Rhonda Dort

If you’ve been following me for long you’ll know I love to Rescue/Save old quilts and sometimes the vintage quilts gets motifs appliqued directly on the front. These appliqués can cover a variety of imperfections and/or add interest to the quilt.

I’m always looking for new ideas for using vintage linens, especially those that are stained, worn, torn or (in my opinion) unattractive. While scrolling through the Facebook group Texas Quilter’s Group I came across the following post from Sandra Shawn Buxton, thank you Sandra for letting me use your picture/fb group post! Oh…and Sandra…I totally blame you for sending me on a crazy yet fantastic adventure! 🤣

Oh the possibilities! My brain kicked into overdrive and away I went!

I cut 1” strips from fabric scraps, damaged vintage linens, laces and trims, stitched them together with a backing fabric marked with blue pen lines. These lines helped to keep my strip piecing generally even and parallel. I then pressed using plenty of spray starch.

I cut my heart using an Accuquilt Go and the adapter pieces that allowed me to use the Crafter’s Edge nesting heart Dies. https://craftersedge.com

But how did I get to the point of cutting hearts?

And down the rabbit hole I went! I cut all I could and then I had a new idea…

Rabbit hole #2:

Using my longarm I decided to create a quilted piece to be cut into heart shapes.

The backing fabric is bleached muslin that has been laundered (to shrink the fabric), Hobbs 80/20 white batting topped with another layer of bleached muslin. https://www.hobbsbatting.com

With the vintage ivory and white linens laid out I started by quilting around the edges of each. What’s the dark spot in the pic above? Nail polish. No worries, I’ll cut around it later.

With each piece secured, let the quilting begin!

This longarm ruler is fantastic for quickly quilting long undulating lines which will become the stem for quilted feathers. https://suepellanddesigns.com/

Yes, quilting veins in each feather took a lot of time but compare the two pics above to see how much it added to the overall look.

With the quilted piece off the longarm and trimmed, the cutting begins. https://www.accuquilt.com/

I used all four heart dies and what’s left of my quilted piece? See the little pile of scraps! Just so you’ll know, you can easily use Crafter’s Edge Dies with your Accuquilt, you’ll just need to purchase an adapter plate set.

Enter rabbit hole #3…I’d previously cut hearts from a very damaged Double Wedding Ring quilt piece. I had left over scraps… hum…

I began sewing these scraps together.

I chose Superior Threads Bottom Line thread https://www.superiorthreads.com because it so closely matched the old white-ish quilt fabric and also because it has more of a matte finish. No need for the thread to visually take center stage.

The results look a bit like Crazy Quilt hearts and I love them!

These hearts will make wonderful applique pieces for a future “quilt save”.

My left over scraps. Yes, I will most likely throw them away, they’ve served me well.

Then here’s my post to a wonderful fb group: Quilting Vintage, where I learn my grand ideas were yesterdays news! 🤣 Seems that awesome quilter/artist Martie Frazier-Stern (of Martie’s Quilting Creations) is light years ahead of me with this quilting technique! Thank you Martie for letting me post about your work!

Want to see more of her work?

It’s always fun to experiment and this time I think it was a very successful. I’m still mulling over how I will use these hearts on a future project, the sky’s the limit when it comes to saving an old quilt!

Blessings and Happy Quilting, Rhonda