LoisN

My friend has a quilt made around 1880. When she had it appraised, she was advised to put netting over the frayed edge to keep it in tack and prevent further damage. You may want to try that or contact an appraiser to get first-hand information on how to preserve your treasures.

butterflywing

according to Wintherthur, a museum of textile history located in pennsylvania, and also the Newark Museum, which has an extensive quilt collection, the way they make repairs is this:

using netting (tulle) in a neutral shade or as close to the original color as possible, cover any holes. use tiny running stitches to attach the netting to the quilt at a strong place in the original fabric. trim the netting closely being careful not to cut through (duh!) the quilt. where the binding is worn and hanging away, very carefully, with your fingers, lightly push the binding back where it belongs. if it's bias, which it probably is, it may be all stretched out. this gets tricky here. holding the binding in place, in the palm of your non-sewing hand, wrap the netting around the edge and stitch with a small running stitch where the fabric is still good. start before the damage and end after the damage. when you wrap, wrap a little further in than you actually need to. tiny running stitches to match.
for holes and bindings, the netting will be the only thing keeping the fabric together. when you display, be sure that there's no weight on those places. change the folds often. the fabric is already fatigued and direct sun or hanging weight will shorten it's it's life even more. to enjoy it, you can keep it in light (not really good, but that's why you got it) but not direct sun. you'll have it longer.

they're very beautiful and you'll love seeing them all the time for as long as they do last. good buy. how come i never see those around here?

SuziC

They are just beutiful Congradulations on a great find!

cjaye44

How about just folding them so the bindings don't show and drape them over a quilt rack? They are both beautiful and the setting on the pink one is so neat. The quiltmaker was probably trying to use up scraps just as we do today but just look at what she created.

cjaye44

How about just folding them so the bindings don't show and drape them over a quilt rack? They are both beautiful and the setting on the pink one is so neat. The quiltmaker was probably trying to use up scraps just as we do today but just look at what she created.

Rachelcb80

That is actually exactly what I've done. I'm just not confident enough yet to make repairs so I figured I'd "hide" the rough edges with a clever fold job. I have no plans to ever use them, they were bought purely to enjoy their beauty just sitting around.

Rachelcb80

I will keep that repair method in mind, but right now I feel like I might do more harm than good so I'm going to just let them be.

I'm surprised up in the northeast you don't have all sorts of antique/vintage stuff. That's such an old part of the country, I would think you could find a lot. I've just recently started looking up estate sales and I think that's where you're most likely to find vintage items still in good condition. I'm lucky down here in the south because there's a lot of old family estates where articles in the house have been passed down for many generations. Lots of goodies to uncover. :)

butterflywing

whatever there ever was is long bought up. museums own a lot of them, too. the rest are in private collections. they go for big bucks in almost any condition and mostly get repaired either professionally or by the new owner if she's a quilter who knows how. imo, because it's so cold here, they were used up by the time they were available commercially and women stopped making them. that's my own opinion, but i do know that factories flourished early.

factrories like this began to eliminate the works of hand-made quilt makers. so the early 20's, 30's, 40's. etc. are hard to find here. also, there were better-paying jobs here and women could afford to buy them more easily. they stopped valuing them. what a pity, right?

http://aha.confex.com/aha/2010/webpr...Paper4914.html
http://www.antiquequiltdating.com/Pi..._the_Past.html

this one is especially interesting - 1850. you can see why they are few and far between.

http://www.september11quilts.org/hist.html

Ditter43

Yes, by all means....put a (new) binding on the bottom one. I'd try to match it as close as possible to the age of the other fabrics, and hand finish the binding!!!
Teriffic finds!!

Ditter

Bevanger

what awesome finds......