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Funky Velvet

  • Vintage

Every now and again, I am honored to work on a vintage quilt project. Funky Velvet is a very special one. There is so much to say about this quilt, its original construction, and how we made her come back to life.

Funky Velvet

Funky Velvet Challenges

To look at the completed quilt, you would never realize the challenges she presented. Yes, I have given this quilt a gender, don’t ask me why. I could not help but consider her a beautiful lady.
 
Anyway, the challenges are easier to see from the back to begin with.
Funky Velvet Damaged Back
As you can see, the backing is almost a gauzy fabric that is very thin. Here is a spot with a large section of batting missing. Because this quilt was already quilted, there were limitations to the repair work.
 
I inserted batting into the holes and whip stitched to create consistency. This prepared the inside of the sandwich. We also made the decision to add a new backing over the old.
 
The damage was not confined to the back as this girl had a lot of years on her. Some damage had been repaired before but was coming loose again.
Funky Velvet Prior Repairs

There were also over 39 areas where there were holds and open seams throughout the quilt. Each had to be hand-sewn before moving on.

Funky Velvet Repair

Custom Quilting

The original quilting was a wiggly pattern over all the seams. I wanted to continue showcasing the beautiful velvet fabrics so did the same. This proved wise as it helped to seal those seams.
 
Funky Velvet Back

As you can see from the image above, I was able to quilt this into a pleasing interlocking freeform pattern. It was also decided to bind the quilt in the backing fabric

Funky Velvet Binding

Finishing

I want to mention a few other things. This quilt was HUGE! It started at 117 x 112 inches. The customer did not like the rounded corners so we cut it down to 101 x 110. This was still big and the velvets made it very heavy.

 
Binding this quilt was a HUGE challenge because it was massive and heavy, but it was so worth it.
 
In the end, the customer fell in love with her quilt all over again, it truly looked brand new.
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