In July Dell and I went to Martha's Vineyard to stay with my folks and have a nice vacation, which we totally did! I'm so grateful we were able to do that. I used to vend at the Chilmark flea and though it is in a different location these days, I wanted to go through and see how it looked, maybe see an old friend.
As my current interest is in vintage hand-sewn textiles, I stopped at the booth of my favorite lace vendor to see her wares. I was so excited to see she had this gorgeous, hand-sewn, vintage, feedsack, patchwork quilt top! It fits beautifully on our double sized bed and only had a few tiny holes.
I bought it! When I got it home I soaked it in Retro Clean then in Soak. After I press it, I'll figure out how best to finish it so we can use it. Here are details of some of the patterns:
Have you ever finished a vintage quilt top from this era? How did you decide to do it? I've read lots of blog posts but I'm interested in your solutions too. Did you back it with quilting cotton? Flannel? Modern fabric or vintage? Did you use batting or were you too concerned with bearding? Did you quilt it? By machine or by hand? Or did you tie it? Let me know in the comments!
I love your antique quilt find! Please let us know your progress in restoring it.
ReplyDeleteScoooooooore!!! This is an absolute treasure. My Mom and I are still slowly working with a top my great-great grandmother made, and asking a lot of the same questions. I think if you used a low-loft cotton batting that's been needled, like Warm & White, bearding shouldn't be a problem, even if your fabrics are on the thin/slightly open-weave side.
ReplyDeleteI also tend to think that machine quilting would make the top more stable, since ties allow the fabric to stretch in all different directions as the quilt moves around.
Totally agree with Robin: please show us how this project is progressing. I'm so glad you're giving this piece a good home!