Have a question about finishing a quilt.

Hello I am very new to quilting as having done only four so far, so my
knowledge is not broad. My Uncle bought some fabric that was said to date back
to the 1930s.
The fabric has been hand sown into a Double Wedding Ring shape. My question is
how do I go about finishing these quilts while staying true to how a person in
the 30s would have done it? Should I finish them by hand and use only Muslin
for the backing? Any suggestions would help............Thank you for your time.
Feel free to e-mail me also. I hope I haven't confused anybody.... )

Judy

"JUDIK29" wrote in message
...

The fabric has been hand sown into a Double Wedding Ring shape. My
question is
how do I go about finishing these quilts while staying true to how a
person in
the 30s would have done it? Should I finish them by hand and use only
Muslin
for the backing? Any suggestions would help............Thank you for your
time.
Feel free to e-mail me also. I hope I haven't confused anybody.... )

I love to look at how older quilts were finished, so any time I see a
display of antique quilts, you can bet I'm dragging the white glover over to
show me everything.

I haven't made a thorough study of this, but there does seem to be some
regional differences in how quilts were finished. A couple of years ago a
local history museum had a display of locally made antique (1860 - 1940)
quilts, and quite a number did *not* use muslin for the backing. Instead
they used largish hunks of printed fabrics. But most of the mid-west and
east coast older quilts I've seen did use plain muslin.

About 10% of the quilts in the local display were machine quilted, and about
half the machine quilted ones were machine bound. (The curator and I agreed
that the quilting and binding appeared to be original to the quilt, not done
later.) Again, that seems to be a higher percentage than I see on mid-west
and eastern quilts. Maybe we're just weird here in California. *grin*

--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
longarm machine quilting, Queen of Fabric Tramps
http://www.kayneyquilting.com ,
remove the obvious to reply

Thank you for the info.......... I never realized different areas would do
things differently but that does make sense. And weird is okay my sons never
fails to tell me that I am weird on a daily basis LOL LOL
Thank you again.........Judy

Kathy Applebaum wrote:
.. Maybe we're just weird here in California. *grin*


Not all of us, must be the northern California folks
that are weird. VBG
Taria

I have 2 quilts from the 30's, neither with a muslin backing. The one my
Great-grandmother made has a solid yellow back, that 30's shade of yellow.
Both are hand quilted and machine bound. The other quilt, which came from an
estate sale, has flannel for batting and a much-faded print backing.
Roberta in D

"JUDIK29" wrote in message
...
Hello I am very new to quilting as having done only four so far, so my
knowledge is not broad. My Uncle bought some fabric that was said to date
back
to the 1930s.
The fabric has been hand sown into a Double Wedding Ring shape. My
question is
how do I go about finishing these quilts while staying true to how a
person in
the 30s would have done it? Should I finish them by hand and use only
Muslin
for the backing? Any suggestions would help............Thank you for your
time.
Feel free to e-mail me also. I hope I haven't confused anybody.... )

Judy

"Taria" wrote in message
...


Kathy Applebaum wrote:
. Maybe we're just weird here in California. *grin*


Not all of us, must be the northern California folks
that are weird. VBG

And yet you're so willing to take our water. Ever wonder where the weirdness
comes from? ROFLOL

--
Kathy A. (Woodland, CA)
longarm machine quilting, Queen of Fabric Tramps
http://www.kayneyquilting.com ,
remove the obvious to reply

Actually the 3 places I have lived in the last 20 yrs.
don't use your water. In the desert it is wonderful
well water. I was in So. Orange county
where they filled the man made lake during a water
crisis (late 70'). While they were filling the lake
nobody in the state could flush toilets. Go figure
YOu can keep your water far as I'm concerned, those
mosquitos you all keep as pets up there need it!
On another CA subject. Do you know anything about the
25K that is being raised to house the sesquicentennial
quilt?
Taria


Kathy Applebaum wrote:
"Taria" wrote in message
...


Kathy Applebaum wrote:
. Maybe we're just weird here in California. *grin*

Not all of us, must be the northern California folks
that are weird. VBG


And yet you're so willing to take our water. Ever wonder where the weirdness
comes from? ROFLOL

I suspect many of the quilters of the '30's selected their backing
fabrics much the same way we do now -- what they like or what they have
or what they can afford. I have a number of older quilts made by my
husband's grandmothers. None of them have muslin backs. A couple have
print backs and several have solid color backs that match a solid in the
top.

The oldest quilt I have was probably made about1900. It is a log cabin
with tiny logs, partly hand pieced. The darks are mostly blacks and
browns. The lights are the tiny shirting prints. The centers are red and
white gingham. The backing is a large print that looks like it might
have been intended for draperies. An interesting feature of this quilt
is the way it is tied from the back using something like pearl cotton.
The thread ends are on the back and from the top, you don't notice them.

I often use muslin because it is relatively inexpensive and it quilts
nicely. I quilted a top from the 40's a couple of years ago. It had a
lot of white muslin in the top, so I used white muslin for the back. If
there is quite a bit of white in the top, I would probably use white for
the back, because you might be able to see the shadow of a print or
another color in the white of the top.

Julia in MN
--
This message has been scanned for viruses by Norton Anti-Virus

http://mail.chartermi.net/~jaccola/

Weird and Proud of it too! :-D
--
Anne in CA
"It's not having what you want; it's wanting what you've got." -- Sheryl Crow
http://home.covad.net/~arudolph/annes.htm



Kathy Applebaum wrote:

"snipped Maybe we're just weird here in California. *grin*


remove NOSPAM to reply

In article ,
Taria wrote:

On another CA subject. Do you know anything about the
25K that is being raised to house the sesquicentennial
quilt?
Taria

Our guild got a letter on it. The plan had been to build a climate
controlled case at the Golden State museum to house the quilt. What
with budget cuts, the money for the case is no more. The California
Heritage Quilt Project decided to try to raise the money themselves so
that the quilt isn't stuck in storage for who knows how long and
forgotten or damaged.

Have you seen the quilt? It's quite astonishing. Gov. Wilson
comissioned it years back. Quite a few quilters made sections depicting
their area of the state. The finished quilt is 10 feet square (I
believe) We had it on display at our guild show a few years back and
did a project with the group going in to 4th grade classrooms and
teaching them about the quilt and state history. It was quite fun.

Anyway....that's why the group is raising the money; budget cuts.

marcella