Back in 2005, I finished a quilt in honor of our daughter and son in law's first wedding anniversary. It was the Lucky Stars pattern by Atkinson Designs, published in 2002 by Terry Atkinson. I made a queen size measuring 90" x 105", and hand-quilted it, as that's what I did back then. Unfortunately, I never got a good photo of the entire thing, but at least you get an idea of what it looked like then.
Well after nearly 20 years of use, it was showing some wear! So our daughter, Rachel @snippetsofsweetness, handed it off to me last week to see what I could do to repair it. First up was to remove the binding, which was still securely sewn on (good to know!) but had serious wear along the edges.
Happily, the quilting seems to have held up well, too. It's mainly the fabric on the front that has worn through in spots. So next up is to make and hand-applique some patches over the bare spots on the quilt. Gotta say, I have yet fully examined the quilt to see how many of those there might be. But to start, I broke into a long-stashed Zinfandel Bali Pop (like a jelly roll) from Hoffman Fabrics, as it had some similar colors. I've already got them sorted into a couple of mesh laundry bags, including several Color Catchers, and plan to wash them to soften them up just a bit and remove some of the dye. Maybe I'll wash them more than once; we'll see. Eventually, I hope to find a dark blue for the new binding that is close to the original. But for now, I'll focus on the mending. I'll report back at some point to share how that is going.
