Sewing Project - Repair my Bedspread

My Mom made me a bedspread 16 or more years ago.  She asked me what I wanted and I wanted bright and fun fabric.  She often used second hand fabric and I recognize fabric from Dad's shirts and other garments she made along the way.  I really loved the quilt. Nice and thin but heavy.

It has started to wear and I needed to address the damage before it was too late to save the bedspread.  She is no longer here and I have improved my sewing skills so it is all good. 

The damage is on the top and bottom edges. I do rotate the quilt regularly which explains why both edges are affected.  It is where I handled it a the top when I am in bed.

The front pieces were damaged as well as the backing and in some place even the binding was showing wear.

There were a couple of places where the fabric was ripped or very thin.

I zigzagged the large holes to stablize the fabric.  This will be covered by the fabric I am going to add.

For the hole I place a tiny piece of blue fabric under the hold and used he blanket stitch to finished off the edges all the way around.

There was one polygram piece that was just too thin to really repair so I chose to applique a full piece over it.

It took a bit to find a piece that was bold enough in pattern to match the rest.  The zigzag piece is the replacement and I cut it to be exactly the same size as the other.

I hand stitched small stitches along all the edges with sewing polyester thread.

I was hoping for poly cotton fabric when I went shopping but only found polyester fabric. It was the right color and there was enough and the price of $2 was right so it came home with me.

After washing the fabric, I set out to design a way to cover the damage without it looking to much like that is what I did.

I cut the band 8 inches tall. The fabric was 70" inches wide so I cut 3 strips to have enough to cover the width of the bedspread 2 times (top and bottom).

Once I had sewn the 3 pieces together I cut it in half.  I aligned it 2.5 inches away from the edge on the back side and stitched it down.  I also made a seam in the binding of the quilt along which I was gong to fold. I iron the remaining fabric to the front of the bedspread.  Then I fold up the edge to have the band measure 3.5 inches. I pinned it very carefully and then top stitched it down.  I folded the fabric in on the edges and top stitch those at the same time.

For a while before I started this project I thought I would add additional stitching to the band but I don't think it needs it.

More stitching would make it stiffer and that is where I handle it all the time so I don't think that would feel nice.

It took the better part of the day but the quilt will now last another 10 years.  

Super happy with the end product.

I washed it and put it back on the bed.  Wonderful!

Recent Photos!

I bought tulips for my Mom and sister at Easter.

I decided that I deserved a bouquet of them myself so on the weekend I added these to my table.

I chose the same color that my Mom loved.

They were pretty closed so they will last a few days!


I finished this book this week. 

It is a very intriguing book and the tag line is what inspired me to bring it home.  "Creative Living beyond Fear"  by the same author as Eat Pray Love.  I have been struggling with the end of my card making classes and was looking to find some ways to move forward with my photography.  Basically, I took away the following: Stay Curious, Always Do Something!, When Stuck - Look in a different direction, Inspiration is always looking for a place to land so be open and accepting, Everyone is Creative, and “It`s just that inspiration comes from another world, so sometimes we have trouble understanding each other.”

I bought this watch on the weekend thinking I could adapt the bracelet for my watch. 

Well, that was not possible so I bought a battery for it but that was a bust too!

I finished my taxes today. I had to pay this year which was unusual for me so I had to learn a lot to figure out what happened! 

The research I had to do sort of fell into the lessons in the book above. 

I found these shadows this morning. I will have to learn how to photograph these better. 

This was the best composition I captured this morning. 

Love the softness of the edges.

This was an idea was generated by a book I read quite a while ago, Window Sill Art.

Again, following inspiration from the book in this post I had nothing to lose by trying something new.

I created a mosaic with my bouquet of tulips. 

I used several backgrounds and captured some nice colorful bokeh!

I remember when creating bokeh was a challenge and after a couple years of practice I can do whenever I want.

Sharing with
Angie host of Mosaic Monday at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.

Mersad host of Through my Lens


The challenge for Flickr Macro Monday was "Eye of the Beholder"
I took a picture of this spinning wood top.  I love this object.

You can check out my Flickr photo stream.