Remaking an antique quilt

[tortoise]

When I moved in with my fiance, there was an ancient quilt in the bottom of the coat closet. It STANK like dogs. But why would he keep something in such terrible condition?

His grandmother made it and he couldn't bring himself to throw it away. So he let me work on it.

I want to make it into a wall hanging for his mom for Christmas.

I took the whole thing apart. 1/2 of the fabric was completely rotted. It was a "crazy quilt" all squares, RANDOM prints that don't go together at all. Hideous. LOL

I need an idea or a pattern to work with. Something with small pieces - 3" squares or less.

 

[big brown horse]

You need to talk to morel cabin, she is a master quilter, a real artist. I'm just a patchwork girl. I just finished a nice patchwork quilt for a dear friend.

I think it is a great idea by the way.

 

[freemotion]

If the fabrics are really "all over the place," you might do a small sampler quilt, with each block being a different design. Lots of pattern ideas in books and probably online.

If you can come up with two clear values, darks and lights, you could do a traditional log cabin quilt. Lots of little pieces required.

Use newer, but used, fabric to frame each square and to frame the entire wallhanging. You can get this from clothing from Goodwill or from a stuff-a-bag sale at a second-hand clothing store. Cut them into strips and proceed with wild abandon.

 

[big brown horse]

I love that idea free!

 

[freemotion]

Thanks, BBH! I've done a bit of quilting over the years, and have far more ideas than time!

 

[tortoise]

Thanks FM. I think I'll show you a photo of what I have.

I managed to save 3-1/2" squares and I'll use a 1/4" seam allowance and over-edge everything.

The quilt was totally random. I talked to my fiance tonight about it as I was trimming out some squares and he was telling me that his grandma always made quilts out of scraps. He identified some of the pieces as one of his grandpa's shirts!

He suggests putting the squares back together randomly.

Maybe that is a good plan? His family says that I'm a lot like her. Wins major brownie points. But if I do something fancy, will that be seen as trying to out-do her?

I think a random square wall hanging quilt would be ugly, but I don't have memories attached to the fabrics either.

Let me go snap a photo. I'll be back later.

ETA:


Grandma's Quilt by tortoise11, on Flickr

 

[cjparker]

Okay, you've got 3 1/2 inch squares. You could sort the fabric into light, medium and dark values and make 9-patch blocks, then frame them out with an old-timey looking fabric. I'm totally guessing, but I imagine that they would be pleased that you respect grandma's quilting enough to salvage it. If there are rotted fabrics that have a special meaning to your sweetie, you can bond them to a thin muslin so that you can use them in the quilt you are making.

 

[tortoise]

If there are rotted fabrics that have a special meaning to your sweetie, you can bond them to a thin muslin so that you can use them in the quilt you are making.

They're too far gone to even do that. I saved a few square as evidence that I was saving a family relic, not destroying it!

 

[freemotion]

I see designs already. Here are my first instinctyes, the nine-patch. Choose border fabrics that will coordinate but wont compete, so Grandmas fabrics will pop out more.

I suspect that you arent the type to be able to work with a totally random pattern. Just the way you laid out the patches tells me that. I have difficulty with total randomness myself. I try, but I unconsciously organize things into patterns with symmetry.

OK, if I assign each row a numbertop row, 1-6, bottom row, 7-10, right to left, here is what I see:

Nine patch squares with:

1-5-6
1-7-6
1-8-6
1-3-4
5-9-10
4-5-6
3-9-10
1-2-5

And it goes on and on. Play with the combinations until you have combinations that please you and you have incorporated all the colors. Some colors can just be a single center block. Make 9-12 nine-patch squares, use one or two border strips to frame each block and 2-3 more to frame the whole piece. That will give you a nice size for a wall hanging.

 

[MorelCabin]

You need to talk to morel cabin, she is a master quilter, a real artist. I'm just a patchwork girl. I just finished a nice patchwork quilt for a dear friend.

I think it is a great idea by the way.

You have no idea what you're talking about BBH, but I'm thrilled you think that highly of my work:>) I couldn't patch a quilt together if my life depended on it, I can only draw pictures with fabric.

It's like this...if it were up to me, I would have someone else who knows what they're doing patch the whole quilt together, because I seriously cannot do that. And then I would applique an image of grandma right in the middle of it and turn it into a portrait:>)
I'm simply a picture maker, not a quilter...I sooo admire those who can patchwork! I can't even get mine to end up square!