Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Three Favorite Traditional Applique Quilts From AQS Paducah Quilt Week + Vintage Quilt Repair Update

Okay, my lovelies -- I know you wanna hear all about my adventures at AQS Paducah Quilt Week, but you're only gonna get this in dribbles because my brain is overloaded, there are 500+ photos on my iPhone, 45 pages of notes from the TEN classes I took (those are just my own notes above and beyond the handouts) and UPS won't be delivering my big box of show goodies until Wednesday.


Best of Show: Muttons and Buttons and Pearls, Oh My! by Janet Stone, Overland Park, KS, Photo by AQS
You may have already seen this AQS photo of the 2019 Janome Best of Show winner, "Muttons & Buttons & Pearls, Oh My" by Janet Stone.  Isn't it gorgeous?  You can find out more about this quilt and watch an interview with the quilter on the AQS website here.  I was not able to get a good, clear photo of the front of this quilt myself without anybody's head in the way, but I did get some close-up shots of details that caught my eye:


Prize-Winning Quilts ALWAYS Wear Labels...
Ah, yes -- we are going to look at the BACK of the quilt with the darling little sheep print fabric, and the quilt label.  The label is simple but elegant, conveying the relevant information in permanent ink, embellished with a narrow striped border and a smattering of pearls.  As long as Janet labored over this amazing prize-winning show quilt, this label did not take long to make at all.  And it's PERFECT!  (There is a moral to this blog post, y'all -- LABEL YOUR QUILTS!  No more excuses!)


Check Out the Nifty Binding Details
Janet's crisp, overlapping prairie points are adorned with contrasting blanket stitching and hand stitched pearl beads, and they are ingeniously sandwiched between two different "binding" fabrics, as you can see comparing this photo to the previous one.  

The other detail that called to me was the quilting in the white border between the appliquéd flowers:
I Love the Sweet Leaves and Berries Quilted In This Border!
This is simple connecting curves with a little "pearl" or pebble or whatever, nothing fancy, but it complements these simple folk floral appliques beautifully and the execution of the machine quilting is nearly flawless even with your nose 3" away from the quilt.  No galloping horses needed for THIS quilt!

You can see even MORE gorgeous detail photography of this quilt over on The Quilt Show's blog here.  

I'm only going to show you two more quilts tonight, because I'm tired.  Like Janet's Best of Show quilt, these are also very traditional designs and colorways but created using the best modern machine techniques.


Coxcomb Nouveau, by Wilma Richter and Leah Sample, Little Rock, AR
What I love about this quilt is how at first glance it's a straight-up antique reproduction, but the very modern geometric longarm ruler work quilting sets off the traditional appliqué and makes it feel fresh.


Geometric Ruler Work Quilted Background Sets Off Applique
Of course, since I was overloading on longarm quilting workshops at this show, I was especially focused on the way each piece was quilted.  After taking ruler work classes with both Judi Madsen and Lisa Calle, I have a much better idea of how to accomplish quilting like this -- after some additional practice, naturally!


1790 Love Entwined by Marlee Carter, New Gloucester, ME
The last quilt I'm showing you today is one I was delighted to recognize -- it's the first version of Esther Aliu's Love Entwined pattern that I've seen "in the flesh."  This is Esther's painstaking pattern based on an antique British quilt that she has only seen a black and white photo of in an old book, referred to simply as "1790 Coverlet."  That is some insane appliqué, don't you think?  Marlee did an amazing job with the appliqué.   

That's all you get for today, though.  I've got to get the binding on my vintage repair quilt so I can get it back to its owner, and I need to get Lars's graduation quilt loaded on my longarm frame and start quilting it -- I've only got a little over three weeks now to get it completed before graduation weekend and Quillow Sunday.

Just realized that I forgot to show you how the quilting and machine embroidered label came out for the vintage quilt!  The first time I shared this quilt with you it looked like this:


1960s Utility Quilt Top, Acrylic Yarn Ties, Poly Batting, and Backing Removed
The backing was in shreds and the quilt's owner requested a change in color, so I snipped away the acrylic yarn ties to free the quilt top for patching and seam repair.  You can read more about my process for repairing the quilt top in this post.


Quilting Allover Loopy Meander to Draw In Excess Fullness
I'm using new backing fabric (prewashed in HOT water to maximize shrinkage, since the fabrics in the quilt top have been laundered many times over the years) with 80/20 batting, Superior's King Tut cotton 40 weight thread in a variegated pinky-orange that reminds me of cotton candy or sherbet, and off-white Superior Super Bobs prewound 60 weight polyester in the bobbin that just melts into the lavender backing fabric and disappears.  I chose the loopy meander because I thought the random curvy quilting lines were a nice complement to the random straight(ish) piecing lines of this utility quilt, and the double loops were good for drawing in excess fullness in areas where that was a problem.  I wanted to quilt this close enough to marry the fragile vintage quilt top fabrics to the new batting and backing for strength, but didn't want to do anything with the quilting that would draw too much attention to itself and scream "Rebecca was here."  I am VERY pleased to say that this quilt came off the frame nice and flat and SQUARE.  Hallelujah!


My Patched Sections Blend In Even Better After Quilting
My goal with this quilt is to be as invisible as possible, so it still "looks like grandma's quilt" to my friend when she gets it back.  I digitized this quilt label in my Bernina v8 Designer Plus software and stitched it out in cotton embroidery thread on my Bernina 750QE sewing machine, matching the thread color to the original acrylic yarn (the original backing was that same Day Glo orange, too).  The orange dots on the new purple backing fabric and the loopy circles that I quilted in are supposed to be suggestive of these little yarn pom poms, too, since they are not going back on the quilt.  


Machine Embroidered Label Ready to Attach
I chose binding fabric in that same orange:


Label Attached, Awaiting Binding
GOSH I hope she likes this.  I am SO FAR PAST the point of no return!

After 30 hours of longarm quilting workshops, I have a much better idea of how I want to quilt Lars's Mission Impossible graduation quilt, and I have new longarm rulers and thread coming for that in the UPS box that I shipped home from the show.  And no, that doesn't mean I overspent -- I have a bulky quilt sample from each of the 10 classes that I took and I wanted to keep them all because I didn't finish any of them and I want them for reference.  They go with my notes


And so, without further ado...  my To-Do On Tuesday Goals for this week are:

  1. Bind this Vintage Quilt & Return to Owner
  2. Test Spoonflower backing for colorfastness & deal with any dye instability, then piece Mission Impossible backing
  3. Load Mission Impossible and start quilting!
I'm linking today's post up with:

TUESDAY

·      Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at http://www.cleverchameleon.com.au
·       To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com

WEDNESDAY

·      Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/
·      WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

6 Days Until Quilt Week: Mission Impossible, Vintage Repair + New Tumbler Top All Ready for Quilting!

Oh my gosh, you guys -- is this what it feels like to plan your work, work your plan, and finish a project way ahead of a deadline?!  

It was a little after midnight when I finished the last seam in Lars's Mission Impossible graduation quilt top and gave it a final pressing.  I needed help getting it back up on the design wall for a final photo, and my family was sleeping.  
72 x 96 Mission Impossible Quilt Top, Almost Finished in Photo, Totally Finished IRL

I decided that one of the almost-done pictures would have to suffice; you can't really tell from a photo what's sewn and what isn't, anyway.  So I folded it up carefully, draped it over a hanger, and hung it in the guest room closet.  I'm officially renaming our guest room closet Quilt Purgatory, now that I have quilt tops lined up in there, patiently waiting their turn on the longarm:

  1. Jingle BOM (Piecing & Applique)
  2. Paint Me a Story (Bear Paws & Sawtooth Stars)
  3. Pineapple Nostalgia (Pineapple Log Cabin)
  4. Mission Impossible (Geese In Circles)
  5. Vintage Utility Quilt Restoration

In addition to those five, I have a backing and binding prepared and ready to go for the Modern Baby Clam Shell quilt.  


My EQ8 Design for Modern Baby Clam Shells, 40 x 40
The modern baby for whom this quilt is intended is now four months old, so this project will be moving up on my list.  So far all I've done is design work and fabric shopping (I spend a LOT OF TIME on the design and fabric shopping part), and I've cut out the print clam shells, as you can see below.  After putting the Mission Impossible quilt top to bed Sunday night in the wee hours of Monday morning, I threw these print clams up on the empty design wall and moved them around until I liked the arrangement.  I ended up swapping out a couple of the prints so the layout in real life doesn't exactly match the EQ8 rendering, but don't you love how EQ8 quilt design software perfectly scales those prints so that they look exactly the same on the computer as they do when I cut out my actual fabric?


Modern Baby Clam Shells On the Design Wall at Midnight
Next for that project is cutting out all of the turquoise background fabric -- whole and partial clam shells plus circles for the center row.    I think this quilt is going to need some machine embroidered personalization, too, and that means I have to revisit my options for loading my Windows based Bernina v8 Designer Plus embroidery software on my nifty iMac computer.  I'm looking forward to digitizing with the giant 27" monitor so I can see what I'm doing (and my younger son, Anders, is looking forward to inheriting my laptop as soon as I get that software working on my new computer!).


Mom's First Quilt Top: 4 inch Tumblers, will be approx. 42 x 56 after trimming

Another exciting top that is nearly ready for Quilt Purgatory is an outreach tumbler quilt that I'm super excited about because my MOM made this top, all by herself!  I have launched another unsupervised quilter into the world!  YAY!!!  When we finished sewing the curved seams of the Mission Impossible blocks together, I wanted my mom to stay and hang out with me while I continued working on the graduation quilt.  I got out my Accuquilt GO! Baby die cutter and the 4" tumbler die and set her loose in my scrap bins, and this is what she came up with.  The dark purple fabric is the same Kona Solid I was using in Lars's graduation quilt.  It ended up a bit larger than I'd initially anticipated so I'll need to piece a new backing for it and find a suitable binding in my stash before packing this one away in Quilt Purgatory.

This will be yet another quilt top that I can practice on to improve my longarm quilting skills, and when it's finished I'll donate it to the Charlotte Quilters' Guild Outreach Committee.  It will go to either to the Pediatric Unit at the hospital, where it will bring some sunshine, snuggling and cheer to someone who needs it!  I'm looking forward to practice SITD (stitching in the ditch) all of those seams between the tumblers and maybe quilting something fun (scary fun!) in the solid tumblers, where the stitching will show up the best.


MEANWHILE...  



In preparation for my upcoming longarm quilting workshops at Quilt Week, I went back and rewatched the Judi Madsen's Quilting Makes a Difference iQuilt video classes I'd purchased ages ago, taking notes and writing down all of the questions that popped into my head.  I used the "Ask a Question" feature built into the iQuilt platform and Judi got back to me with answers to all of my questions within 24 hours, much faster than I'd expected.  

Judi's Quilting Wide Open Spaces Book, Available on Amazon here
I also have both of Judi's books and I started rereading those (and taking MORE notes) in the waiting room during Lars's wisdom teeth extraction yesterday morning.  (Surgery went well but Lars did not tolerate the anesthesia well.  He was vomiting and in a lot of pain despite the drugs for most of yesterday -- I felt so bad for him that I cleaned his room and did all of his laundry, which I NEVER do anymore).

Judi's Secondary Designs Book, Available on Amazon here

I just ordered Lisa Calle's Divide and Design book on Amazon (she's the other teacher whose longarm quilting workshops I'll be taking at Paducah), but I saw that she also has some video classes available on iQuilt.  I'm not as familiar with her work, but if I have time I might do one of Lisa's online iQuilt classes before taking workshops with her in person at Quilt Week.  

Lisa's Divide and Design Book, Available on Amazon here
Personally, I am a huge book learner more than anything else -- that's my favorite way to learn, and I highlight and annotate my books so I can quickly go back and find information when I need it months or even years later.  Video classes don't make for great references because you have to sit through the whole video again to find the information you were looking for.  But of course the downside to both books AND video classes is the lack of instructor feedback and the inability to ask questions.  But we all learn differently, and it's great to have all of these options available today.

I have a meeting with an interior design client today and will probably have followup work to do in my office when I get back.  Not sure how late my workday will wrap up and whether I'll have any "sewjo" left at the end of today, but if I DO get time in my studio, I'll be using it to clean and oil my longarm machine and load up a quilt!  

To-Do On Tuesday:


I know I'm a day late for To-Do On Tuesday, but I've got goals to share nonetheless:


  1. Spa Day for my APQS Millennium Longarm Quilting Machine!  She needs to be dusted off, any oxidation wiped away from aluminum rails, hook race cleaned out thoroughly with WD-40 and then oiled, and get a fresh, new needle 
  2. Load that Vintage Repair Quilt and get it quilted
  3. Continue preparing (and start PACKING!) for my longarm quilting workshops at Quilt Week
  4. Trim sides of Outreach Tumbler quilt top
  5. Piece backing for Outreach Tumbler quilt
  6. Select and cut binding for Outreach Tumbler quilt, hopefully from stash
I'm linking today's post up with the following linky parties:

TUESDAY

·      Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at http://www.cleverchameleon.com.au
·       To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com

WEDNESDAY

·      Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/
·      WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

THURSDAY

·      Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/  

FRIDAY

·      Finish It Up Friday at www.sillymamaquilts.com
·      Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com
·      Finished Or Not Friday at http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Vintage Quilt Repair + Mission Impossible: To-Do On Tuesday

Good morning!  I am astonished to report that, not only did I reach last Tuesday's weekly goal of completing half (24) of the blocks for Lars's Mission Impossible graduation quilt, but my mom and I got ALL 48 blocks done last week.  Woo-hoo!  They are all laid out on my design wall now, waiting to be sewn together.  


Mission Impossible: All Forty-Eight 12 inch Blocks Complete!

I just have a few decisions to mull first, such as:

  1. Am I going to sew these blocks into rows next, or will I sew sets of four 12" blocks together into 24" blocks first, 12 "X" blocks and 4 "O" blocks?  If I make them into 24" blocks first I think I stand a better chance of sewing them together in the right direction, avoiding the dreaded seam ripper...
  2. I need to work out a pressing plan for the seam allowances
  3. I need to figure out how to remove that extra purple fabric from the corners of these blocks where it's all in the seam allowance

But while I'm pondering those things, I took a little detour and went back to that vintage quilt repair that I'm undertaking for a friend.  I had my 'Nina 750QE all set up for invisible machine appliqué piecing from the inside curves on those flying geese blocks, and that's the same technique I wanted to use to patch the vintage quilt.  All I needed to do was switch from the Smoke monofilament to Clear monofilament.


Vintage Quilt Top with Backing, Batting, and Yarn Ties Removed

Here's what I know about this quilt.  It was made by the grandmother of my friend (who is about to become a grandmother herself in a few months), and my friend's husband remembers seeing it in her parents' house before they were married.  Those are the only facts I know so far, but I've asked their daughter to try to find out more so I can make a label from the quilt when I've finished repairing/resurrecting it.


Exploratory Surgery: Removing the Shredded Orange Binding, Backing, and Polyester Batting
As I began taking the quilt apart, I realized that the fabrics of the quilt top were faded and weakened from UV exposure -- my friend had been using it as a picnic blanket under the Carolina sun for many years.  See how much more vibrant that paisley print is where it was covered by the binding fabric?


See How Vibrant That Pink Used to Be, Under the Binding?

I wish I'd taken pictures of this quilt front and back when I first got my hands on it at the beginning of February.  The bright orange backing fabric was shredding, hanging off the back of the quilt like ribbons, and exposing large sections of batting.  The front of the quilt had several large holes where fabric was shredding and disintegrating across multiple fabric patches.  


One of the Worst Holes, Located Near the Center of the Quilt Top
The original quilter had tied the quilt with yarn at 4" intervals rather than quilting the layers together, so I went into this with the idea that I would remove the binding and snip the yarn ties to separate the quilt layers, patch those large holes, and then layer the top with new batting and backing and machine quilt it on the longarm.  I did not even consider tying it with yarn again because the fabrics are so weak and the yarn ties were putting too much stress on the fabrics.  In several places, the knot of yarn had ripped right through the quilt top.  I think that quilting stitches will do a better job of marrying the top to the new batting and backing so they function as one, allowing the fragile quilt top to benefit from the strength and stability of the other quilt layers.


Original Yarn Ties in a Good Section of the Quilt, Spaced 4 inches Apart
One more surprise challenge was the construction of the quilt top itself.  There was a base or foundation layer comprised of several different white fabrics that appear to cut from cast-off garments and linens.  Like the quilt top, the base layer fabrics are different weights, different weaves, some cotton and some synthetic blends, and the quilter did not bother to remove seams and hems from these pieces before sewing them into the quilt.  Upon initial inspection of this quilt, I'd planned to leave the base layer intact, but once I got the quilt apart I discovered that the foundation was not salvageable.  It was badly shredding, those bulky seams and hems hidden beneath the quilt top could cause problems for machine quilting, but the kiss of death was the realization that the assorted fabrics in the base layer had shrunk at different rates from one another and at different rates from the fabrics in the quilt top.  It was all pleated and puckered where it wasn't shredding, making it impossible for the quilt top to lay as flat as it could without the backing.  Oh, and the WEIGHT of the base layer was making it difficult for me to handle the quilt top for repair without ripping it.  


Pieced Foundations Semi-Attached to Quilt Top
The construction method was kind of haphazard, with the quilt top fabrics pieced together in a random fashion similar to the improvisational piecing of today's modern quilters, and then those sections of pieced fabrics were sewn to the foundation fabrics only intermittently, with gaps of up to 14" between stitching lines that held the quilt top to the foundation.  However, some -- but not all -- of those seams were holding the quilt top patches together as well as attaching the to the foundation.  So, over a period of several days, I carefully snipped away the foundation fabric between stitching lines, using my duck billed appliqué scissors to avoid accidentally snipping into the quilt top.  There are also quite a lot of hand stitched repairs to the quilt top made by my friend that go through the foundation fabric as well, and I felt that those stitches were part of the quilt's history that needed to remain so I cut around those stitches as well.


Carefully Snipping Away the Foundation Fabric Along the Seam Lines
And of course, historian and vintage textile lover that I am, the whole time I'm working on this I'm trying to pin down an approximate date for when the quilt was made.  The number one rule of dating a quilt is that a quilt cannot be older than the youngest fabric in the quilt, and this one had polyester batting and polyester-blend fabrics.  I know that polyester fabrics were introduced to the market after World War II, but I have not been able to find out when polyester quilt batting was first sold.  If anyone knows, please let me know in the comments!

As for the colors and print patterns in the quilt top, those are telling me 1960s or 1970s, especially when I consider how much wilder and brighter all of the colors would have been before the fabrics faded.  I'm also factoring in what I know about the history of quiltmaking in the United States in the 20th century.  Quilting fell out of vogue post WWII with the growth of consumerism, readily available and affordable commercially made bedding, and people associating patchwork quilting with the hard times and "making do" of the Depression and war years.  Some of the older quilters continued making traditional quilts for pleasure, but this particular quilt doesn't mesh with styles that were popular with quilters in the 1950s and it's free-form construction and lack of uniform seam allowances suggest to me that this was made by someone who was new to quilting, someone who had not been taught by previous generations, someone who was figuring it out as she went along.  I feel like this quilt belongs somewhere in the Quilt Revival of the late 1960s-1970s...  EXCEPT...  My friend said her grandmother made this quilt, not her mother, and that detail makes me lean towards an earlier date (1960s) versus a later date (circa Bicentennial quilt revival in the mid 1970s).  Also, while the construction of the top suggests a beginner quiltmaker, the yarn ties were precisely spaced in a 4" grid with knots that held the test of time, and the double-fold binding was neatly and skillfully finished by hand.  I did ask the great-granddaughter to try to find out which grandma made this quilt, where/when she lived etc., and I'll be interested to learn how accurate my quilt sleuthing has been.

Y'all, if you are still out there making quilts without labeling them, you are going to drive people like me NUTS in the future!!  


Seriously, though -- this quilt is an example of the best destiny a quilter could ever wish for his or her quilts.  It has been handed down from generation to generation, literally loved to pieces, and the quilter's granddaughter still can't bear to throw it out because this quilt is a connection to a grandmother's love long after the grandmother is gone.  But, without a label, the next generation is not going to know who made this quilt or why it's special.  PUT A LABEL ON YOUR QUILTS, people!  It doesn't need to be fancy!  Just "Made by Sally Johnson Smith, Anytown, U.S.A., 2019."  Scrawl it in the corner with a Pigma Micron fine tipped permanent in pen and be done with it!  Your great-great-grandbabies will thank you for it.  :-)

So, back to my repair process.  Having a rough idea of when the quilt was made has guided me in selecting prints from my stash.  This is all about sentimental value, so I'm trying to make myself as invisible as possible in the repairs -- I want it to still look like grandma's quilt when I'm done with it, not Rebecca's version of grandma's quilt, you know what I mean?  I want my repairs to blend in.  I've bleached most of my patch fabrics because the ones in my stash that have the right 60's-'70s vibe have colors that are way too vibrant to blend with the faded original fabrics:

Scraps from my Pineapple Quilt Backing, Before and After Bleaching
Scraps of Tula Pink from my Disco Kitties Quilt, Before and After Bleaching
For those really big holes in the quilt top, I randomly pieced some odd-shaped scraps together first and then appliquéd them over the damaged section of the quilt top.  It was challenging for me to abandon straight lines and right angles in order to create a patch that didn't look like an obvious later addition.

Damaged Section Before Repair
I am just smoothing the quilt top over my ironing board, getting it as flat and smooth as possible, and then laying my patchwork patch over the damaged section, trying to match the edge of my patch to a seam line wherever possible.  I am turning the seam allowance under by hand, without measuring, deliberately making it a little wonky, and then flattening it with the steam iron.  When I'm satisfied with the patch and its position on the quilt top, I secure it with a bead of Roxanne's Glue Baste-It just along the edges and hit it with the iron again to dry the glue.  

My New Patchwork Section Positioned and Glue Basted In Place On the Ironing Board

And then I machine stitch the patch in place the very same way I was doing the invisible machine applique stitch to secure the inner curve on my geese blocks.  

Appliquéing my Patch to the Quilt Top with Clear Monofilament Thread
Now, I know what y'all are thinking -- your eagle eyes have spotted Tula Pink and Kaffe Fassett prints and you are judging me for putting such hallmark 2018 fabrics into a circa 1965-1979 quilt top.  Well, I feel like Kaffe's and Tula's prints have a heavy 60s-70s influence that works with the other prints, and they bring back some of the life and zing that the original fabrics have lost to fading.  They would also help a future quilt historian to easily date when the repairs were done, in the even that my new label falls off (or if I'm not able to get enough information to make a label).  But I selected the musical notation fabric and the disco kitty specifically with the quilt's current owner in mind, because she is an amazing (like EARTH-SHATTERINGLY amazing) singer and cat-lover who was recently deprived of a kitten under dubious circumstances.  So the kitty stays!

This Was the Other Really Bad Hole in the Center of the Quilt Top
Appliquéing My New Patchwork Section Over the Damaged Area
For the repair shown above, I bleached the coral floral print fabric and the Kaffe Fassett print on the right, but did not bleach the little schoolhouse print or the jelly roll strip of lavender Kona Solid.  

Back Side After Stitching Repair, Prior to Trimming

 After stitching, I flip the top over and carefully snip away the damaged portion of the quilt top beneath my repair.

After Trimming Away Damaged Section Beneath Repair

My invisible machine appliqué stitch is similar to a blind hem, but it's actually a tweaked Vari-Overlock stitch with a very narrow swing bite and tiny, short straight stitches between the zigzag.  Although I'm using clear monofilament thread in the needle, I've wound a medium beige 60 weight Mettler cotton embroidery thread in my bobbin, so you can see what my stitch looks like on the back of the quilt top - it's that jaggedy brownish zigzag.

See How Nicely That Repaired Section Blends Into the Quilt Top?

I Think the Kitty Cat Looks Pretty Good, Too
Yes, the kitty cat draws attention because he's a cutie, but I don't think my REPAIR is obvious in that section of the quilt so I'm pleased with it.  I

So now that I've taken care of the sections of the quilt top with the most severe damage, I'm sewing open seams closed where I find them and patching smaller holes.  There are a number of places where the quilt top fabrics have torn right along the seam lines and smaller holes sprinkled throughout the quilt.  It has to be a balancing act -- there are so many fabrics in this top that are worn to the point that you can see through them, but if I replaced ALL of them it would change the quilt top to the point that it would no longer be recognizable as the same quilt.  Remember that I'm already changing the backing and binding fabric and I'll be quilting it instead of tying it with yarn again -- those are big enough changes.  So I'm just going to focus on the most severely damaged areas, fixing the worst hole and then the next-worse hole and so on until it gets the the point where the top can be successfully quilted.

And so, my To-Do On Tuesday Goals for this week are:


  1. Complete repairs on Vintage Quilt Top
  2. Assemble Mission Impossible Blocks into Finished Quilt Top
  3. Load Vintage Quilt Top for Longarm Quilting
  4. Watch Judi Madsen's iQuilt Classes in Preparation for Paducah Quilt Week Classes
I'm linking today's post up with:

TUESDAY

·      Colour and Inspiration Tuesday at http://www.cleverchameleon.com.au
·       To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: http://stitchallthethings.com

WEDNESDAY

·      Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/
·      WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com

THURSDAY

Needle and Thread Thursday at http://www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com/