Finishing a Vintage Quilt Top

Finishing a Vintage Quilt Top

Last March, a neighbor brought a vintage quilt top to me, asking if I could turn it into a finished quilt. this-is-my-neighbors-grandmas-wipbrought-to-me-to-see-if-i-can-take-it-from-incomplete-flimsy-to-finished-quilt-for-them-interesting-challenge-beautiful-quilt_25984662686_o As you can see, the top was a Grandma's Flower Garden. Some investigation showed that it was all hand-pieced and that there were multiple places where a gap had opened up in the piecing. Further, there were some fabrics that were not well-suited for quilting (very large weave) and were falling apart. I thought that the best plan was probably to find a yellow to match the quilt and use it as a layer under the whole pieced top. Basically, the whole vintage piece would become an appliqué patch. After checking with a few quilty friends, who agreed that my plan was a good idea, I set to work. I bought 6.5 yards of RJR's solid "Banana Cream Pie." Setting aside 0.5 yard for binding, I combined the 6 yards into a large rectangle and then set about pressing the pieced part of the quilt, and basting it to the background fabric. It took an absolutely epic amount of time! From there, I laid out backing and batting and basted again. There were a lot of pins in the quilt! I quilted in a simple stipple as it allowed me the flexibility to tack the edges closely and add extra stitching around holes and other problem areas. img_0351 Here's the finished top! img0390 Binding was the same yellow as the background. img_0394 I handed off the quilt to my neighbor a few days before a special event and she gave it as a gift to her daughter. Everyone was very excited to see the quilt finished, 50+ years after it was begun!
Back to blog