"Refurbishing" an OLD quilt -- long story

Hi Guys,
After my VDMIL passed away last summer, I brought home the 3 quilts
I had made for her over the years. The most recently made quilt (about
3 years ago for Christmas) is fine and hanging on my stairail. The cat
quilt I made about 10 years ago (pinwheel done on the serger with poly
batting & backing -- OY the pain -- LOL) got new backing and batting
and some border print appliqued to the front to cover areas done with
nylon thread that had broken. That one hangs next to my chair in the
family room.
The last and *most* challenging one to repair was my very first ever
effort at making a quilt that wasn't 9 blocks of 10" square fabric for
a baby. This one is a REAL patchwork crazy quilt monster. I used a
twin sized sheet as the base and zig-zagged randomly shaped pieces of
fabric on top. I used nylon lining fabric, rayon slithery stuff, poly
double knit, velvet, velour, faux suede, poly-cotton sheeting, t-shirt
knit -- all the leftover bits and pieces from making clothing for the
family for a number of years. To add insult to injury, I hand tied the
quilt (NOT closely enough). Well, needless to say, it was a mess! My
VDMIL LOVED that ugly thing and used it and washed till a bunch of the
fabrics just gave up and shredded off the sheet!!!
One of the nieces would like to have the quilt and was willing to
take it just the way it was but I told her it *really* needed to be
repaired and redone so that HER kids could use it for years just like
she had done. I told her that I would cover up the bare spots with the
Royal Albert "Old Country Roses" china pattern fabric that Grandma
loved and that I used in the most recent quilt I had made her.
I got all of those bare spots covered and added bits and pieces to
cover up all the questionable areas that look like they are not gonna
last much longer. The quilt was sandwiched with nice quality white
muslin and Warm & Natural batting and pin basting was finished a few
days ago. Yesterday afternoon, I staarted to machine quilt the beast
and decided that I would meander quilt with multi-color quilting
thread. I don't mark when I meander or stipple AND I usually do this
on the diagonal from one corner to the opposite in about a 12" wide
swath. Then do the sides in the same manner untill I have the thing
finished. Now, mind you, there is NO block pattern to use as a guide
and since I don't mark my quilt when I meander, I just started in.
Imagine my surprise when I got about half way and the bulk of the quilt
was almost unmanageable -- not at all what was expected from a quilt
approx. 60" x 80"!! Then the direction of my quilting started to look
a bit wonky so I made adjustments to keep myself on the straight and
narrow diagonal track.
Well, an even BIGGER surprise was waiting for me. When I FINALLY
got to the end of that strip of quilting and took it out of the machine
it **really** looked strange. REason is, when I thought the direction
was a bit wonky and made the adjustments I turned the quilt and headed
off in another direction! The strip of meander started off about 12"
wide, but about 1/3 of the way diagonally down the quilt it was more on
the order of 20" wide. THEN -- when I made that direction adjustment
to bring the whole thing back on track, I actually turned the quilty
180 degrees and ended up meandering back the other way so that the
quilting path looks rather like a nice dog leg!!! One nice thing
about meander quilting -- it doesn't show when you get as
unintentionally "creative" as I did with this one -- LOLOL!
The whole thing is rather "loose" and it had a LOT of aeas wheer the
fabric isn't flat so there will be a number of puckers in this thing.
I don't think the DNiece will care :-). With all the wonkiness, it
STILL looks better than it did when I brought it home! This homely
well loved and oft washed quilt is on the order of 30 years old. All
of the poly double knit looks just as good now as it did when first
bought -- LOL! That stuff must have a half-life of a million years
:-).
Ah Well -- it's nice to know the quilt will go back to someone who
really loves it and wants it and will make good use of it. Hopefully,
now that it has decent batting, backing and face fabric (by and large)
it will last another 30+ years. I shall take some photos and post them
when I have finally gotten the poor old girl finished. CiaoMeow ^;;^
PAX, Tia Mary