Wednesday, July 13, 2022

What? Another Do Over?

Recently, a dear quilting friend,
thought of me when she was doing
some purging.
She brought me a very loved and worn
quilt top that she had collected
somewhere, sometime, in her quilting career.

She thought if anyone would like to do
something with this, maybe Kyle,
would like to be challenged.
Oh, boy.


The vintage basket quilt
is hand stitched with 48  nine inch basket blocks
using a muslin background and 30's fabrics.

Most of the blocks are very faded
with lots of repeats of the same fabric.
Many solid green and pink pieces.


I forgot to take a picture of the pieced border
that was on three sides, but you can get a little peek of it
in the above photo.


The blocks were probably pieced in love,
and the blocks, of course, varied in size.


Many of the blocks are not worth saving, so
I have chosen the best of them to work with.
At this point, I'm slowly unstitching,
repressing and resizing the individual pieces.
Here we go again.

As I have been taking this quilt top apart
I noticed these holes.
They were not in an organized pattern,
but I figured out the top had probably been tied.


Sure enough, I found a few places where the yarn
was still there.


This made me wonder about the original 
use of this quilt.  
Because there were many yarn ties still in tack, what 
were they originally tied to?
If the quilt top was removed from the backing, as in a summer 
quilt with no batting, why were there still yarn ties 
on the front?
I'm guessing, not all of the ties caught the backing fabric.

I also think that this probable summer quilt was washed many times.
Take a look at the seams.  



They're pretty messy, but not raveling which would
have definitely happened if the top was washed 
after it was taken apart.
That big blob is a piece of a yarn tie.


To see if I could rework these blocks,
I practiced with one block.
I didn't want to handpiece these, so I machine stitched
the block, but hand appliqued  the handles.

4.5" finished

This isn't going to be fast project, but
 might speed up once I get the 14/15 blocks apart.
It's a good outdoor project as it
creates lots of loose threads.
I even got a couple friends to help me
when we met at the park.

Until Next Time-
Kyle

18 comments:

  1. What a sweet and pretty quilt top. If anyone can make something of it you can! Your resized basket looks great. Will you try to use the pieced border?

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  2. You are amazing to take on a job like this. It will be darling when you're done. Glad it came to the right person.

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  3. What lovely colors!! Definitely a work of love, and I know you are infusing those pieces with just that!

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  4. You are just the right person to do something with those blocks. I'm looking forward when you next reveal your progress!

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  5. Doing this would not be my cup of tea, but kudos to you for taking on the challenge! I love basket quilts and am looking forward to seeing it when you finish.

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  6. Oh wow. This is such a feel good, but time consuming project. One that will leave you scratching your head wondering why the bother and then all the feels after it's finished up some day! Kudos to you for trying to preserve the best parts!:)

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  7. You are the perfect person to take on another challenging project like this! I always admire your patience for taking apart, resizing and resewing vintage blocks. That's not always an easy task but you will do wonders :) As always, I look forward to your progress!

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  8. Oooo another rescue, and an interesting and fun quilt study. There is something so sweet about a basket quilt. The birds will enjoy the loose threads for their nests too.

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  9. You are a worker of miracles with the patience of a saint to take on these projects! Looking forward to seeing the finished gem.

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  10. Oh my gosh. A lot of work, but you will have a beautiful piece in the end.

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  11. You do love a challenge, don't you? :) I think what you are doing is incredible, and I imagine there is definitely a feeling of satisfaction associated with the creation of something beautiful out of something that appeared to have outlived its usefulness. This is very impressive--that finished block is a delight!

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  12. Your a old quilt hero! This will be a lovely save. Who can resist a basket quilt?

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  13. I love how you take a challenge of making something out of a worn out quilt. I am sure the finish will be lovely.

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  14. It's wonderful that you are saving an old quilt - specifically a basket quilt! A classic block. Clever use of quilt detective skills. Smart to machine piece with a combination of hand appliquing the handles.

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  15. I think you are up for the challenge!

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  16. This is going to be wonderful! God bless you for your patience, truly this is a labor of love!

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  17. Another labour of love Kyle. It's so soft - such a treat to be able to restore it to its former beauty. You always do such a beautiful job.

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  18. That is going to be so sweet and a labor of love!

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