Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

As promised in my last post, here’s an update on the peach quilt rework!

I say “rework”, because restoration was beyond my patience or skill set. Three of the squares were badly worn, so I patched them with gorgeous needle-turned applique chicken panels that I picked up for $1 each at The Sewing Basket Newington last year. Additionally, I added pink linen patches, cut from storage bags given to me by Diana (“I’m sure you’ll think of something to do with them”, she said)…

The chooks are completely adorable and add a touch of whimsy…

I’ve been sharing progress pics with my quilter friend Amanda. She thinks the quilt could have been made in a beginner’s class in the 1980s, back when templates were traced and cut out of cardboard, and scissors were used to cut the fabric pieces. These days, quilting is far more sophisticated, with roller cutters, premade templates, and colour matched fabric kits.

Our old quilt looks to be entirely hand pieced, then machine bound and quilted. Some sections appear to have been repaired before. We pondered on why the maker chose to use invisible thread for the topstitching – did her teacher tell her to do that? Or was it the trend at the time? Or was this her first attempt at quilting and she wasn’t confident about colour matching?

“I feel such a connection with the original maker through your stories and observations while you work”, Amanda commented. I felt the same way, and was grateful to have her advice in understanding the history of the quilt…

I dug out a matching skein of embroidery thread from my stash, purchased for 50c from The Sewing Basket…

I do love a bit of hand darning…

The back had a single small hole to repair…

There were a few smaller sections where the fabric was too fragile to mend by hand, so I patched them with the pink linen, trying to keep the pattern intact where possible…

I’ve had the most wonderful few days reworking and repairing this old treasure. As the brilliant Kresse Wesling often says, things deserve a second life! ♥

Once a week, Mum and I have lunch and then we head out to explore a Salvos Store. For those of you who don’t have these in your area – the Salvos Stores are thrift shops (we call them “op shops”), run by the Salvation Army. All the goods on offer are donated, and in a typical week, the charity will provide 10,000 meals to those in need. For us, it’s a happy compromise, Mum likes browsing, and opshopping is the only retail therapy I can tolerate. Plus an afternoon’s entertainment rarely sets us back more than $20.

This week we decided to check out the Moorebank store. It’s not particularly flashy (although all the china and kitchenware are surprisingly expensive) but there was still lots to look at. As usual, I headed straight to the sheeting section.

I spied a couple of homemade quilts in a large bin filled with blankets and towels. There was a ticket on the item, but no price.

“How much are these?” I asked.

“Oh, they’re the ones in poorer condition – that’s why it says ‘Dog’ on the tag. We keep them for folks to use as dog blankets. They’re $2 each”

$2!!!! For handmade quilts!

So, much to my mother’s dismay, I bought them, plus two Australian made vintage woollen blankets. All were a little grotty, but as you all know, I love a rescue project! Mum was truly appalled that I wanted used, stained, quite stinky manchester (as we refer to bed linen here), but offered to buy them for me nonetheless. She’s completely adorable like that, but I told her I was good for the $8 outlay…

I brought them home and showed them to our friend Mark, the oracle on all things vintage fabric related. The peach coloured one was badly stained and had significant shredding, so Mark suggested tacking down the loose patches to help it survive the wash…

I spot treated the numerous stains with Dynamo laundry liquid, then gave it a looong soak in Napisan Vanish. The water turned a murky brown as years of dirt was dislodged…

The second quilt was simpler in construction but in much better condition. My genius friends Amanda and Tania were able to date both of them by their fabrics – the checked one was probably assembled in the late 1970s and the sampler one around the mid 1980s.

The quilts were given a 40C hot wash followed by a tumble dry. And they both came out ALMOST SPOTLESS.

I’ve mended the checked one (some fraying at the seam lines between pieces) using sashiko thread from The Sewing Basket Balmain…

It’s now repaired, completely stain-free and good to go…

The peach coloured quilt is a much bigger project but I’m hoping to patch it with a vintage sheet that I picked up from another Salvos Store a few weeks ago (also for $2). I’ll report back when it’s done…

Funniest bit of the story? My mum now can’t stop raving about how good they look!

As I said in my previous post, I’ve learnt to always look twice at old textiles, even if they’re stinky or badly stained. We can’t rescue everything, but I’m always amazed at how often a grotty piece can be rejuvenated with just a little bit of time and effort. And it was incredibly rewarding to be able to breathe life back into two old quilts that had been relegated to dog bedding!

Hmm…an addendum: please don’t think I’m judging the Salvos Moorebank for putting these items into the dog blanket bin. On the contrary, I’m incredibly grateful to them for trying to give these textiles a second life – most op shops discard any donation that is stained, torn or musty because they lack the capacity to clean and repair items. In fact, I’ve never seen this bin in any other Salvos store, but I wish they’d all offer something similar!

What are you working on at the moment? I’d love to know about your latest rescue or restoration project if you have one on the go! ♥