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Quilt Repair

post #1 of 3
1/28/09 at 5:17am
Thread Starter 
I have a quilt that my great-grandmother made for me years ago. I'm nearly 24 and I've had it since I was between 8-10 to give you an idea how old it is.

Anyway it's starting to rip in some places, and some of the squares need replaced. I don't know how to sew to save my life, but I'd love to be able to keep this quilt in nice condition for my children, grandchildren, etc...

So I'm looking for someone who would be able to repair the quilt for me. I'll send pictures to show you exactly what I'm talking about. I live in Ohio and I'd prefer to find someone in the area who could do it, so that it wouldn't take forever, and to save money on shipping.

But I would be willing to ship it to someone out of state, so please send me a PM if you're interested and we can discuss it further.
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post #2 of 3
2/10/09 at 5:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by boringscreenname View Post
I have a quilt that my great-grandmother made for me years ago. I'm nearly 24 and I've had it since I was between 8-10 to give you an idea how old it is.

Anyway it's starting to rip in some places, and some of the squares need replaced. I don't know how to sew to save my life, but I'd love to be able to keep this quilt in nice condition for my children, grandchildren, etc...

So I'm looking for someone who would be able to repair the quilt for me. I'll send pictures to show you exactly what I'm talking about. I live in Ohio and I'd prefer to find someone in the area who could do it, so that it wouldn't take forever, and to save money on shipping.

But I would be willing to ship it to someone out of state, so please send me a PM if you're interested and we can discuss it further.

go to an Amish community near you, find one of their community stores or an Amish market that caters to us "English" and ask them if they know a woman in their community that would do this for you. In OH I can't imagine it would be that hard to find someone.
post #3 of 3
3/18/09 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by boringscreenname View Post
Anyway it's starting to rip in some places, and some of the squares need replaced. I don't know how to sew to save my life, but I'd love to be able to keep this quilt in nice condition for my children, grandchildren, etc...
Hi,

I just wanted to tell you, if you have someone look at it and then tell you it is beyond repair, please DO NOT believe them. As long as there is fabric that thread can be sewn into, there is always something that can be done. It may be true that it is not possible to make the quilt look new again. The repairs may need to be "honest patches" which will be clearly visible as patches and repairs. But those can become part of the beauty of the quilt, and enable it to hold together and still be loved and used.

I did this with one of our very old quilts....I found some fabrics in colors that coordinated with the rest of the quilt. Where there were holes right through the quilt, I put patches on both sides. Where the patches in the quilt top had ripped away, I either replaced those patches with the new fabric, sewing all the way through the quilt, or when it was just little rips, I put the old fabric back together with a zig-zag stitch using coordinating threads. Again I sewed right through the quilt. So the repair work is visible on the back. The binding had also split open, so I put a new binding right on top of the old one. The repairs in my quilt are very visible. And the quilt looks different than it did before, because I have added new fabrics in new patterns. So the quilt has changed. But now it is a quilt that will make it through another childhood - I used it all of mine, and now it likely will survive through my kids as well. It is a quilt that is well used, and very well loved. I see it as a quilt that is living a full life and has EVOLVED. So the changes it will go through over its lifetime are part of it being a LIVING quilt. As a quilter, I hope that every quilt I make becomes a living quilt, that gets used until it has rips and holes, and that someone loves it enough to keep repairing it until it is just rags, at which point it becomes the bed for a sweet dog, or a scrap of lovey that a child drags around.

If you would like to see pictures of how I repaired mine, I would be happy to send them to you.