Is there anything better than a day (or two or three or fifty four) spent working with vintage quilt blocks? 🙂
I bought this quilt on eBay for $33.99, when it arrived I had a pretty good understanding of not being 100% truthful in advertising…but I liked the idea of a grand challenge and this quilt certainly presented one! See the picture captions for information later today I’ll do. Blog post at: RhondaDort.com
Here’s the original quilt, stains and stink galore!
The ivory is a light weight muslin. The quilt is tied with something heavier than Pearl Cotton.
This shows one example of the problems across the quilt. The baskets are all hand pieced and so many of the treads are broken.
Also, the ties seem to be very random, no order or plan could be seen.
So this is what the batting looked like. I’m wondering if many of the quilt stains were a result of the raw cotton? I think this is raw or uncleaned cotton? Anyone have some thoughts and/or experience with this? I realize and seriously do appreciate that the original quilter used what she had available, please don’t think I am faulting her!
Once deconstructed and soaked, many of the stains and 100% of the odor are gone. This is the wet quilt top laid out on my tile floor and left to dry.
Here’s a “before”, below is the “after.
You can see that most but not all of the stains came out. Are you also noticing the piecing? It is interesting…
Lots more to come in the next few days/weeks, all of this quilt has undergone quite a transformation.
Blessings and happy quilting, Rhonda
Rhonda Dort 
Beautiful, I love how you’re restoring this quilt so far.
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Thank you! 🙂❤️
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I have taken vintage quilts apart for several years now too. Cutting the ties and getting rid of the batting is the first thing I do. I have run across the same batting as you showed, it’s a mess with the seeds etc. I don’t do all the extensive work you do with adding lace etc but I sure do a lot on some quilts. I have a beautiful Dresden Plate that I’m slowly removing all the stitches from the background as it rotted for some reason. The plates are gorgeous, the machine stitches are horribly small. Washing the quilt top is always amazing as they are so dirty, sometimes it take 4-6 washes to get them clean. I love reading how you fix these old quilts!
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Wow are a courageous woman!
I’m going to enjoy every moment you share about how you’re giving CPR to this quilt top. What did you soak it in but it came out so much better and got rid of the smell? And what do you do with these quilts after you have rehab to them?
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Scroll back to July for a long long blog about how and why I clean vintage quilts and linens. 🙂❤️
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It looks better already. I’m sure you will work your magic and make it look stunning.
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❤️🙂
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Oh my goodness!! Honestly, I probably would have thrown it in the garbage! WOW! It already looks so amazing! Thanks for sharing how a little TLC can make such a difference. I can’t wait to see what you do with it ❤️ Thank you for all the documentation that you share with the public.
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Thank you sweet dear friend! ❤️❤️
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I cannot wait to see what happens next with this quilt! I have my great-grandmother’s quilt, a flattened hexagon-with-small squares design with several pieces that are worn away, tied with yarn (part in yellow, part in green), with some stains. My aunt is happy with whatever I want to do with it (repair, give a new life, or just display off-bed as is), and my mom says just display – don’t do anything to it. I love your quilt’s design; all the flowers seem to be different. I’ll bet the maker had fun with each one. Best wishes for happy upcoming projects!
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Thank you! ❤️🙂
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