MsEithne

After I hit send, I remembered a passage from the novel _Death Comes for the Archbishop_ by Willa Cather. It was published in 1927 and is a series of vignettes about a Roman Catholic priest sent to the New Mexico territory in 1850.

The following is from a description of a beautiful old adobe he stays in at one point: "The thick clay walls had been finished on the inside by the deft palms of Indian women, and had that intimate and irregular quality of things made entirely by the human hand."

That is the impression I get when I look at the photos of your aunt's quilt top.

mcdaniel023

Thanks. I am sitting here with tears flowing, even after all these years. She was the huge inspiration in my quilting life. I miss her.

Sewfine

I would leave it as is and add border. Let's see what everyone else thinks.

wolfkitty

That's what I was thinking. I think it looks great!

TonnieLoree

I agree with amma.

mtnative

I too agree with amma. What a treasure it is. I hope that in the same situation as your aunt that I would continue to do my best and know that someone surely would complete it and love it. SO sorry for your loss.

feline fanatic

Correct me if I am wrong, but it looks like your late aunt was attempting Quilt as you go. Those blocks appear to be sandwiched and quilted, then stitched together, but she failed to use a sashing strip to hide the raw edges visible on the back when she sewed her quilted blocks together. You will need to do something with the backing to conceal the raw edges of the quilted blocks that she attached together. I would simply make strips of sashing to conceal the raw edges on the back. You will need to turn under the raw edges of the strips. I think you can safely machine sew them on if you don't mind the stitches showing on the front and I think the design of the quilt will not be obvious if you did that. If you do not want the stitches to show on the front then you will have hand sew the prepared sashing to hide those seams on the back.

If you want the quilt to be larger then you will have to find tutorials on the web to show you how to attach QAYG border to enlarge it.

Edited to add, another option is to just put another layer of backing fabric on it to conceal it. I wouldn't know how you should finish it off though. I am thinking if you just leave it loose and only have it connected to the other layers around the edges that it may not look so great. However, I have never tried that myself so don't know what the result would be. Structurally it should be ok because the quilt layers have already been quilted but asthetically, not sure how pleasing to the eye it would be.

cherylynne

I would just put a border on it and finish it. The fabrics are adorable and were definitely chosen for your daughter. Teachers are used to things being given in love, but not always constructed in a perfectly straight fashion. I recently retired after 38 years of teaching and I have many beautiful handmade gifts that I cherish. Thanks for sharing your aunt's work.

cctx.

I agree with Amma.

Press it, add the borders, and do the "pillow case" technique or "birthing" technique to finish it off.

It's a nice top.

redmadder

I have a quilt that Jessie, age 93 at the time, put stitches in. My Double Adobe group is probably all gone now. I was their baby quilter and wouldn't trade one day of those memories for a sack of gold. Jessie's stitches are long and irregular and it is probably the last quilt she worked on. Nothing could make me replace those stitches.

Add a wonky border and send this quilt on to your daughter as a family keepsake to be treasured. Don't we quilters know what really counts?