I came across this old quilt out in the shop. I don't know who put in the hours of cutting and sewing, but for sure it had to be someone in Buddy's family, maybe Aunt Bess or Aunt Gene? All these little stars, what are they scraps of? The one area of damage was obviously a warm home for little shop inhabitants, and they probably thought they had gone to mouse heaven when finding the soft cotton batting for a home.
I knew the first thing I had to do was run it through the washer, even though I also knew it probably would do more harm. But I did, and it doesn't look any worse, and at least it is clean now!
The second thing was deciding what to do about the damage. Should I cut off a rectangle of undamaged quilt for a smaller quilt or wall-hanging? Should I try to fix the area, replacing the blocks? I decided to fix it, so I could leave the original size of the quilt intact.
After much searching, I found some fabric that matches close enough and started piecing it back together. Thanks to some great advice from the quilting guru known as Finn, I am now finished with the renovation project.
Buddy has said many times that he would rather build something new than to remodel or renovate an old place. Once starting a renovation, more and more damage comes to light than was originally seen. The same was true for this project. Usually, I would also rather make something new than take something apart and fix it. But I really enjoyed this restoration project, and hope this quilt holds together for a few more generations.
If only I knew the background of this piece of family history, or at least the name of the quilt pattern...
