Laundry: Sandy's Quilt Top

Okay -- during Mary's visit -- part of our TMBC day was spent walking around a local antique mall. Remember the $15 quilt tops??

The five of us all admired the quilt tops. (this one was a vintage AUTOGRAPH quilt, signed by many women who put it together...

We all admired this hand-sewn Grandmother's Flower Garden.

Sandy couldn't stop thinking about this beautiful quilt -- and a week later -- SHE WENT BACK TO BUY IT...

She laundered the quilt top normally -- but there were two areas that had bad stains...

She brought the quilt to TMBC and we studied the stains. The yellow flower had blue stains that seemed like a dye wash. But the worst problem was the brown staining on.which seemed like vintage spilled coffee...the brown went through to the back of the piece...and it looked pretty permanent.

I suggested an overnight soak in Oxyclean. Then, she might use an embroidery hoop to isolate the brown stains and work on them with a toothbrush. At some point, you either accept the flaw or rusk putting a hole in the fabric...but everybody is different. Once that happens, of course, you move into repair mode...and that can happen, too.

Here's Sandy's description of her process:

"I used a mixture (repeatedly) of Dawn dish soap (1 tsp) and hydrogen peroxide (2 tsps), and kept working it in and letting it set, rinsing and reapplying. It improved dramatically, but I was looking for a better result, like completely gone!! So I added a drop of bleach, one at a time to the Dawn mixture, and continued to apply, let sit, rinse, add a drop, and reapply, and repeat, until I got the results I was looking for and was thrilled it removed the stain without removing the color.

In the photo below you can see the yellow flower petals are a lot lighter, but the stain is gone, so I'm happy. I ended up treating all of the yellow flower petals the same, stained and not stained to maintain the same color throughout the fabric, being careful to stay away from the flower center so that color would remain more intense. So end of story, I'm happy!! I think it looks great!! Now to figure out how I'm going to finish this quilt top."

PERFECTION!!  Great job, Sandy!! It is a stunning quilt...

Looking at these pictures, I'm not sure I'd actually make a quilt out of this top. Those outside edges are going to be problematic.  Maybe I'd use it as fabric instead...hummm...to reupholster a side chair, or maybe make some decorative pillows, a curtain valance or as an insert in the back of a jacket...

Nahhh...it wants to be a quilt....I'll keep you posted...