Saturday, March 25, 2017

Like Old Times


I bought this quilt top from Ebay for a song several years ago.  My intent at the time was to finish it and I think the time has arrived.  I just love it!  It has a lot of feedbacks and fabrics from the 20s to 40s, I believe.  I spent the afternoon taking the yellow borders off and then trimming the inner pink border down.  To my eye, both were to wide.  The yellow borders were cut on the lengthwise grain.  The original 36 inch wide fabric was torn into 4 equal parts and then sewn onto the quilt with what looked like carpet thread.  I'm guessing the maker put the borders on as a 'placeholder' of sorts and planned on adjusting the width later.  I was really afraid before I started!  But she did a fine join with the borders and I ended up just having to ease the pink inner border a bit.

Here's a closeup of a block.  The blocks are about 11 inches square.

My favorite block.  I went over it carefully looking for any popped seams and nothing.
I love how the maker cute the stripes lengthwise.  I would never have done that!  But maybe she had no choice.
I'm thinking of doing a simple vertical/horizontal grid using my sewing machine.  From what I've read white thread was the color mostly used so I might stick with that.
I'd also like to reproduce using present day reproduction fabrics.
If anyone can add any insights into finishing vintage tops, please do!  
Talk to you later~

1 comment:

Christine said...

Kudos to you for following your vision for this project.

On a different subject, thank you for the blocks from your last post. They will join orphan blocks from previous projects. The end result promises to be interesting with abstract colors and patterns. Thank you again.

Chris Sullivan