Zen Cat Art

Pink Star Quilt Repair...

Normally I'm not a fan of the color pink but when Laurie brought this quilt to me for a repair on the binding it quickly became a sweet favorite.  Notice how well the points are done. 

It's folded in quarters.  It has one large center star and smaller stars in each corner.  It has some stains on it that I hope will wash out or at least lighten but I'll do the repair first.

The picture is just a touch out of focus but you can see here the edge of the quilt is warn and shredding.

The new binding is a soft muslin that Laurie provided and I washed several times just to ensure all the sizing and any preservatives were removed.  It is almost as soft as the quilt.

Usually I will attach the binding by machine but hand-quilt the back edge.  In this case the backing was a bit fragile and I did the finishing by machine as well to add strength by sewing through all the layers.

You can see the front and back edges of the quilt.  Tomorrow I'll see about washing her and if I can remove some of the stains. 

(also posted on Zen Cat Quilts)

Quilt Repair or the Dog Ate My Quilt...

A new puppy found something to cut his teeth on, a quilt belonging to our local dentist.  It took a bit of doing but in the end it came out as good as new.  If you want to see how I did it, check it out here.

Here is the finished block.

The Maria Campbell Crazy Quilt...

This crazy quilt dates back to the 1880's as near as I can tell.  It has an all over pattern instead of the usual smaller squares that are worked on and then pieced together.  For an old lady, one hundred and thirty years plus, she was in fairly good shape.  The materials are silks, satins and velvets, worn but still vibrant, and soft and silky to the touch.  I'd never seen anything quite like her.  I was seduced immediately.

Nine months, 196 hours of sewing, many more hours hunting down silks and velvets, choosing fabric and thread, photographing, video-taping, chronicling the journey of repair, and restoration.  I've finished the repair work - although I could have added a stitch here and there for another hundred hours - just to have her under my fingertips.  Hopefully Maria wil be able to find out where she came from and who so lovingly put her together.  There is a story here and I am glad to have been a part of it.  I'm sure there will be more to come. 

There will be more about this fabulous quilt posted soon...    

Repairing Quilts V - replacing the patch

All the seams are done except the long edge. 

The last edge is carefully sewed over the other patches just a few threads over the orginal seam.

The finished patch.  The first of many. 

Repairing Quilts IV - replacing the patch II

So when we left off I had cut the new patch from the replacement fabric using the old patch as a template.  To make sure that the patch is place correctly I left it on the second patch and matched the edge of the overlapped patch against it.

You can see there are still a few threads to pull out of the cranberry fabric but by putting it against the new and old patch I make sure it's in the right place.

I'm just going fold the end under and make sure it goes all the way to the bottom edge.

I opened the seam just a bit more.

Now that I have the placement I can trim off the excess.

A tweezer is really handy for pulling out the tiny threads.

I need to stitch the fabric underneath to the base muslin and the underlying batting for a bit more stability.

Once everything is in place.  I remove the old patch and pin everything in place and begin to stitch.

The "under" parts of the new patch are stitched.  Now I have to fold and place the over parts of the new patch.  It will be as close to the orginal seam line as possible but it might stray just a bit to cover a bit of fray or a worn seam underneath.

More pictures later....

Long week...but good news

I have been quiet this week.  Processing Katie's passing. While resting (somehow) in sixteen years of her unconditional love.  She was such a quiet girl but she filled up a lot of space in our lives & hearts. 
The good news is that the surgery on Phil's hand went very well yesterday.  They removed a pyogenic granuloma on his right hand ring finger.  He couldn't eat before the surgery but when he woke up they gave him a cup of coffee and some peanut butter cracker right away and other than a big bandage he's comfortable.  Only one pain killer last night.  We'll see the results on Friday when they put on a smaller bandage.  Breezy is helping his rest by snuggling next to him on the bed.

In between things I have been quilting.  It's comforting, especially the hand works.

I'll process the pictures tomorrow and show you what I have done tomorrow. 

"How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven." - Robert A. Heinlein
 

A New Quilt - It's crazy!

My next project, as soon as I finish up the one on my table, is a wonderful crazy quilt.  I thought I would put up some pictures just to whet your appetite.  To follow along with this  quilt, look on the right side bar word cloud for "Maria's Quilt."

This quilt has some wonderful satins and velvets and beautiful intricate stitches. 
The center embroidery is done with a chinelle thread.  Just lovely.

Here is a closer look at the rose boarder and some of the stitches. 

The flower petals are made of ribbon - the stems are embroidered with green silk thread. 

I'm gathering fabric and thread for this quilt as I work on another (Susan's quilt).  I'll keep you posted as I collect them and make a game plan for it's repair and preservation.    

Repairing Quilts IV - replacing the patch

I've been sewing along on Susan's quilt.  Blogging has been put off just a bit by pulling a muscle in my back.  I've been able to quilt but it was hard to sit in this chair by the computer.  So I have lots of pictures to put up.  It will take several entries.

We have washed the fabric for this section of the quilt and now I'm going to remove the damaged patch and put in the replacement piece.

First the patch has to be carefully lifted out.

Each stitch snipped and the tiny threads removed.  Tweezers help.

Sometimes there are unexpected stitches underneath.  I'm now to the other side of the patch>

You can now see more of the color of the damaged patch when it was new.  This is a crazy quilt patching method so there are a lot of seams that border this patch.  Each one has to be carefully removed.  Once it's completely removed, I'll use the piece as a rough template.

I put the old patch on the new fabric next to the space it will occupy.

I've cut around the old patch leaving a good sized margin.  Between a quarter and half inch all the way around.  It will be easy to trim is more when it's fitted into its new home but hard to add on to if I cut it too small now.

Here is the piece ready to be inserted. 

It looks way to large but wait and see.  It will surprise you.  More on inserting the tomorrow...

Repairing Quilts III - Replacing the Patch - prepairing the fabric.

Now that we have our fabric picked out it's time to wash it and test it for color fastness.
The fabric goes into a bowl with soap and very hot water.  If the water looks clear, I rinse it and let it dry on a piece of white Kona PFD (prepared for dye).  If any color is going to bleed the Kona will pick it up.  If not, it's safe to put in the quilt.  Then it gets ironed.

Here is a red I washed for the same quilt and look at how the water turned red.

More on this red a little later on.  But surfice it to say this piece of fabric was not used in the quilt.

Repairing Quilts II - Chosing Fabric

I've taken out a selection of fabrics that will fit in with the style of this quilt and surrounded the patch I want to replace.  I find it easier to see the color in terms of value and hue, light or dark, shade, etc. if I surround it with fabric of like color family.  Then I start to narrow it down.

This fabric seemed closest but when I folded it to approximate the shape of the piece I was replacing somehow it did look right.

This fabric, folded across the top & left went better but it was just too light.

I pulled some of the threads away to reveal the fabric that had been turned under and it was darker and pinker than the top thread but not as dark as the fabric on the right side. So back to the fabric drawers
Some were just to pink.

Some were just to brown.

But at the bottom of the draw... was one that was just right.

Now for the testing and washing!

*disclaimer: all monitors have slightly (or sometimes "very") different renditions of color so that you might not be seeing the actual colors or even the same colors that I am seeing on my monitor.