Here's one of my newest projects. Hum, should I call it an old project?
This quilt top is owned by friends or mine and they have hired me to finish it for them. It was a fairly large quilt for what I thought their purposes were so I will be making it into two quilts for them. The fabrics are from the 30's from what I can tell. The green border is the same as was in the quilt. For some reason this quilt sings to me. I like the pink and green combo. The stitching and cutting isn't anywhere near accurate enough but the quilt is definitely charming me. There are folds in the piecing and little gathered spots. Some of it is machine done and some is hand stitched.
My plan is to separate it in half. I'll repair where I can. I'm adding the green borders at about the size of the block or half the size of the block. It will depend if I can find some more solid fabric to make the borders on the second quilt. When it is all sewn together I will get it on Ruthie, the long arm, and use a baptist fan design to quilt it. I'll be using a cotton batt and probably a solid backing, most likely a muslin or cream.
Unfortunately, this top has been sitting around for a long time and is not terribly clean. Luckily, there is no indication of animals or insects in any of the fabric, blocks and stuff I received along with this quilt. I don't want to wash it until it becomes a finished quilt for fear of it dissolving or getting wrecked in the cleaning process. I may pretreat with a spray cleaner or use something like a Tide pen on the few bad spots. Any one have any success with this? Any suggestions on when I should wash it? Immediately or after it is completed? I tend to throw my lap quilts in my washer but there is no way this quilt can go into a high efficiency washer and be spun like crazy. Perhaps it would be wiser to wash it before it gets the added weight of the batting. I'm open to suggestions. Please share any of your thoughts and ideas on this one. I haven't done this before but am looking forward to working on this quilt.
I did pretty well on my goals last week. I was tickled to get most of my black and white log cabin blocks finished and restructured. I had so many left over blocks that I kept a bit smaller (8.5" instead of 11 or 12") that I decided to make a smaller quilt with those.
Week of
March 9, 2015
Prep Wild Dog Backing √
started not finished
Finish the log cabin blocks and begin next step√ except I think I want 6 more to make the top 5 x 6
blocks
Quilt something on Ruthie
-- nah, Ruthie was bored last week.
Continue to work on listing books in Excel√
Finish Wild Dog backing
Finish the extra blocks for the log cabin quilt, then "retire" them while I finish other projects
Start secret project, sorry can’t divulge info on this one
yet
Quilt Christmas Embroidery top that will be raffled at the
Women’s Club spring luncheon.
Ugh, I really need to add the antique top to my project list.
That's it for me today. Time to get doing instead of writing about my plans. Visit Patchwork Times for the Design Wall Monday linky.
Happy Quilting All! 
This quilt is a happy one.
ReplyDeleteSince even the two sections will be large, it might be best to launder it after it is quilted. The quilting will add stability to the fabrics. I've washed individual vintage blocks before working with them, but not a complete top.
Eager to see the finished quilts.
Wow, Bonnie, that is quite the project. I would not wash it until it was done.
ReplyDeleteDo NOT wash it until you are finished. (The voice of experience knowing what happens to all those seams.) Find a friend like me that has a top loader with a handwash cycle. It's a slow, intermittent agitation. I add a bit of Biz and Oxyclean to the water BEFORE I add the quilt. You may want to repeat the wash / rinse cycle when you see how brown the water is the first time around. If you baste your edges securely on Ruthie, you might want to wash and dry it before binding. These old fabrics shrink up a lot. I wish I were closer so you could use my machine. Good luck - it looks like a fun project.
ReplyDeleteOh I like the top. I'm with Becky, don't wash until you finish, I had a terrible time with one that I washed before quilting, won't do that again. Can't wait to see what you with this challenge.
ReplyDeleteI would wash first. That way you know if the fabrics are worth working to finish. By wash, I mean soak, drain, soak, drain, several times, no agitation. It would be awful to put all that work into it and have the fabrics disintegrate once they're done. Do all the fabric you received that way. That's what I did with an unfinished top I was given.
ReplyDelete