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Iris applique quilt

by Deb on May 5th, 2006

This Iris applique quilt project is not one of creation, but one of repair. My mother hand stitched this quilt for me when I was little, completing it in 1980. It has been well-loved through the years, as one can see by examing the damaged areas. I began repairs on this about a year ago, with some assistance by my mom when she was in town visiting. My enthusiasm lasted about a week before I folded up the quilt and put it away.

My plan is to re-stitch all the appliques onto their blocks, whether they have come loose or not. Well, “stitch over existing embroidery” would be the more correct phrase. I don’t want to take out my mother’s stitching, just add my own on top of it. This way I will know that all of the floss holding the petals and leaves onto the blocks is new, and should last many more decades (because once I’ve completed this repair project, the quilt is going to be treated with much more care than I gave it in the past).

Once the embroidery has been completed, I will acquire a new piece of fabric for the back of the quilt and the edging, so all of that will be new as well. I may add a thin quilt bat to make it warmer. Then comes the fun of quilting the whole thing together. I will probably just follow her original quilting lines, but maybe jazz it up a bit with some fancy embroidery stitches here & there, or use a contrasting thread instead of white. I won’t have to decide for quite some time. :D

A shot of the quilt:

A close-up of some of the damage:

A close-up of one re-stitched area worked on last summer:

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POSTED IN: Surface Embroidery, Works in Progress