Rhonda Dort

Tackling the vintage pink basket quilt, Post #2. Never one to give up easily, I continue my my mission to give this quilt (now a quilt top) a new chance to shine.

Right away I noticed that this basket block was machine pieced while most of the others were done by hand. This is a good example where the quilter, without regard to individual block size or shape “made it work”. Note all the different sizes of triangles. And I am also going to assume she ran out of all light colored thread as most if not all the basket handles were machine stitched with red thread. I also found many areas where the blocks were machine stitched to sashings with white, ivory, purple and/or red thread and…in most instances the needle and bobbin threads do not match.

Wow did this thread thing bring back memories! I learned garment construction as a child and I was not the most patient seamstress. One of the things I HATED was when I ran out of bobbin thread (and did not have an appropriate backup bobbin ready to go) was having to stop, unthread the machine, wind a bobbin, re-thread, insert the newly wound bobbin, pull up the bobbin thread, find where I left off stitching…you get the picture… What I’m saying is I can totally relate if this quilt top was the creation of an impatient child.

The back of the quilt benefitted greatly from a second time in the soaking tub. Because I work with vintage quilts so often I save every bit of vintage fabric I can. Because they often blend in well, these old fabrics find their way into many of my vintage quilt projects that need a repair/fix.

This is the quilt top hanging on a design wall at a fabulous retreat venue (the 1914 Boehm House in Moulton, TX 🙂) where my intentions were to remove the basket handle red threads and re-stitch by machine using a pale ivory. I know there were fellow Retreaters who thought I had lost my mind…

After I had “fixed” a handle or two reality hit hard when I realized that to be successful, this quilt top needed a lot more than just ivory handle stitching.

Do you see what is nestled in the quilt top at this point?

Hello Mr. Rippit! Can you also see the seams just to the right of the ripper? Just about nothing in the quilt top lined up correctly. Nothing.

Time to dismantle. But are you seeing this…do you recognize what this is? Broiderie Perse! What? Want to learn more about Broderie Perse? https://thequiltshow.com/quiltipedia/what-is-broderie-perse.

Here’s the bottom half of the block. Oh dear. See the triangles that have been trimmed? There’s no way to fix them unless I take apart the basket and replace these with a similar fabric and at this point I realized I would just work with what I had and be as creative as possible.

So, the deconstruction continues. The stripe fabric is light weight/thin, the stripe colors are pink and an interesting yellow/green.

And nothings pleases me more than when I see a “make-do” block pieced from fabric scraps. What’s up with that Serged edge? After I took the quilt apart I serged the four outside edges of both the quilt top and the backing before I soaked. I purposely set the serger to stitch very loose/loopy in the event I needed to remove these stitches.

More to come soon! Happy quilting and blessings, Rhonda