintz fabrics from Houston. I'm one of those [weird] OCD [obsessive complusive disorder] "finishers". There are very few UFOs [unfinished objects] hanging around my quilt studio.
This is the after picture.
This is a picture of how I did it. In case anyone else has a similiar project, here's my tips.
The first step is to find replacement fabrics. The unbleached muslin was easy - already in my stash. The maroon fabric was also in my stash. I checked a local quilt store and could not find a better replacement fabric. Older replacement fabrics can be found by checking out thrift stores for any hand sewn dresses and shirts. Also yard sales are good places to find older fabric. You can find true antique fabric at Quilt Festivals but you'll probably pay dearly for it. When I worked at an antique quilt gallery, the Wild Goose Chase Quilt Gallery, they kept a collection of old fabrics for restoration projects. I had to bleach some navy fabric to match the darker, French blue, of the squares because no fabric even matched close. It came out o.k. - a little splotchy but the color is a decent match.
Next I drafted templates for the pattern. I did not remove any old fabric unless it was so shredded as to be impossible to leave in. I appliqued over the damaged areas. I attempted to save as much of the original quilt as possible. I choose to patch only small areas. Larger and missing areas needed whole replacements. I then cut and sistered-in quilt batting. I applied new muslin for the holes in the back. Then I quilted areas patched and replaced and bound it.
Of course, the final step is quality assurance testing by Smokey, quilt inspector general. (He was hurt that I mostly kept him off this quilt. It puzzled him.) Then ship it back to its owners!
Resources: here's a great article on quilt restoration by Ann Wasserman.
Comments