What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Sparkle Jane spotted it, wadded up in a pillowcase in a scrap bag. It sort of appeared at her shop, snuck in and left without a word. Many mysteries…

And she brought it to me. “Mom, you can do something with this.”

Well, I can try, but what is it?

It appeared to be a fairly large vintage flimsy that had most likely been washed. It was so tangled I couldn’t even flatten it out enough to see what it was.

So it sat for a while. But, while I was home with Covid, it became interesting. What is ...

The entire quilt was a bit of doozy…30 of 30 blocks needing help.

For insight on how I fixed blocks with ruined backgrounds, see HERE.

Today I am sharing one way to fix a damaged applique.  I am not pretending this is a great way, but this block needed two different techniques. So it seemed a good example.

A previous repair had stitched netting over the damaged fabric.  I suspect much of the damage on this block, and a number of other places on the quilt, was due to a combination of different shrinkage after washing and very light ...

The original quilter tried, she really did.  The pattern is interesting, the fabric is high quality, the colors are beautiful.  But, she struggled with the piecing and assembly and eventually gave up.

Sparkle Jane saw potential. She fixed what she could of the piecing, while honoring the effort of the original maker. And assembled the top.

There was plenty of fabric, so she added a triple border–a narrow inner border, a lovely piano key center, and a wider outer border.

Extra fabric was used to make more “piano key” style pieces to stretch the back.

I am certain the ...