My grandmother left me with wonderful memories. She knew what little ones wanted and needed and never held back her love. She made animal pancakes for Sunday breakfast, even though she knew her youngest (me!) would slop syrup on her dress. I frequently walked down to the little church on the corner with a damp-on-one-side washcloth under the top of my dress, keeping the wet washed spot off my skin. She knew that baking pies must include making pie-crust cookies out of the leftover crust. And she knew that little children loved making houses for their dolls, so Ernie made some fences that could be used as walls for the houses and corrals for the livestock.
So when my friend told me that she had a wonderful soft, comfy quilt that her 97 year old auntie had made for her, I was so happy for her. What a treasure! And then she told me the story of one of their dogs.... She was in a ZOOM meeting when she turned around and saw this naughty pup take a huge bite out of the center of the quilt! Could I repair it? I hoped I could.
Until I saw the quilt, I didn't know what to expect. Had the dog shredded the fabric? Was the bite all the way down to the batting inside? And how on earth was I going to repair this comfy treasured Auntie quilt?
Boy howdy! It was a through-and-through! And I really didn't know how on earth I was going to repair this comfy treasured Auntie quilt! So it sat on a guest chair in it's bag for quite a few weeks until I finally asked around, got some advice, thought about it, and eventually jumped right in.
First thing I did was remove all the damaged blocks and some of the undamaged ones in order to square it out. I had to undo some of the hand-quilting in the process. I was cleaning up the lines, in a sense. Then I dug through my fabric scraps, looking for fabrics that were more vintage-looking in colors similar to the original quilt's colors.
Before I started sewing, I had to write out the pattern of colors and whites so when I put the rows in the patch together, I would still get those beautiful "Round the World" lines. When it all seemed to work together, I sewed the rows together and set the patch aside. I had more howthehell work to do.
Okay, now how to repair the batting? After checking out the undamaged batting, I realized it was a different type of batting than I used. It was thinner and squishier and probably a higher polyester content than my cotton. I needed to take a trip to the fabric store to test out the batting available. Once the batting was purchased, I put a piece of paper under the doggy-hole and drew the batting hole. This way I could attach the right size of batting to patch up the hole. I had to trim up the "dog-food" batting, cleaning up the lines.
Cutting the batting to the right size, a size that could overlap the edges, I hand sewed the batting patch onto the batting.
Once the batting was completed, I could then applique the pieced patch over the doggy door on the front. I needed to applique the patch onto the front because I could not get a good open lip into the remaining edges. What I mean is, I could only get the patch to lay on top of the quilt rather than in between the edges. The applique went together quite easily. Having the correct sized squares (2.5" squares) helped make it an easy part of the project.
Remember that the puppy didn't stop with just the front and batting. That little imp went all the way through. Now I had to deal with the backing. The vintage fabric was a muslin that had beautifully aged to a soft yellowish-white. I tried to find a fabric that looked similar, but the choices were either too yellow or too white. I selected a muslin as close as I could, knowing it would show up against the original backing. Ya takes what ya gots, right? I also figured the new muslin would age as well.
After cleaning up the edges of the backing, I cut the new fabric larger than the doggy door backing, turned it under one fourth of an inch, and pinned it to the backing. I then appliqued the patch to the back.
Well, then I needed to quilt the repaired area. If I knew how to hand-quilt, it would have been a perfect skill to use in this situation. Alas, I have never learned. My cousin only quilts by hand. Her advice to me was that "you are the machine and your hand is head that is holding the needle." It sounded rather like a zen moment. But no, I did not become one with the machine. Instead I clumsily machine quilted it all together in a bit of a heavy-handed way. But it looked pretty good. Yay! My friend was happy and I learned a great deal. If you don't turn it over and see the not-yet-aged muslin in the back, you can hardly tell there had been a naughty pup in this beautiful quilt's past.
And so it goes
peace~~~
