clem55

Not sure if that is what it really is called, but I'Ve seen it quite a lot lately, it is a much longer hand quilting stitch, sort of folk artsy.

Happy Treadler

Got another idea. Instead of making pillow shams, I think I may do small wall-hangings/table toppers to give to my SIL's sister & dad. That way everyone gets a piece of Grandma's quilt. :)

hobo2000

I agree with Carol, a 4" red border with navy binding would set off the squares very well. Lovely quilt. Some of the fabrics look to be 40's and others, I don't know.

chairjogger

vintage top.
Please, be careful....
seminar from civil war quilts.:

a quilt is as old as the newest piece added.

as you add, backing, replacement pieces, that means you have changed the year span on the quilt.

good luck.
Ell

mpspeedy

Ironically I am currently handquilting a similar quilt. One of the ladies at the Senior center brought it in and offered to donate it to the center quilters to finish and raffle off. They don't want to mess with it. I took it home, ran a staystitch around the whole thing and washed and dryed it to make sure it would survive. It is made mostly of feedsack fabrics. I put a six inch red border around it on all sides to stabilize the whole thing and have it about two thirds of the way quilted. I will take it back when it is finished and they can either give it back to the donor in exchange for a donation to the center or raffle it off. I am quilting 1/4 inch inside each piece to assure that the pieces stay together. I am putting a large quilted chain motif in the borders Haven't decided what color to bind it with yet. It will be somewhere between a full and queen size when finished.
The 1/4 inch quilting stitch someone else mentioned is called "big stitch", similar to Shasiko. If you wanted to do that you would use embroidery thread. It would make the quilt look "primitive".

Shelbie

As Carol suggested, I'd "square it up first" but I wouldn't hand quilt it. I'd machine quilt it because I don't think your hand quilting would even show with all of those loud fabrics. Unless I can see hand quilting and admire it, I feel it is a waste of time. I'd use a narrow red border and then perhaps a blue one, matching your vintage fabrics as closely as possible.

Happy Treadler

I almost forgot something!!! OK, I'm sure you'll say "how could she forget THAT", but I was so excited about the quilt that I forgot I set aside another piece of fabric that they found with it. There must be nearly 4 yards of it. I'm thinking now that maybe SIL's gram had plans for it in this quilt. Maybe this could be my border. Not sure if it's from the same time period, but I'm thinking it is. In fact, maybe I could stretch it enough to do a small border and also use it as a backing & binding. Certainly the right colors and same texture!

sherriequilts

Yep! How could you! sounds like me!
Have you considered using this eye-popping fabric for the backing and bringing it to the front so the finished quilt would be self-bound (don't know if that is the term). I have two quilts from a Mennonite retirement home that were done that way. It would be great to retain the vintage quality if at all possible. Happy quilting!

quilter1943

That was my first thought when I saw it - move some of the bottom to the side and make it square. Then maybe you could add borders around it. There is so much 30's fabric, you might find something very similar - do a 2" or so solid border, then add the pattern in a border and bind it with the pattern. Definitely hand quilt.

piepatch

I think the extra fabric would be great in a border.