Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Lost quilt came home


This is another quilt in a very traditional look.
I sent this quilt to one of the people who used to do some hand quilting for me. It wasn't returned and I didn't follow up as there were other priorities in my life at the time.
About 5 years later I received a letter from someone who wanted to do some quilting for me. She was a friend of the quilter I had sent this one to. I wrote and asked her if she could ask her friend about this quilt. Her friend had moved to a different part of the country. She did get back in contact with me and the quilt was quilted and returned to me.

However the condition of the quilt was very faded and it didn't look great. I have no idea why the quilt looked this bad. The photo looks better than the quilt itself. I would be sarisfied if the quilt looked as sharp as the photo!

I did trim, bind and finish it but I have a note to myself to do something to the quilt to make it usable - paint, dye, applique over, or ??????????????????

What would you do?

I am pleased with the design of the quilt but the condition leaves a lot to be desired.

This quilt is probably about 24 x 40 inches so it is not a great loss if I can't salvage it. It is the only negative experience I've had sending quilts to be quilted so I can just chalk this up to experience and go on.

This is the second quilt in a 3 quilt series with the same colorations.
My son's family owns the first quilt in the series and it has looked great in all the places they have lived with whatever colors are in the room.



This one is mounted on a stretcher frame and is not quilted.

5 comments:

Dolores said...

Personally, I like what a lot of Japanese quilters are doing - applique over pieced quilts. That's what I would do.

Betsy said...

Kay I am so sorry about your tragedy with the flying geese quilt. I like it very much and hope to make one sometime in the near future.

Barbara Strobel Lardon said...

Could you overdye it if it is faded and see what happens?

Take off the binding and add to it?

Make a pillow?

Fuse applique over?

Those are my solutions that I have used.

Vicki W said...

If I were inclined to do anything at all, I would consider overdyeing it and then doing some sort of applique over it. But, knowing myself, I doubt I'd ever have the interest in doing anything to a quilt that was over 5 years old. I'd be more interested in new projects. BUt since I'm reading Stitch To Dye, I'd probably use it as a sample for the technique! But I say that knowing that I don't have the devotion to my quilts that you do!

Eva said...

Fading is part of a quilt's fate, isn't it? This was accelarated vintage, I guess. -- Sorry, kidding.
Overdying would require some courage.
I can imagine this overdyed in indigo and do some white applique +/or sashiko.