This quilt was at the thrift store, $6 "as is". It is obviously home made, with hand stitched quilting. The backing is muslin, and was very stained with brown stains. I think it was in a leaky attic but prefer not to think about it too much. It was not a "Shroud of Turin" pattern anyway. I put it through 5 or 6 wash / long soak cycles (hours) using an enzyme detergent and color-safe bleach, dry in the sun with muslin facing sun. The muslin is pure white now. No stains at all. The quilt just smells "clean". I don't use fabric softeners or scents. The colors might have faded slightly but I think they look brighter. I'm happy with how this quilt looks and feels now. The batting is softer, lighter, higher loft than the cotton batting I use - probably polyester. I think that's fine, because a cotton batting might hold onto whatever that stain was. It's not a style that I would make, but I think it's a fun quilt that someone clearly spent a lot of time making. You can see by the edges, someone might have been learning as they went along. This will be an everyday use quilt. I'm glad I was able to restore it.
Mate, that looks smashing. What a good job you did with the restoration. A great inheritance piece it is now. Chapeau.
I agree. The original creator of this quilt would be very pleased. The pic below is of a "mug mat" I got at a retreat for women. The woman who made them is quite a quilter, & she made 50 of them to give away to us all. I love it. I keep it by my desk & laptop for my cup of Java.
That's really lovely @Cayuga Morning! The colors are so rich and vibrant. A lot of talent there, and lovingly made.
I like the colors too. We all had our choice of mug mats & this one spoke to me! Yes, Sjeord, the coffee mug goes atop. Kinda like a big coaster. This woman also made a quilt that was given to a lucky person.
Wow Daniel! I just saw this thread. Your quilts are amazing! My kids and one niece all have "graduation" quilts that I made them. Unfortunately after my oldest niece graduated I went through chemo and the pills that I had to take for 5 years after made my joints very painful. After many years I've started back up. Last year. I gave my daughter-in-law table runners, one for each season, as a Christmas gift. My neighbor tells me the senior center she goes to has a long arm quilting machine. I have two quilt tops that I made before my Chemo days. I'm tempted to learn, but my eyes are not like they used to be so I'm a little nervous. I moved it closer to the light. The colors are not as muted as the first picture and not as dark as the second. The pattern is card trick. The other one is packed away. Cayuga, the mug rug is very pretty. Love the colors!
I was just reading the rest of the posts. My backing, unless I need a specific color/pattern is usually a cotton flannel sheet. The feel of flannel, to me, is very cuddly. And it's very easy to work with. I'm with you about older sewing machines. I have an older black Singer that I got back in 1980 at a garage sale for a whopping $25. My mom and I carried it out to her car and put it in her trunk and I've never looked back. The light burned out and I couldn't get the cover off so I just used a lamp for quite a while. I finally took it in and had the repair guy tune it up and change the bulb. And it's back in its wooden table and sewing like butter again. I love it, it's maybe late 40's, could be early 50's. The guy that sold it said it was his mom's. I just realized, it's older then me! Just looked it up, mid 50's....still older then me....ha!
Thank you Sjoerd. As you can probably tell I got a lot of it around Halloween. I saw the, "Witch's Undies" and thought it would be fun to work with. Fabric is very pricey now. And it seems to be thinner. There used to be a place called House of Fabric and 2 or 3 times a year they'd have their midnight madness sale. They'd close early then reopen from 9 to midnight. I'd drag one of my kids with me so after I got the stuff I'd scoped out earlier they'd stand in the ridiculously long line while I looked around. There were a lot of husbands there doing the same thing. My older son would bring a book and if it was my younger son he'd have his gameboy. I have a couple that are just the blocks, that's as far as I got when I started chemo. I've taken one of them out several times trying to figure out what I was going to do.
Wow Willow, I had no idea about. There is something similar in my city, but then it isn’t one shop, it is the whole inner city. I wrote about it a few years ago. Have a look: https://www.gardenstew.com/threads/lappendag.20088/ I went a couple of times but there were too many people. It really was shoulder to shoulder and so many tipsy people. it was great for my Bride and her sis though. They went a couple of times.
Wow! I don't know if I could go to something of that scale. House of Fabric was crowded, but there's only so many people who sew and would go. And it was back in the 90s I think. And at this point in time I don't even go out on black Friday. Too many people. I used to go to concerts a lot but I was much younger.I think the last concert I went to was Early 2000s. Too many people, not to mention the price of a ticket! Although I just bought a ticket to the Mother Earth News Fair. I'm hoping it won't be ridiculously crowded.
