Friday 22 October 2010

A Gift from my Friend Diane

This week Diane gifted me this marvelous crazy patch throw. Wonder what stories it can tell.

Wonder when it was created. It has one or two sets of embroidered initials.

Some of the patches are threadbare....

and some of them are crunchy and crumbling. The question is how do I care for it? It has an old smell to it that would be nice to get rid of. Replacing the disintegrating patches would be interesting but finding the right replacement fabrics would be difficult.
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10 comments:

  1. I would like to know also. I have a crazy quilt that was given to me years ago and it also has an odor I'd like to get rid of. Plus, some patches that need to be replaced. Overall it's in amazing condition.

    ;~) Debi

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  2. wow. a great gift. i know some people would cringe reading this, but i would salvedge the good parts and use them in some other piece or combine them to make it a somewhat smaller quilt.

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  3. hi Penny, contact a textile museum, they would be able to give you the best advice. The smell is probably a mildew, often removed by just a gentle cold hand washing. somewhere i have details of textile restoration if you want them.

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  4. As Kaite said, a textile museum might be your best help. I would suggest that soaking it in Orvus (Orfus?) and being very gentle with it. Barring that, try sealing it in a large plastic bag along with some newspapers and leaving for a few weeks. I know newspaper works to take the smell out of old suitcases so it might help in this case. As for restoration - again talking to a textile museum would be advisable. There are people that specialize in restoration but if you don't want to go that route you could applique new pieces over the old 'frazzled' areas. Barring that you *could* cut it up (but I don't want to know!!)

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  5. Hey Magpie, I think I'll try the newspapers first.
    Thanks to you and Deanne for permission to re-use and recycle.

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  6. I put the quilt I have in one of those space bags with newspaper and a couple of lavender sachets. I'll leave it there for awhile and see what happens. If it comes out smelling like a rose (oops, lavender) then I'll see about replacing the patches that are threadbare. I'd love to display this quilt somewhere in my house where it can be seen, but not used.

    ~ Debi

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  7. You could just applique a fine netting right over the shabby parts. That would protect the integrity of the quilt and may even help avoid further deterioration. Barring that, contact one of the conservators at the Textile Museum of Canada. I'm sure that they would have someone who could give you some tips.

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  8. Oh Penny what a lovely friend, what a treasure for you to be custodian of, for however long. Gilly

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  9. Hello, this might sound strange but if you take kitty litter something that smells good and place in a container with lid place tissue paper crumbled over litter and add quilt cover and this will take out oder. works really well. I used to clean and have used this for many odor probles. Theres also and oder remover powder I have found that you put in washing machine is wonderful also.
    Hope this helps,
    Linda

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Thank you for taking the time to comment, your thoughts are most welcome.