francie yuhas

I would simply press them flat as they'll go,sew wide strips of good quality muslin around each side,and then trim them to equal- size blocks. It's much easier to learn to hand quilt,than machine quilt. I would handquilt with a light weight wool..if the puckers,flatten..fine. If not,well it represents her work. Feel free to PM me,as I do lots of this.

twinkie

What a treasure. Can't wait to see how you finish the quilt.

Gerbie

Not intended to be tacky Phyllis, but the pattern instantly reminded me of a pair of doll pants. Oops, didn't read enough of the post to see what the pattern was originally called. Amazing what our grandparents generation did without rulers and templates like we have today.

solstice3

You may need to lose a little and square them up.

mopec

Thank you so much for all of the suggestions. One thing I hadn't thought about (but would have after the first cut) is that I can't trim the hand sewn ones. How in the world did they handle that before cutting mats and rotary cutters?? I was thinking last night about my Grandma's quilting supplies or the lack of. I remember her saving all scraps from sewing and always asking Mommy for the scraps from her sewing and then finally getting enough for a quilt. There was no "stash". Grandma did have a sewing machine and a really nice quilting frame as Grandpa was a carpenter and made it for her. How I wish I had paid more attention. Thanks for the help and listening to me reminisce.

So far I know not to trim and I will use a fairly wide sashing. I know that hand quilting would be preferable, but I know me..it would never get done. I loved the idea of using Grandma's picture. Think I can do that with the label. I have an embroidery machine and intend to embroidery the label.

Geri B

Quite a challenge, but doable. Maybe some of the wonkies could be re-seamed to take in some of that ruffle, either by hand or machine....then find the size to get them all to. Bubble gum pink woul be a perfect sashing.....

carolynjo

One suggestion before you begin: find the smallest block in the group and sash it first. This will guarantee that you will be able to trim to the same size as you sash the rest. Hope that makes sense. That's what I do when I win a group of blocks at a swap. It helps to keep them all the same size.

IrishgalfromNJ

I had not seen this block before. Thank you so much for sharing your Grandmother's blocks with us.

I hope you have a wonderful walk down memory lane while you are making these beautiful blocks into a quilt.

IBQUILTIN

I have some that my grandmother made in the early 50's and yes they are wonky, but I just couldn't tear them apart, so the ones that were too bad, I appliqued onto another square, the ones I could square up, I did. I just sashed them and put them into a quilt for each of my sibs and quilted very lightly and told them to be sure to only display, not to use for a bed quilt. I think they turned out nice.

Jeanette Frantz

I have a similar problem. My husband's grandmother pieced this top (not very well, either, but her sight was very bad.) There are many places where the fabric is totally raveled out for 1/2 to 3/4 inch. I have no earthly idea how old this top is, but it is very old. My question is, now what can I do to repair it. It was pieced by my son's great-grandmother. Of course, the easy thing to do would be to discard it, but that goes against everything I was taught and everything I feel. Of course, once repaired, the top would have to be HAND QUILTED! Jeanette

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