That is beautiful, what work. I think it is great the you have choosen to hand quilt it and use cotton batting and backing. It will be very nice when done.
I would not wash it until afterwards. Wow

Beautiful treasure.

Now thats one beautiful quilt. Be sure and post the finished product.

My grandmother-in-law gave me a box of fabric that was given to her by her grandmother. It was over 100 years old. I washed it in cold water and dried it until it was almost dry and pressed it. It did just fine. I made it into a photo quilt.

My dream is to have someone find a quilt top in an attic someday and gift it to me!! That is so beautiful! Please post when you are finished..

I agree with waiting until quilted and bound.

You are so lucky. What a wonderful heirloom!

Personally, I wouldn't add a border. I remember the quilts we used to sleep under and none had a border. I don't think border occurred to the majority of home quilters at that time.

I would wait and wash it after it was quilted. The seams will ravel. I would also hand quilt it. Those are original fabrics and in that place in time, it would have been hand quilted. I would keep it as athentic as possible. I would use a cotton batt and probably muslin for the back. I don't think I would add a border unless you wanted it biger. It's beautiful just the way it is. Binding in a color would just finish it beautifully.

Lovely quilt.....can't wait to see it finished.

I also would use a cotton batting - but that is also my favorite kind of batting. Backing - a nice quality of muslin. And that would have been the norm back then.

here's a carpenter's wheel that i found online and how they quilted a block...

[IMG]http://www.rockymountainquilts.com/f...q8133new_3.jpg[/IMG]

I would add a border to give a bit of space between the blocks and the binding. I was looking for inspiration ideas for this grandma's flower garden i'm working on & came across this. I went to a quilt store and bought reproduction 30s fabrics and they look great w/ the quilt and no one believes that the border was added in 2010 and not 1950 when the quilt was made

[IMG]http://www.fabrics.net/colpics/judiq...uilt-51x53.jpg[/IMG]