Patching Things Up

I recently had house guests who are friends close enough to us we consider them family. They travel around the country in their RV, so we don't see them nearly as frequently. During their visit, they told me that the quilt I had given them, was wearing out in some areas. They asked if I could try and fix it while they were here.

As you can see, the wearing was fairly extensive. I was surprised because it felt like I had just given it to them not long ago. Upon finding the label however I realized that I had given it to them back in 1999!

Suffice it to say, I did not have any of the fabrics anymore, so I would have to just pick a fabric that at least matched the quilt. You can see there is also wear in the white area too.

I picked this paisley blue to repair the outer border area. I measured the rectangular area I was replacing, and added a half inch to each side. Then I pressed the half inch seam allowance under on all sides.

The easiest way to fix it I decided, was to use an applique patch method, and applique the patches over frayed areas. For the border piece, I extended the new piece out into the binding.


I realized just how loved this quilt is, when I saw the binding! I used the folding binding method, so there are two layers to the binding on each side. It's a good thing too, because on this quilt nearly the entire outer layer of the binding has worn away. Most of the binding you can see now, is actually the wrong side of the binding fabric!

I had help through the entire process. Their furry friend BJ supervised the process. You can see here that he's a real slave driver! 

Of course, he was also in charge of quality control. Laying on it was no doubt a way to be sure that it had still retained its "comfyness."

I admit that I did cheat a little when it came to repairing the white half square triangles. Rather than try to applique a triangle shape in, I used wonder under and fused half square triangles into place.

Then I took it to my domestic machine, a Bernina 1260, and quilted the areas I had just repaired.

I think it turned out looking pretty good, despite the fact that the blues were a bit different.

I also got the opportunity to see it back where it belonged in the RV! Though, I will be working on a new quilt for them this summer, as the repairs I did were minimal, and many of the other fabrics are very close to wearing through also. Not too bad though, for a quilt made in 1999. Especially considering the fact that they have used it every single day since I gave it to them! 

I can't wait to get started on their new quilt!