Repairs and other possible disasters

Mum's quilt before work started

 The past week has seen me planning the repair of a quilt I made for mum a few years ago. Called "Square Dance", it had been much loved and regularly washed and it had seen daily wear since being handed over.

One of the damaged areas

There were a few areas of damage where the fabric was beginning to break down. I must admit that I really hadn't expected the quilt to have shown so much wear so quickly. Since mum was rather upset to see it in this state, I agreed to repair it and then return it. I intend to make another quilt for mum so that this one doesn't get the same amount of wear in the future.

After chatting it through with some friends at the Moulton Sewing Group, I went ahead and drafted a few designs to patch the damaged areas. You can see my original sketches in the photo above and this close up.

The quilt is currently being stitched and I plan to hand it back on Friday. There is still quite a lot of work to be done, with all the footprints needing to be bondawebbed in place and then stitched. The squares have all been attached and quilted in place to add strength to the damaged areas. There will be more photos once the work is all complete.

I have been getting on with some of the mending in my pile, as mentioned last time. It is not an interesting task but I will be glad to see a gap where that particular collection of objects currently sits.

My scrappy cardigan has now been stitched together and is nearing completion. The strips for the button and buttonhole bands have also been knitted and stitched into place. I am really unhappy with these. As you can see the bands are pulling almost as if they are too short. This is the nature of ribbing, unfortunately. Although this is exactly as the original design instructions stipulate in the pattern, I really don't think it works. I shall be unpicking these pieces and knitting them with the ribbing running 90 degrees from the current position. Why is the ribbing in the orange? Well, I don't have enough of either the cream or the white, or even the pale grey. I must admit that I don't think the orange colour works, so will use this opportunity to try a different colour. Ah well, back to the drawing board on this one. Hopefully I can get it finished before the cold weather comes creeping in.