Finishing a Vintage Quilt Top

Before we get too far into this post, I should tell you that I am not an expert in finishing old quilts. I don’t seek out old quilt tops to finish. This is actually the first vintage quilt top I’ve finished. The only reason I even got my hands on it in the first place is because it was made by my grandmother. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, let’s talk a little bit about me finishing this quilt top.

Some Challenges in Finishing an Old Quilt

The quilt may or may not be in the best shape. The fabric may be dry rotted or have holes. If the fabric is in bad shape is it going to hold up to you quilting it? What are you going to do about holes: patch them, hope you can make them more durable with heavy quilting…, but what if you’re worried about dry rotted fabric not being able to hold up to your quilting? If it’s super wonky, it may not lay flat, and could give you a headache when you go to quilt it. What if the seams are frayed and you need to resew some of them? How much are you wiling to do to fix any issues with the old quilt? Another issue that you may run in to is the fabrics. Our grandmothers were not fabric snobs. Not only did they not care that they weren’t buying name brand fabrics, they also didn’t care if it was 100% cotton. They used whatever they could get their hands on: old clothes and feed sacks were a common source of quilt fabrics. There may fabrics you’re not exactly used to working with.

Challenges I Ran Into

The fabric in this quilt top was in pretty good shape. We think it was probably made in the 60’s or 70’s, so it’s not really that old. The fabric wasn’t dry rotted and still felt pliable; there weren’t any holes. It was machine pieced, and for the most part, the seam allowances were a little more than 1/4″. An issue I did have was that the quilt top looked like it had been washed. Nobody is willing to confess to being the one who put this poor quilt top in the washing machine, but a quick look at the back suggests that it had a round in the spin cycle. Some of the raw edges were frayed all the way down to the seams, so I did have to take it to my machine to make some of the seam allowances bigger. If you have a vintage quilt top with that characteristic musty, vintage smell, a soak in the bath tub with some blue dawn is easier on the seams.

This quilt was definitely wonky, but I didn’t mind that so much. I decided to leave the edges wonky to preserve as much of the fabric as possible. I wish I knew who the cut up shirts and dresses belonged to or if the feed sacks in the quilt were selected specifically for the print. Sadly this grandmother passed away before I was born. So, I never got to ask her about her quilts or work on a few quilts with her like I did with my other grandmother.

The thing that is an issue with wonky quilts is that they probably won’t lay flat. A quilt that won’t lay flat can be a problem when you go to quilt it. I ended up putting in tucks, on purpose, in several spots to get it to lay flat enough to be able to quilt it. As a quilter, I try to avoid accidental tucks and folds, so putting them in on purpose was a real struggle. I was constantly having to ignore the little voice in my head that was screaming at me to pick out those stitches and get those tucks out. I could have taken out the stitches at the seams and squared the blocks off better so that the quilt would lay flat. I decided not to do this though, because the more of her stitches I pick out, the more it becomes my quilt and not hers. She’s the star of this one, not me.

I chose to quilt it with wavy lines so that I could use my walking foot. I thought the strategically placed tucks would be easier to manage with the organic wavy lines. Also, the fabrics in this one were a hodge podge of fibers and weights, so I thought the easier tension management the walking foot offers would be useful.

The BIGGEST Challenge in this Quilt

Dealing with a quilt that wouldn’t lay flat and working with fabrics I’m not used to working with was not what I stressed about the most.

This quilt top was made by a grandmother I never got to meet. I am honored to get to finish her quilt. It’s sort like we DID get to work on a quilt together after all. At the same time, I don’t know if she would have liked the way I quilted it. What if she didn’t like the backing fabric I used or if she hated gingham? I wanted to finish this quilt in a way that she would have liked, but I have no idea what she would have liked because I never got to meet her.

There’s a really important reason for getting over my fears and finishing this quilt. This quilt is no longer a quilt top that my mom and her sisters found in storage at my grandmother’s house. Now, it’s a finished quilt that survived my washer and dryer with no issues. Now that it’s machine washable, someone can wrap up in it while eating pizza in front of the TV without fretting so much over ruining it. Babies can play on it knowing that the puke will wash out if needed. In other words, this quilt can now be used and loved and passed on to future generations to use instead of being stored away and forgotten.

It’s worth mentioning that a lot of quilters and collectors think that all the new fabric I added to this quilt decrease it’s monetary value. The age of the vintage materials don’t matter anymore because I added new fabrics into the quilt. This may all be true for some quilts. Is it the case for this quilt? Probably not since this quilt may not have been that old anyway. It’s not hand pieced, and there’s no actual pattern to it. I’m not an expert on vintage quilts so I’m not even sure if I’m correct in saying I probably didn’t hurt the monetary value. The big question: do I even care whether or not I decreased the monetary value of this quilt? Maybe I would care if I was going to sell it, but I’m not. I actually finished this one for my Aunt and Uncle, and they aren’t planning on selling it either. So, no, I don’t care if the monetary value was decreased, and I’m pretty sure the owners of this quilt don’t care either.

Details about this quilt

-Quilt top: Fabrics unknown. Appears to be a mix of old clothes and feed sacks

-Backing: American Dreams by Beth Logan for Henry Glass

-Binding: Hungry Animal Alphabet Gingham Blue by J. Wecker Frisch for Riley Blake

I am able to get some nice fabrics from Fat Quarter Shop. Check out their Flash Sale for a good bargain.

As always, thank you for taking time to read my post. I hope you enjoyed it or found it useful. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me. Happy quilting!