How I took a vintage quilt (that was never quilted) and made it into two proper quilts for my girls beds, if only their great great grandmother knew where her quilt was today!
I received this very thin handpieced quilt from my mother about 10 years ago. It actually came from her father’s home and was made by his mother so now this vintage quilt will span 5 generations.
I cut the quilt in half to make two quilts, gave them a proper backing with batting and then quilted them to enhance the star pattern. I sure hope my great grandmother is pleased with the transformation.
You can see the fabrics are clearly vintage, maybe 1920’s I’m guessing but so charming. And the batting adds that bit of weight and warmth plus the quilting makes those yummy puckers.
One quilt for the end of each of my girls beds.
Originally the backing was solid pink with a 3″ wide binding. Also there was very minimal quilting and absolutely no batting.
I simply added a new solid white backing with batting in between and quilted all the layers.
How to makeover a vintage quilt:
Step 1: Trim the existing binding to minimal 1 3/4″ wide. In this case I cut the binding in half, save the cut portion because you will need it to rebind the cut side of the new edges.
Step 2: Cut the quilt in half.
Step 3: Attach the cut pieces of binding to the cut edge of the quilt.
Step 4: Make your quilt sandwich: backing, batting, quilt top. Pin everything together.
Step 5: Quilt as desired through all 3 layers and around the edge.
Step 6: Trim edges (but not the binding) to 1/4″.
Step 7: Press and fold raw edge of binding over twice and pin to back just past seam. Then stitch in the ditch from the front side to finish binding.
Wash and dry. And now my girls have a tiny bit of history from 5 generations ago watching over them as they sleep.
My first thought was you cut a quilt? but boy, that was totally worth it! Well done, they look beautiful and will last much longer being properly quilted.
Gorgeous quilts! I'm sure she'd be proud, I love the more puffy look now.
very nice quilting ! you are so creative
They're so lovely! I think you did a fine job preserving the sentimentality while making them more functional
Gorgeous, and so special.
You did an amazing job, they look beautiful!!
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Oh, Jaime, I'm just smitten with these. So sweet that you were able to complete them and use them so many years later.
I have a box of quilt blocks from Ryan's gram that I need to do something with. I'm a little intimidated because most are small hexagons.
Gorgeous quilt! Adds just the right touch to that room! Way to use it up!
Simply beautiful, and you’ve given me an idea of what to do with one of the quilts that I inherited from my Grandmother. One of the quilts has Holly Hobby looking dolls appliquéd on it. I need to figure out a way to to make that quilt a tiny bit more modern. It was quilted in the 70’’s.
Hi Tracey, So glad you can use this idea. I LOVED Holly Hobby as a child so this is right up my alley.