Everything Old is New Again

Everything old is new again. That adage isn’t just about fashion or architecture. It’s about my arts and crafts work. I take vintage textiles, antique quilt squares and old patchwork castoffs and turn them into new decorative quilts, pillows and totes.

The first photo here represents once such project. It’s a decorative quilt that started with a single late-1940s or early-1950s hand-pieced quilt square in a maple leaf pattern. The leaf is made from old plaid shirting fabric set in muslin. I found the old quilt block in the bottom of a basket of sewing supplies at the back of an antique store. It was wrinkled, uneven and had a nasty musty smell. But for 50 cents I took it home, washed it twice, pressed it flat and trimmed it square.

I set the refurbished quilt block on point with muslin corner triangles. To that I added a contemporary teal southwestern print that complemented the blue leaf. Borders, an appliquéd Kokopeli figure, beads, buttons and intricate hand-quilting finished the project. The eye-catching final product sold in the first hour of my next craft show.



The quilt in this photo required a little bit more work. The center pink star-and-ribbon piece is actually four antique quilt blocks that I connected to form one medallion. Three were in good shape but one required some repair work. I carefully removed two badly torn muslin pieces, cut new ones and re-stitched the block. But my new muslin was a much different color than the well-aged original muslin. I stitched the four squares together to form the medallion and then tea-dyed the entire piece, giving it a very aged look overall.

The finished center piece was then set on point with a vintage-looking reproduction print of children playing in the snow -- building snowmen, throwing snowballs, skiing. The pink in the print perfectly matched the tea-dyed pink fabric. This quilt, 38 inches square, is currently available at ArtFire.com: http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=ViewListing&product_id=148947.

The key to working with vintage quilt blocks or fabrics is to make sure they’re in good enough shape and durable enough for your project. Interfacing ironed onto the back of a fragile piece can give it more life. Don’t look for perfection in vintage fabrics -- enjoy the stains, spots, frays, discolorations, and mismatched seams for the stories they hold. I love taking something old and worn, and turning it into something new and useful. Now, if I could just find a way to do that with myself.