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Quilting and Patchwork

To Cut or Not to Cut…Old Quilts

by Mary Emma Allen on April 22nd, 2006

This has been a controversy for years. Should you cut up old worn quilts and use them for smaller projects, even toys?

Some quilters are adamantly against this while others feel you should get some use from the quilt rather than having a worn one tucked away that will never see the light of day. I discovered, too, that you sometimes can purchase these quilt pieces from old quilts at quilt shows and antique shops.

A quilt to point is the wedding gift my mom and dad received. For years it was the guest room quilt. Eventually, it was used by family members, children, then pets. When I discovered it again, the quilt had been relegated to a pile of junk that hadn’t made it to the dump.

“That’s Mother’s Wedding Quilt!” I exclaimed, but was disappointed to discover it worn and torn, faded and chewed by mice. They even left droppings on it. Washing destroyed the quilt even further, but no one wanted to touch it until it was sanitized.

What should I do? My daughter and I salvaged the parts that were even reasonably good. Some fabrics were worn with holes, others still in good condition. We now have the salvaged pieces stored until we decide how to capture memories with this quilt.

If we hadn’t cut the quilt into pieces, there’s no way we could use it. Eventually we’ll come up with projects that will combine family history with pieces of this quilt. In the meantime, I’m looking for matching fabrics so I might make a new quilt of this design…a reconstruction of sorts.

POSTED IN: General Quilting/Patchwork

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