What to do with an old quilt? I got an answer from my great grandmother

I'm still working on reproducing my Great-Grandmother's quilt.  After buying the background fabric at the quilt store, the clerk convinced me to put some of the pieces of the old quilt onto the back of the new quilt.

So I get home and start seperating the quilt top from the batting and backing fabric.  Grandma Bobbi tied the quilt so I simply have to cut the threads.  You will never guess what I found!  Grandma used an old Ohio Star quilt as the batting. 

You can barely make it out because the white background fabric held up, but the colored fabric (looks like it was pink) either deteriorated or was cut out.  It was so cool to find an old quilt tucked into another.

So my Great grandmother has answered my questions about what to do when a quilt is loved to death...sew it into the next quilt and keep passing it on.  Waste nothing.

I feel like she answered my question from heaven.

Great Grandma Bobbi's Quilt

So I have been trying to come to terms with the "next life" for my great Grandmother's quilt.  She lived with us when I was a toddler and in kindergarten.    We called her Grandma Bobbi.  Her given name was Myrtle.  I have such fond memories of my brothers playing with the quilt that my great grandmother made.

The fabric is so frayed, repair was not really possible, so I created a duplicate.  I worked with scraps from my other quilt projects.  Here is a picture of the two quilts  are side by side:

So today I go shopping for red backing fabric to honor the old quilt as much as I can.   Right now my copy is just the top.  I debated putting pieces of the old quilt in the new one, but I'm afraid the fabric won't hold up.  I plan on tucking a few pieces in with the batting and quilting them in - hidden, but still a part of the quilt.

So what to do with the newly made duplicate?  Well, my mom is in her 80s and unhappy that she is not a great-grandmother yet.  So I put this out there to my children and all my nieces and nephews -- First baby gets the quilt!!  You give great grandmother Bobbi a great-great-great grandbaby and I'll give you the quilt.   We will see how this works out!

Off to the quilt store for the backing fabric.... I'll keep you posted.

When a quilt is loved to death

My great grandmother made this quilt from scraps of clothing.  My little brothers dragged it everywhere in the late 1960s and early 1970.

My mom gave it to me to fix, but the fabrics that were used were scraps of clothing and didn't hold up well.  It was washed and played with too much.

I am a firm believer in using quilts.  I'd rather see it loved and used than safely stored in a drawer.  So today I started to "remake" my great-grandmother's quilt.  Here are my beginning blocks.

I'm using scraps for the 4-patch blocks and a simple print for the alternate blocks.  I even have the red solid fabric for the backgrounds.  I plan on using the quilt on the couch as a cuddle quilt.

My great grandmother's quilt was loved until the early 1980s when it was retired, but it had 20 years of love.  Once I make the "replacement" quilt, do I dispose of the old one?

Part of me says let it go... part of me wants to cut it apart and salvage the blocks I can. 

What do you do with vintage "loved to death" quilts?