My Great Grandmother's Quilt

While I was over my parent's house for the Super Bowl, my mom pulled out my Great Grandmother's cathedral window quilt.  I had seen this quilt before, but it had been a while, so I spent some time (okay, a lot of time) studying the quilt.

She made this quit entirely by hand, and, according to my mom, it took her ten years to complete.

It was so much fun to look at the different fabrics used in each window. I was pleasantly surprised that the only sign of age was that some of the windows became un-sewn.  I haven't seen any holes or signs of the fabric coming apart.

My mom said that some of the fabrics were from dresses that another one of my great grandmothers wore.

I love how you can see how the pattern got it's name when you shine light through the back of the quilt.

There are some areas that need some repair.  I'd like to fix a few of the windows that have come undone, but I'm not sure the best way to go about doing it on an older quilt.  I'm not sure if there are protocols I should follow, special materials I should use, etc. I've made cathedral window blocks before, so I know the technique, I'm just not sure if I would impact the integrity of the quilt.

Also, when I mom received the quilt from my great aunt, it was folded and there are some creases in the quilt after being folded for so long.  Anyone know if I should iron the quilt, steam it or refold it using acid-free tissue paper?  Also, the quilt has no label, so I was thinking about adding one, again, as long as it didn't impact the integrity of the quilt. I'd like to document that my great grandmother made this beautiful quilt so that the story of the quilt doesn't get lost.

Any advice anyone has would be appreciated.

Second Cathedral Window Block

After completing my first cathedral window block while at KK's camping out while we awaited power, I began prepping another cathedral window block. 

I'm really loving this. I'm not sure how far I'm going to take it, but I'm finding this a lot of fun and different than stuff that I usually do.

84 Hours Later...

And I have power!  Man, the simple luxuries that you take for granted when you don't have them.  Electricity, heat.  Now it's time to try and get back to normalcy.

First, thank you to everyone who commented on my Blogger Quilt Festival quilt.  I hope to respond to you individually at some point today.

So while I was out of power for the good part of four days, DH and I spent time at my aunt KK's when we weren't at work because she was fortunate to have power. We are so fortunate to have the family that we do to help us out in times like this.

So, what did we do, we made the best of it and spent some time quilting of course.  I showed KK the cathedral window technique that we learned at our last BMQG meeting that she was unable to attend.

It's not perfect, but I sure do love it.

I can't wait to make more.