antique fabric

[scraperpea@al]

I'm new to quilting and a friend of mine gave me a sack full of very old Dresden Plates. They were hand stitched and of course dusty. I would like to make a quilt using them but I know they need washing and so forth. Also since they are hand stitched, do you think I could use the Quilt in a Day method of using fusible interfacing? Please help, these are lovely old fabrics. Thanks very much,

[zfatcat]

Do you know how old the fabric is? I would just be very care with it. Maybe you could hand wash and let the air dry. I don't think I would use fusible. It might hold up well.

[Tiggersmom]

scraperpea I just finished a dresden plate that my greatgrandmother started. One of the fabrics is over 100 years old. Mine were hand stitched too and I didn't wash them but mine sound like they were kept dust free compared to yours. I washing is a must be sure to use a quilt soap from the quilt store! and DO NOT agitate! just soak gently rinse several times. I hand applicayed mine down on musling fabric and then put them together with 30's prints in prarie points after being machine quilted {I am a longarm quilter] It turned out Great! I don't know about using the sticky stuff to put them down with you might 'test' one or a part of one on a block and see what you think, or if you have a scrap of the fabric use that instead of one of the actual blocks. Enjoy your new found treasures!!!!!!!!!

[lhostelley]

Is the fabric so soiled that you can't work with it? I was given some older dresden plate piecing myself a while ago. The fabric was lightly soiled. I went a head and finnished appliquing the blocks, and putting them together. Then I soak washed the entire top, I was worried that in the smaller pieces, they may not hold up. I did consider using El's applique technique, but decided against it. The blocks are 75+ years old and I just felt that it would not turn out the same. Just a personal opinion, but the blocks were hand pieced by the origional person, so I decided to finnish by hand. It was great, did the work in front of the TV while watching movies with DH. Now I have the double wedding quilt to tackle from the same origional owner. Linda

[gardenquilter]

I had one a year ago last march that was brought to me for help I hand washed each block and laid them flat to dry out of the sun they came out great
what you really have to be careful of is the new fabric make sure to shrink it completly
in the beginning no one could tell me but I found the directions in the bible when Jesus is talking about new fabric on old cloth just make sure to age your new

[scraperpea@al]

Thanks to all for your replys. Very sound advice. scraperpea