Quilt repair!

This quilt was the second large quilt I have ever made. It lives on my daughter's King size bed. Each of those paper-pieced butterflies were tiny works of art. I dug into my precious Jinny Beyer pallet collection to piece these. I also used some fabrics from my deceased sister-in-law. My oldest daughter loved her Auntie Margie very much. Using some of these fabrics made this quilt special for both of us.

 I have learned the value of good quality fabric the hard way. The end result is fabric disintergrating before your eyes! Much to my daughter's dismay the quilt started falling apart.

 If I had quilted it heavier I think it would have been in better shape. But with small children hurling and assorted kittens and puppies, this quilt has seen a lot of washing.

 My goodness my hand looks old! Yikes when did that happen??????? Anyway, the seam is still there but the fabric isn't! DH said I should applique something over these large areas. The backing fabric has large realistic butterflies. And I know I have a piece of it SOMEWHERE in my vast stash. I have never appliqued before. But I guess this is the way to learn...

 I have been keeping this repair project at the end of my list of things to do. I was dreading the close examination that was going to be needed to fix this quilt. This morning I simply replaced to inner borders by sewing some on my GOOD quality Kona Snow over the poor worn out white butterfly fabric that was too thin and fragile from the beginning. It had just turned to dust practically in my hands. The angst I felt was silly. It took all day, but now the large areas are totally fixed. And it was easy!!!! I am also going to add LOTS more quilting before I return the quilt to my daughter.

 See the two fresh new inner borders? Boy do I ever love working with this Kona Snow.

 Here is the report from the neutral string block event. I have 185 all made. I took them to club tonight and worked on tearing off the paper. I think I disturb some of the quilters with the paper rustling. So tonight I sat at a back table so I would not disturb their delicate constitutions.

I just had to buy this. I LOVE titanium sewing machine needles. They last a very long time and I feel they are worth the extra cost. I buy them by the 100's on a Yahoo group called "needlecoop". 

So I figured that a Fiskar titanium rotary cutter blade should last the same way. We will see. I will put her to work as soon as this blade in my old favorite Fiskar cutter wears out. I am a good rotary cutter wielder/driver. I keep the blade clean of fuzz and rarely nick any ruler edges. I make them last a long time.

I do not miss work since retiring but I do miss the good ole' Tool & Die men. They kept my blades (and their wives' blades) sharpened. Sometimes too sharp! Once the resharpened blade that I used for the first time completely cut through a cutting mat. And I just happened to have the mat on my new oak dining room table. Talk about regret!!!!!!!