Finished!

Having heavily marked all the diagonal quilting lines, I’m slowly rolling the quilt back and forth on the longarm while spraying all the blocks with water: spray…wait to dry…roll…repeat. It helps that I have a ceiling fan almost directly above the machine.

So while I’m going through the “blue line removal” let me show you a few close-ups of the added embellishing.

This tiny pink butterfly, measuring about 1/2”x3/4” comes in handy by covering a split in the seam. Remember back a few posts when I told you the quilt top is a combo of both hand and machine construction? Well, this barely 1/8” seam opened up due to the stresses of the quilting process. While on the longarm I positioned the little butterfly and stitched around the edges.

More vintage ribbon fashioned into a bow at the top of the basket handle. The white lace leaf/fern looking motif is new and commercially produced. The ivory Lily of the Valley piece is vintage.

This flower, an older commercially produced piece has gotten a facelift by adding hand embroidery.

French knots and commercially produced daisy-like flowers add interest.

Larger daisy flowers and hand embroidered lazy-daisy flowers. I have yet to heat remove the lazy-daisy petal stitching lines.

Binding…one of my least fav tasks…a very old dominated hand thumb injury (think ski slope tumble) makes hand stitching very slow.

Taa-Daa! Finished and through the washer/dryer! Soft and cuddly and clean and ready as a utility throw for any cool weather that might find its way to Houston.

Now…you know the actual longarm quilting dilemma I experienced with this quilt. Do I like the diagonal lines? I say this honestly…I’m not crazy about them. Do I like the fact that this project is finished? Yes!

Do I think I should have thought out the process a bit better and added a 3” border around the quilt top to give it a visual anchor? Yes. I’ll just call it 20/20 hindsight.

Am I happy to have had the chance to rescue/save this wonderful vintage quilt? Absolutely!

Blessings to all and happy quilting!

Rhonda

Working towards a finish, in the picture above you can see that I have attached (by machine) all the vines, the leaves, the yo-yo’s and the two vintage ribbon bows.

This is the top of the quilt as I began to shape the ribbon streamers.

And this is how it looks with the ribbon machine stitched in place. I used a very tiny zig-zag. My needle thread is a Wonderfil Specialty Threads product called Deco Bob. It’s a wonderful 80 weight thread that can and usually does take on the color of the fabric beneath. You’ll find a link to their website below:

https://www.wonderfil.ca/

I intentionally used an old worn ribbon to fashion the bow.

What’s going on in the picture above? I am stitching out 6 machine embroidery Free Standing Lace butterflies. I have intentionally chosen a thread color that is very similar to the light ivory fabric of the quilt top. I want them to blend in rather than stand out.

You can find this beautifully digitized design at: https://www.emblibrary.com/EL/default.aspx

Have you noticed this beautiful old quilt is quilted with blue thread? You will also remember that everything I’ve added has been done by machine. I intentionally chose a matte finish light ivory bobbin thread so as to not to be distracting. In the pictures below you can see how my quilt front repairs do not distract on the back of the quilt.

I had thought that I might add vintage mother-of-pearl button clusters here and there around the quilt top but decided they were not needed.

It’s finished! After binding in the same fabric as the vines this beautiful vintage repaired quilt took a trip through the washing machine and the dryer. This quilt began its life as a utility piece and it can and will continue to be a serviceable and well used piece!

It was my honor to pay tribute to the original quilt maker by saving her beautiful work. I can only hope that the things I’ve done to her creation would make her smile. ❤️

Blessings to all and of course: happy quilting!