Sunday, April 16, 2017

Repairing Old Quilts

My sketching buddy inherited a quilt made by her grandmother, a lovely double wedding ring quilt, thin and soft, much used and much loved.

                




However, apparently a mouse liked it, too, as it had a rather large, ragged hole close to the middle. Having great respect for old quilts, I offered to repair it. I replaced several patches, then added a bit of quilting. Now it's almost as good as new.

I'm thinking that I should get back to repairing my own quilts made by my grandmother. A number of years ago, I replaced a lot of the outline stitching on this Peter Pan quilt to restore the designs. 

Repairing is an activity that allows for reflexion and brings peace--a sort of meditation that connects one to past generations. It provides grounding in a world that seems topsy-turvy.







2 comments:

O'Quilts said...

good for you....old quilts are such my love I forgot u were from Oregon...my girl just moved to Portland. Take care

Julie Fukuda said...

My mother made quilts for each grandchild with embroidered squares. The mordants in the black-dyed thread caused the thread to disintegrate but while still partly visible I was able to replace those parts of the embroidery. Hopefully, modern thread will hold out better,