Happy New Year !
If you have “well loved” quilts, here’s a quilt New Years resolution for you: get that well-loved quilt back in to useable condition by getting the quilt repairs that it needs. We can help! What’s a “well loved” quilt ? It’s one that you care a lot about and you’ve maybe had for awhile. You may have inherited it; it’s been passed down in your family. It has a lot of meaning. Your Mom or Grandma may have made it or it was passed down from their family. It may have a few holes. It may have a lot of holes, tears, seams coming loose. The batting, the fluffy middle layer, may be poking out. We have had a few that were never completely finished. There was no binding. That’s the outer edge that goes all around the quilt. This is often a part of the quilt that also shows wear first from being held or picked up there. We had one that had no back on it. We can give you a good assessment for repair or replacement and let you know, from our combined 77 years of experience, what is needed.
I love looking at and handling old quilts. It’s like a study in history and takes you back in time. The fabrics are different and, in most cases, the originals are long out of print and no longer available. If you have also inherited a bit of the fabric from the period along with the quilt, hang on to it, as it can be useful much later if repairs are needed.
It’s interesting to observe the condition of the fabrics, too. Sometimes they are in very good condition and need very little work. When they do need work it’s often the areas that were used the most. On one this was where the persons feet touched the bottom of the quilt on the back. Over time a hole wore right in that spot that we were able to patch up and fix.
Lesser quality fabric will often show wear first. It may be thinner and loosely woven and will tend to start unraveling and showing signs of wear before other better quality fabric. Those lesser quality fabrics are often the first ones that will need repair. If you’re investing in any fabric going in to a quilt, choose the best fabric you can afford. You won’t regret it over the long term.
Older fabrics may be made out of feed sacks or flour bags. Yes, flour used to come in a bag! Here’s a little history on that.
We’ll also take your old fabric donations. When possible we use them for repairs from a similar era. Being donated to us we don’t charge to use these fabrics when they are needed for repairs.
The construction on the old quilts is quite different from newer quilts of today. From taking them gently apart for repairs, in some cases, what we’ve found in the middle isn’t batting like we use today. What made up the middle is whatever folks had on hand: a sheet, pieces of clothing, a tablecloth, cotton, including cotton that looked like real cotton, cotton balls! We can’t always quite identify what is in the middle. But at the time, to the maker, it served the purpose of adding weight, warmth, and thickness to the quilt. Resourcefulness was the key and making use of whatever fabric was available. This way little went to waste. Working on these there are often surprises like the real cotton, cotton balls that make for an interesting project.
We have one now with several areas that need attention. We’ve put in many hours of work on it and checked in with the owner to see if she wants to continue. You see a lot of these require the special skill of being able to hand quilt like in the olden days, before machines. In a lot of cases, too, these are hand pieced. That’s where all of the little pieces that make up the quilt were sewn together by hand. Sometimes with very tiny stitches. These require putting the pieces back together, if they are loose or replacing if a piece is missing. Delicate hand sewing is mostly needed to complete these repairs. The fabric cost is minimal, if any. I keep trying to get volunteers for the skilled labor part; but, unfortunately, no one is raising their hand to take me up on that! Repairs take time and talent.
So going into 2024 take a look at any favorite quilts you have. They may be quite old. There is a reason you still have it; and if they need repairs, don’t wait. The holes won’t get any smaller. They’ll keep growing and worn areas will continue to wear.
In 2024, in addition to losing weight, or working out, stopping smoking and other resolutions that we make for ourselves, it’s a good year to resolve to love on your old quilts. Have them repaired if they are showing signs of wear.
Tender loving care and quilt repairs, we can do. Here are a few examples of some that we have loved on. With 77 years of quilting experience between us, we can help and welcome the opportunity to serve you by repairing your quilts. Give us a call 678-324-8084.
