Mending Old Quilts

I am not an expert on mending old quilts but I had two old family quilts that needed some mending.  The tops were pieced by my paternal grandmother in the late 1960s/ early 1970s.  My mother and my youngest sister quilted them for me (not the best quilting jobs but they did it) while I was in college.  I decided to simple sew new fabric pieces over the torn/ frayed ones rather than removing the old pieces.  In some areas I simple reinforced weak fabric with embroidery.  

The first quilt was an album quilt with names (family and friends)/ places embroidered in place.  I used this old shirt fabric as a substitute in this block.  Wish I had taken an after photo.

I used an old denim striped shirt fabric for the repair in this block (lower right).  Failed to take a before photo of this block.

Did take a before photo of this block and the planned (see pins) repair.

The second quilt (an old log cabin) needed a lot more repair. Here's a sample of some of the repairs. This photo (after) and the next (before) show a frayed center block which was repaired using a cotton shirt fabric.

This photo shows where I embroidered some weak areas to strengthen them. 

These next two (first is before, second the after).  Sorry the orientation isn't the same.  

Another one showing areas reinforced by embroidery.

There were three areas of full thickness damage from me taking the quilt on a camping trip back in 1982 and embers from the fire damaging the quilt.  These areas had to have all three layers (top, batting, backing) replaced so I decided to just make very obvious repairs. 

Here are the repairs (front/ back) of each of the above.  The first one

The second one

The third one

Quilt Damage Repaired

Our rescue Jack Russell terrier Harlow decided to chew on this old quilt for some unknown reason.  We adopted her in March this year.  She had not chewed on any of the quilts until recently when she did this.

I repaired it by trimming the hole and then hand sewing a piece of batting to fit.  Then I machine stitched the words "Harlow was here" on a heart shaped piece of felted wool.  I then machine quilted this over the hole.  I then hand appliqued another heart using dog paw cotton fabric on the back.\

Here is a picture of Harlow (usually sweet).