Soak a Vintage Quilt in your FRONT LOAD Washing Machine
I finished the pink quilt and it’s fabulous! I purposely saved the cleaning for the last because it had no awful smells and not many stains. I also wanted to clean the backing as well, so it saved a lot of time!
Double Wedding Ring pattern, circa 1930’s
I think I will title this quilt, “Does This Quilt Make You UNCOMFORTABLE?” Due to the odd shape, it may bother quite a few folks, and that’s OK! Most quilt tops that I find and eventually quilt, are left in the way that the maker made them. Many have been hand pieced, which overall gives the top an ‘out-of-square’ shape. Think about it, no rotary cutters, no gridded mats back in the early days of quilting. It was all scissors and cardboard templates. If you try to make it square, sometimes you cut off a big part of the pattern and I certainly don’t want to do that! I assume this double wedding ring quilt was never finished, so I just kept what she had accomplished. I couldn’t bring myself to cut off any part of that difficult piecing. (the small pieces finish to less than 1”!!)
I made a YouTube video so it could sit here for anyone’s reference. If a quilt or linen is fragile or might bleed, I always do a soak in a bathtub, sink or large tub. This quilt is really sturdy and I did a test with the fabric before cleaning so I would know if there would be any bleeding. Thankfully, nope! I hope this video helps and gives you another method to clean your STURDY quilts. It will totally save your back as well!
The final project was to add a sleeve. I used napkins that I purchased with the tablecloth (backing) to create a sleeve for hanging. Again, the back is an appliqued tablecloth I found years ago in an antique shop. I love to repurpose vintage tablecloths and sheets for backings!
This quilt will hang at my local quilt show in Lawrence, Kansas, April 13 and 14, 2024. The details are in the flyer below. If you live nearby, I hope you’ll get there, it’s a fabulous show!
